DeLeon to Consider New Port Authority Contract
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Ohio – The executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority says she will need to evaluate the contract proposal approved Thursday by its board of directors before she decides to accept the offer.
Members of the port authority’s board concluded a combative, tense half-hour special meeting with a vote to terminate the existing contract of Rose Ann DeLeon, hired three years ago to the newly created executive director’s post, and enter into a six-month contract with her at an annual rate of $95,000, with a six-month renewal option at the board’s discrretion. The deal is similar to a one-year deal negotiated between DeLeon and the board’s leadership and legal counsel, which reduces her base pay from $155,000 and includes financial incentives for performance. Board members deadlocked on last week.
Board members voted 5-3 in favor of the proposal, offered initially by board member Patrick Pellen as an amendment to a motion made by Scott Lewis, the board’s vice-chairman. Pellen, Lewis, Scott Lynn, Andreas Visnapu and Richard Musick voted in favor of the deal, while Richard Schiraldi, Jim Floyd and Don Hanni III, who called the special meeting, voted against it.
During a telephone interview Thursday afternoon, DeLeon, who was in meetings in Columbus and did not attend the special port authority meeting, said she needed to see what the board agreed to before making a decision. She was pleased the board was able to break a stalemate “because I think for the port authority to be effective, we have to have a board that is willing to work together,” she said. Although DeLeon is disappointed with the length of the contract, she understood the compromise needed to being the board members into an agreement “and I think that’s very positive,” she said.
DeLeon said she suggested the more incentive-based pay scale in her discussions with Lynn, the board’s chairman, which she thought might be “more acceptable to everyone.” The incentives in the contract are 2.5% of any grants she secures and 1% of any bond-financing deals.
Without further action by Nov. 6, a month before DeLeon’s contract ends, it would have renewed automatically for a year.
The board stalemated on Hanni’s motion to terminate DeLeon’s existing personal services agreement and provide her notice that her contract wouldn’t be extended past its Dec. 7 expiration date, which he contended would give the board a month to negotiate a new agreement with DeLeon if it chose to. Hanni said he didn’t want to take a chance the deadline would come and go and would automatically roll over at the same pay rate.
Schiraldi said Hanni wanted to get rid of the existing contract and then would have his block ready to vote against a new agreement with DeLeon.
“I don’t like to listen to things that are not true,” Hanni replied during one of the tense exchanges that characterized the meeting.
“I think it’s an accurate statement,” Lewis responded.
Hanni, Schiraldi, Visnapu and Musick voted in favor of Hanni’s motion, while Lynn, Lewis, Floyd and Schiraldi voted against it.
Hanni subsequently objected to Lewis’ attempt to offer a new motion, arguing that the meeting was called to deal with his motion and nothing else.
The board’s attorney, Dan Keating, said the special meeting was limited by the subject matter, not simply to consideration of Hanni’s motion.
“I don’t believe we should have been allowed to do this,” Hanni said following the meeting. “It’s throwing dust in the eyes in the eyes of the gullible. They’re keeping somebody at a ridiculous price who does nothing and I’m opposed to that.” He said he wasn’t sure how he could test the board’s action or what court he could go to but that he would try.
Finding some sort of compromise to keep DeLeon with the port authority was “a great necessity,” said Lewis, who also said that “deal fatigue” had appeared to set in over the issue.
Lewis, one of the executive director’s supporters on the board, Lewis credited DeLeon for her role in attracting B.J. Alan Co., which had been considering locations outside of the area, to the Delphi complex in Warren, arranging bond funding for airport improvements, and working with V&M Star to utilize the former Easco building in Girard.
“I anticipate good things from her,” Lewis said. DeLeon is working on several “attractive” deals that he predicted would help the Mahoning Valley “and I think we’ll see some of those come to fruition,” he said.
Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka said that while he wanted the port authority to move “in a different direction, at least it was a start.” The deal approved by the board “will give some benchmarks and we’ll see how she performs over the six months,” he said. “I guess this is better than paying her another $155,000.”
Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said h's glad to see the board reach a compromise although he also “would like to have seen a little different result.” He would have preferred to see the job advertised.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, hwho organized the funding partners to provide funds for the position for its initial three years, said while he thinks having a “strong port authority with a strong executive director” is essential to the area’s economic progress, it is important for “guys like me” to stay out of the board members’ business and allow them to do their job as they see fit.
“Having said that, I think an incentive-based contract … is always appropriate because we want to pay people for their performance,” he continued
Ryan said he's satisfied with DeLeon’s performance. “We knew from the beginning that this was a tough job to get off the ground,” he remarked.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.