Friday, May 09, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Two Mahoning County commissioners favor scrapping the current membership of the Western Reserve Port Authority’s board of directors, and the third commissioner wants to at least replace some of them.
As of their meeting Thursday, the three Mahoning County commissioners – Carol Rimedio-Righetti, David Ditzler and Anthony Traficanti – had not heard from county Prosecutor Paul Gains regarding their options for taking action. The commissioners, who are responsible for appointing half of the eight members of the port authority’s board of directors, are scheduled to meet today in Warren with the Trumbull County Board of Commissioners, which is responsible for appointing the remaining four members.
Commissioners from both counties have expressed concern over the dysfunction and personality conflicts within the board and between individual board members and port authority staff (READ STORY).
“Personally, I don’t like the functionality of that board at all,” Rimedio-Righetti remarked Thursday, citing excessive controversy involving the board. The port authority is set up to operate the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and to promote economic development in the two counties. “If you have constant infighting and dysfunction, nothing ever gets done and what business wants to come here if you see that?” she asked.
The port authority receives about $1.2 million annually in revenues from the county’s bed tax. “I just feel we should disband the whole thing and start over again,” she said.
Asked whether the situation is dire enough that the port authority board needs to be scrapped and reconstituted, Ditzler responded, “Absolutely.” He sees a dysfunction on the board, personality conflicts and a “lack of cohesiveness,” along with reports of ethical violations, as with board member Scott Lewis’ recent reprimand for his role in a land deal involving property represented by his real estate company. The port authority also is operating with “another void” with the departure earlier this year of its executive director, Rose Ann DeLeon, for medical reasons, a situation that could also be addressed in the restructuring of the port authority, he said.
Based on his reading of state law, Ditzler said the programs that the staff is working on could continue under the temporary guidance of a port authority in an adjacent county, such as Columbiana County or Summit County. That could be an option, he continued, while commissioners await a report from the consulting group hired to provide feedback on the function of the port authority and “until we reappoint people or redesign how the port authority is going to be laid out” and who sits on its board, and determine its focus and mission.
“We lay all that out and we make sure that we’re moving in the right direction that the two counties want us to,” Ditzler said.
Traficanti wants to retain the board’s composition as a regional entity since the two counties fund it. “If the commissioners are looking at restructuring it, we would have to do that very delicately so we did not hamper or hurt the money that presently funds the airport,” he said. “If we have board members that are unhappy, we need to do our due diligence and replace them with people who actually want to move the community forward.”
Traficanti acknowledged sentiment against Don Hanni III, who has frequently clashed with other port authority board members and whose behavior was cited as the key factor in an employee’s recent departure.
“There are personality conflicts among members. Sometimes that’s healthy but in this instance it’s been very confrontational with certain board members,” Traficanti said. “If we have to replace board members ,we have to do it immediately, and we need to take a look at a serious application list as to who we appoint if that’s what we’re going to do.”
MORE:
Amid Port Authority Discord, Counties to Discuss Options
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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