Wednesday, August 06, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Commissioners in Mahoning and Trumbull counties say they no longer plan to dissolve the Western Reserve Port Authority. Instead, the port authority's board of directors is expected to discuss hiring an interim executive director before seeking a full-time replacement.
Commissioners from both counties, who met nearly four hours Tuesday behind closed doors, say they are satisfied with the direction the port authority is headed and intend to fill the vacancies created earlier this year when three resigned from the board.
“Things are moving ahead. We’re not dissolving the board. That is not happening,” Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said following the meetings. “The funding’s not going to be pulled. None of that. We’re moving ahead in the best interests of the community.”
Trumbull County commissioners Frank Fuda, Dan Polivka and the newly appointed Mauro Cantalamesa, met with their counterparts from Mahoning County, David Ditzler, Carol Rimedio-Righetti and Traficanti, in the Mahoning County commissioners’ offices. Following an 11 a.m. meeting between the three Mahoning commissioners and Trumbull’s Fuda and Cantalamesa, they were joined at 1 p.m. by Polivka and the port authority chairman, Ron Klingle, and board members Scott Lewis, Patrick Pellin and Martin Loney.
Tuesday’s meetings, held in executive session to discuss personnel issues, followed months of increasing tensions among board members and commissioners who characterized the board as “dysfunctional.” The departures of three diretors the board were attributed to those tensions and led commissioners from both counties to consider dissolving the body and replacing it.
Among the factors that discouraged the commissioners from dissolution, following discussion with legal and bond counsel, was the possibility that such action “might be a detriment” to the port authority’s ability to issue bonds.
“There was absolutely a lot of red tape and ramifications that had to be overcome if you dissolved the board,” Ditzler confirmed. Because the port authority operates the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, the prospect of ramifications involving the Federal Aviation Administration was another concern. “It was definitely something we did not want to do but we kept it as an option. I know it’s not necessary now,” Ditzler said.
The commissioner, who had leveled sharp criticism at the port authority, said communication and transparency are important and he is confident that the boards of commissioners and the port authority are now working in sync.
“Misunderstandings are easy in this day and age and I think it is very clear that we all want the same thing. I am very comfortable where we’re at right now with both [boards of] county commissioners,” Klingle said.
“One of the things that the port authority has to do, and especially me, is we have to do a better job of communicating so that both sets of commissioners know exactly what taking place, all the important things,” he added. “That part will absolutely change, effective immediately.”
One recent sore spot was news that Klingle was considering asking the port authority board to hire John Moliterno, former president of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, as executive director of the port authority. That position has been vacant since Rose Ann DeLeon’s departure earlier this year.
“There was no intention to slight anybody but it still boils down to communication, and if there was any misunderstanding it was probably my fault,” Klingle said.
“Ron’s got a lot of energy. He’s got a lot of gumption for getting those things done,” Traficanti said.
“Nobody’s perfect, “ he added. "He’s still getting his legs in and we want to make sure that he’s as successful as he can be. We want him to be successful, definitely.”
Hiring an executive director probably will be a two-step process, with an interim director named to serve while a search is conducted, “just to make sure that anybodywho would be interested in this position has an opportunity to apply for it and would seriously be considered for it,” Klingle said. “That’s the way it should be done."
Discussion of an interim director will take place at this month’s meeting of the port authority board. The search for a permanent executive director likely will get under way after the port authority receives input from the consultants now working on its strategic plan regarding the roles the port authority and other local entities should play in economic development. Once the board digests that information, it will be appropriate to begin a national search, Klingle said.
Polivka, speaking briefly with reporters following the 1 p.m. meeting, said the discussions were productive.
The commissioners said they would fill the vacancies created last spring when James Floyd, Richard Schiraldi and Scott Lynn resigned, Traficanti reported. Each county, which directs bed-tax funds to the port authority, appoints four members to the board. Mahoning County needs to act “expeditiously,” Polivka said, to fill its vacancies and Trumbull County has agreed to do the same.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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