Who's to blame for mayor being kept in the dark?
By the time this editorial hits the streets, the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, formerly the Eastgate Development and Transportation Agency, will be in its new offices in Austintown. Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey's shock upon learning recently that the agency was moving out of downtown wasn't enough to put the decision on hold.
McKelvey was caught unaware that the regional government agency had decided to end its 17-year stay in Youngstown and move to an office building on Mahoning Avenue owned by Dr. John Geletka.
"I don't understand how board members could not know about a relocation of an agency," says McKelvey, who is a member of the agency's General Policy Board. "I think that's a pretty major decision."
Yes, it is a pretty major decision, but it is one that was made by the board's Finance/Executive Committee -- in keeping with the board's January 1999 policy decision to give the committee the authority "to address approval of agency matters, as well as financial matters in lieu of monthly GPB meetings," according to John Getchey, executive director of the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
Absent: McKelvey is one of 10 members of the committee, but he has admitted that he does not attend the meetings. Instead, he sends someone from his staff to represent him. That might account for the mayor's not knowing what was going on with regard to the office space situation.
Getchey says the search for new quarters was authorized by the committee in June and that the decision to execute a lease with Dr. Geletka was made at the Oct. 31 meeting.
We have no doubt that the mayor of Youngstown is a very busy man and that he does not have the time to attend every meeting involving city business, but we have to wonder what is going on in City Hall when an issue as important as the loss of a downtown tenant doesn't appear on anyone's radar screen. Indeed, Getchey recalls that there was an individual from city government at the June meeting of the committee at which the search for new office space was launched. Who, if anyone, did that employee report to upon returning to City Hall?
Grants: Given that the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments encompasses Mahoning and Trumbull counties -- its primary responsibility is to secure federal and state grants for local governments -- the relocation of its offices after more than a decade in downtown Youngstown can be justified. After all, the city does not have exclusive claim to the agency.
But because no one in the McKelvey administration seemed to know what was going on, Youngstown didn't have the opportunity to explore other options with Getchey and his staff. It might have not made any difference, but at least McKelvey could have then said, "We gave it our best shot," instead of "I'm shocked."