TRUMBULL COUNTY New purchasing director was appraiser for auditor

County officials created the position last month.
WARREN -- Trumbull County commissioners hired Anthony J. Carson Jr. of Cortland as purchasing director.
Carson, 42, an appraiser with the Trumbull County auditor's office, begins his new post Monday.
He'll be paid $44,750 annually and has earned $35,877 per year as an appraiser.
Thirty people applied for the job, and James Keating, county human resources director, said he interviewed 10 applicants. Of those interviewed, all but one were county employees. Commissioners voted to create the post last month.
Keating said Carson's duties will include preparing and analyzing vendor contracts, reviewing purchase orders and preparing competitive bid specifications. He said Carson has experience with county purchasing.
WASP woes: Carson worked three years with the county auditor's office and formerly operated Warren Alternative Sentencing Program, which closed in January.
The alternative sentencing program operated in the former city jail in the Municipal Justice Building on South Street S.E.
Carson has a lawsuit pending against the city, saying that officials failed to supply him with an agreed-upon number of nonviolent misdemeanants for WASP.
Because enrollment did not meet expectations, Carson has said, he lost money operating WASP and was unable to pay the city for per-prisoner payments.
The agreement said the city would supply Carson with 14 offenders a day -- a figure he has said was overestimated, as WASP took in seven or fewer prisoners a day.
City officials have said they were unable to supply Carson with 14 offenders each day because city police officers were laid off and that reduced the number of citations.
Other applicants: The others interviewed for the job and where they work: Brenda Roscoe, county Child Support Enforcement Agency; Joann Stathis, CSEA; Lisa Hovance, county data processing department; Marla Bluedorn, CSEA; Mauro DiVeste, treasurer's office; Rodney Kistler, water and sewer billing department, sanitary engineer's department; Linda Hogan, clerk of courts; Bob March, CSEA; Bob Marchio of Warren, a production supervisor at Ohio Commerce Park in Lordstown.