JOB AND FAMILY SERVICES Lawmakers aim to derail closings

Services officials said the shutdown may take longer than anticipated.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Shutting down the state's 56 job offices and replacing them with phone centers will create a faceless bureaucracy that leaves needy people behind, state legislators from Mahoning County say.
The Youngstown One Stop Employment and Training Center on South Avenue will become a regional phone center. Offices in Lisbon and Warren will be closed.
The state wants to close the offices within 15 months as part of a reorganization of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services by Gov. Bob Taft, estimated to save the agency $10 million.
Taft has said the Mahoning Valley offices would be among the last closed.
Job and Family Services officials recently said the shutdown may take longer than anticipated and will not occur until the new phone centers are up and running.
Additional controversy: Besides this issue, Job and Family Services is reeling from the resignation earlier this month of its director following controversy over owing millions in back child-support payments to thousands of parents.
"This is being planned by a department in management crisis," said state Rep. Sylvester D. Patton Jr. of Youngstown, D-64th. "Until they get the management situation right, there is no reason to invite more problems."
Postponement is good news for the Valley's unemployed, but the legislators said they will do all they can to keep the offices open permanently.
"The state is picking on people who can't defend themselves," said state Rep. Kenneth A. Carano of Austintown, D-65th.
Carano and Patton were joined at the Youngstown facility by state Rep. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-57th, state Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-33rd, and local union leaders.
"This is government at its most insensitive," Hagan said. "We think we can put a stop to this. We have an obligation to stop this."