3 companies identified in Trumbull County scheme also did business with Warren before '03

The mayor said he wanted the city to use local companies.
By STEPHEN SIFFand PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Some companies accused of taking Trumbull County taxpayers to the cleaners also did big business with the city of Warren.
Last week, county prosecutors identified nine cleaning supply companies they say purposely overcharged and oversold supplies to Trumbull County in a scheme to rip off $400,000 since 1999.
Three of those companies also did business with Warren.
Records of those transactions were among those requested by the state attorney general last week.
The company names were listed in paperwork submitted in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court charging county maintenance department chief Tony Delmont with theft in office, money laundering and bribery.
He pleaded innocent Friday and is free on $50,000 bond.
The co-owner of Envirochemical Inc., Barry Jacobson, confessed last week to bribing Delmont and admitted profiting by $180,000 from the scheme.
Trumbull County has not done business with any of the companies under investigation since last September, when Prosecutor Dennis Watkins advised commissioners to quit using them and begin buying through the state purchasing program.
Warren also stopped using the companies in 2002, but for different reasons, officials say.
Mayor Hank Angelo said he wanted the city to use local companies as much as possible.
The city was buying the bulk of its cleaning supplies from Kinzua Environmental Inc. of Cleveland, but switched in 2003 to W.J. Services of Warren.
The city has bought about $1,300 so far this year from Rochester Midland of Rochester, N.Y.
W.J. Services also cleans the city buildings, auditor officials say.
The city does not seek competitive bids for cleaning supplies, officials said. The mayor says each department head is responsible for ordering their own.
The city has spent $235,138 with Kinzua Environmental in four years. The city has paid $347,213 for cleaning services and supplies from W.J. Service since 1999.
Officials with the auditor's office said the state attorney general's office has requested records from W.J. Services, Kinzua Environmental, Envirochemical, State Chemical and Rochester Midland.
Trumbull County officials say that no eyebrows were raised at the excessive cleaning supply bills because department heads such as Delmont are given a great deal of autonomy.
Quotable
"Mr. Delmont, like other directors of other agencies, was trusted with an enormous amount of responsibility," said Commissioner Michael O'Brien. "Apparently, the person involved in the crime used his position to override any questions on purchases."
Commissioners signed the bills authorizing the excessive expenditures, but they sign so many bills every week that it is impossible to scrutinize each one, they say.
"I think once this is behind us, we can get a system in place so this doesn't happen again," Commissioner Joseph Angelo Jr. said.
Officials in the county auditor's office say that it is not within the scope of their responsibilities to make sure each invoice is justified.
If the funds are available and all the paperwork and signatures are in place, the auditor's office has to pay the bill, Auditor David Hines said.
"I don't have the authority to contradict any department head," he said.
siff@vindy.com
sinkovich@vindy.com