VISITORS BUREAU 4 new members on board

Three of the new members were at a meeting Wednesday night.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County commissioners have moved closer to a reconciliation with the county convention and visitors bureau, officials on both boards say.
On Wednesday, county commissioners appointed four new members to the convention bureau board, which dwindled in size and prospects after Commissioner James G. Tsagaris' outcry over the amount of money in the bureau's bank account.
With the appointment of the new members, and the decision last week to have the bureau spend the money in its account and give it funding to get through the year, few outstanding issues exist between the county and the county-funded nonprofit bureau, Tsagaris said.
"We got everything else worked out with the convention board," Tsagaris said. "Now we are just waiting on the audit."
Results of a $15,000 audit of the convention bureau are expected at the end of May.
Discussion topics
At the first bureau meeting with new members Wednesday evening, board members began looking to the future, with discussion of revising bylaws, how grants are awarded and possible new office space at the Eastwood Mall.
One of the new appointees to the board, Fran Wilson, president of the Trumbull County League of Women Voters and retired Packard Electric manager, said she was pleased to join the board at such a critical juncture.
"You can help to make a difference at something when they thought they had problems," she said.
Tsagaris called for the entire board of the convention bureau to resign in January, after he learned that the board had accumulated a surplus of more than $200,000 over the last several years.
Four board members heeded his call. The dispute with the board deepened when the remaining three board members continued conducting business and appointed two members to their own ranks.
Members' status
One of them, Nick Perod of Kleese Development Associates, resigned on his own last week, bureau board chairman Richard Alberini said. The other, Howland CPA James Nuzzi, remains on the board.
It will not be an immediate problem if he remains, said county Assistant Prosecutor James Misocky, who has represented commissioners in negotiations.
"At least this way, if there is any issue, the commissioners made seven full appointments," he said.
New appointees at the bureau meeting Wednesday included Ken Kubala, a General Motors executive and member of many charitable boards, and Jim Shuler, rooms division manager at Avalon Inn in Howland.
The fourth new member, Bill Kruppa, was not present.
At the meeting, bureau members discussed writing criteria for how grants to organizations will be awarded and loosening the rules so for-profit promoters could get money to promote their events.
They also discussed moving from $2,000-a-month offices in a single-story building on Youngstown-Cortland Road to a larger, more visible office in the Eastwood Mall.
Mall ownership had offered the space, near Sears, for less monthly rent in a package that included public relations and marketing help, Alberini said.
However, the bureau will not be able to enter into a lease without reassurances from commissioners that they will be funded beyond this year, board members said.
siff@vindy.com