Purchasing probe gets a seasoned prosecutor

Trumbull County taxpayers should rest assured that Victor V. Vigluicci, the special prosecutor appointed to oversee the far-reaching purchasing scandal in county government, will go after the guilty with the tenacity of a pit bull. Vigluicci's performance in 2000 in the case involving Edward A. Flask, a director of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, was exemplary and reassuring.
But the taxpayers should worry if there is a visiting judge appointed to preside over any cases that may evolve from the purchasing investigation, and he or she is cut from the same cloth as retired Judge Richard Markus.
Judge Markus, of Fairview Park, a suburb of Cleveland, served as the visiting judge in the Flask case and was a flop.
He will be remembered for not only giving Flask, who pleaded guilty to nine criminal charges, a piddling 90-day sentence in the Trumbull County jail, but for his comment that there was no "victim seeking restitution" in the case.
It is noteworthy that Vigluicci had urged Judge Markus to impose the maximum three-year sentence in state prison on the grounds that Flask "admitted to using his office to authorize or secure public contracts in which he had a financial interest. He did this not once, but scores of times" over a period of six years.
Flask, while on the MVSD board of directors, received $1.7 million from the former Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio and $270,000 from Ohio Edison in consulting fees. Both companies had contracts with the MVSD.
Civil lawsuits
It is also noteworthy that the state had filed civil lawsuits against Flask, of Poland, and Frank DeJute of Niles, the other MVSD director at the time, to recover $2.4 million prosecutors said was improperly paid to the Gilbane Building Co. of Rhode Island for work not done at the Mineral Ridge water purification plant.
Flask and DeJute gave Gilbane a construction management contract to oversee a $50 million capital improvement project.
Judge Markus' contention that there was no victim seeking restitution from Flask was galling because the MVSD sells bulk water to its two member cities, Youngstown and Niles, which sell it to their residents and suburban customers. The residents of Mahoning and Trumbull counties foot the bill for the water district. Clearly, they are the victims.
Vigluicci deserves a judge who recognizes that white-collar crimes, especially those committed by public officials, are just as egregious as crimes committed by common criminals.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who has sent out more than 500 subpoenas and has secured guilty pleas from three individuals and indictments against others, is to be commended for selecting Vigluicci, a veteran lawyer, to serve as special prosecutor.
Watkins, whose commitment to rooting out corruption in government is heartfelt, noted that the evidence uncovered to date justifies his office's stepping aside "from any role in evaluating and deciding whether any further prosecutions of public officials, elected or nonelected, or others are merited. To continue to investigate elected officials would constitute a conflict of interest, and in my opinion, under the circumstances would not be in the public interest."
The prosecutor is the lawyer for most county offices, including that of the commissioners.
'Fraud and price gouging'
Vigluicci, Portage County prosecutor since 1994, says he is not sure how long the investigation will take.Watkins said that at least $400,000 was "stolen from Trumbull County taxpayers through schemes of fraud and price gouging."
Given that elected officials -- their identities are being kept under wraps -- have been implicated, we urge Vigluicci to move as quickly as possible in filing charges. Last week a salesman for one of the suppliers to county government said that he believes he was paying bribes when he purchased tickets to campaign events, golf outings and the like.
The sworn testimony has cast a pall over county government.