MAHONING COUNTY Convention and Visitors Bureau drops suits against commissioners

County commissioners are still trying to recover $600,000 in CVB assets.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The lame-duck Youngstown-Mahoning Convention and Visitors Bureau says it has dropped its suits against Mahoning County commissioners because the board has agreed to pay the CVB $118,000 in bed tax revenues withheld before October 2003.
At that time, county commissioners stopped funding the CVB with revenue from a county lodging tax, and diverted two-thirds of the bed-tax revenue to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport for operating expenses, and the other one-third to a new visitors bureau appointed by commissioners.
The CVB had filed suit against county Auditor George Tablack seeking payment of bed tax collected before October 2003. It also filed a challenge in the 10th District Court of Appeals to the law that allowed the commissioners to divert the bed-tax revenues to purposes other than the promotion of tourism and travel in Mahoning County and the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Suit still active
However, said Assistant Prosecutor Lynette Stratford, the commissioners suit against the CVB to recover about $600,000 in assets stashed away over time remains alive. Stratford said Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Jack Durkin rejected the county's request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the CVB from spending those assets since it was divested of authority by commissioners.
However, she said most of that money is in investments and there would be financial losses of they were cashed in early.
It has always been the commissioners' intention to recover those unencumbered CVB assets, said Joseph Caruso, assistant county administrator.
In the meantime, the CVB hopes to survive until the new board of commissioners take office in 2005 -- there will be two new members -- and hopes the new board will restore their funding.
Bed tax
The lodging tax, also known as a bed tax, is paid by everyone who rents a hotel or motel room in the county. Since 1987, all of its revenue had gone to the CVB for tourism.
At Thursday's commissioners' meeting, Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock said the CVB is "not waiting out the board of commissioners, it is waiting out the taxpayers. The CVB is no longer recognized by the board of commissioners or the Mahoning County Lodging Council, Sherlock said.
In the meantime, Larry Richard, chairman of the CVB, said: "We are satisfied that we received what was owed us and look forward to continue to promote Mahoning County as a great place to visit."
alcorn@vindy.com