MAHONING COUNTY Commissioner seeks transit operation info
The county official wants to see the WRPA financial forecast.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti has joined his Trumbull County counterpart in desiring more information about the Western Reserve Port Authority's operations.
Trumbull Commissioner James Tsagaris said Tuesday that he wasn't satisfied with a financial report he received after attending a port authority meeting last week, or the explanation he's getting for how that county's lodging tax proceeds are being used. On Thursday, Traficanti, board chairman, added his dissatisfaction, saying he will request from the port authority a detailed budget showing its revenues and expenditures and also a financial forecast.
How was money spent?
"Mahoning County was generous in providing money for the port authority," Traficanti said after the board's meeting. "We should be able to see how that money was spent and what we got for providing that money."He added the port authority is not telling the Mahoning commissioners what it is doing to market the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna Township in Trumbull County.
Mahoning and Trumbull counties provide port authority funding.
Figures from the Mahoning County Auditor's office show the county sent more than $357,000 in lodging or bed tax money to the port authority last year and has kicked in $52,165 as of March 8.
Trumbull provided more than $550,000 in bed tax money to the WRPA last year.
The port authority's 2005 budget projects income of $1,135,793 and expenses of $1,121,262.
Will attend sessions
Steve Bowser, interim director of aviation, told Trumbull commissioners he'd be attending their commissioner sessions this year. Traficanti said he would contact Bowser or a port authority representative to see if they also can attend future Mahoning commissioners' sessions.
In other business, some members of the public urged the commissioners to begin naming officeholders who aren't cooperating with the board to make ends meet.
Bruce Paulette of Austintown and David Piper of Boardman said Judge Maureen A. Cronin of common pleas court was on television news criticizing the commissioners for continuing to fund unmandated services to the detriment of other departments.
Piper wanted to know if that was true, and Paulette said if its not, the commissioners need to be more vocal and tell county residents what is the truth.
Didn't want debate
Traficanti responded after the meeting that he didn't want to get into a public debate with Judge Cronin, but the board did not provide money for nonmandated services within the general fund.
He said he personally believes every county agency can show they perform necessary services, and he wishes he could provide money for them all. "The county 4-H group wants another $300,000, and the Soil & amp; Water Conservation District wants another $150,000. They are all important and perform vital services, but they are not mandated, and we did not fund them," Traficanti said.