Dann calls for new county promotion

Senator says port authority could promote Trumbull and Mahoning counties.
VIENNA -- State Sen. Marc Dann says the Western Reserve Port Authority could take over marketing and tourism efforts for the entire Mahoning Valley.
Dann, of Liberty, D-32nd, said the timing is right for the port authority to promote both Trumbull and Mahoning counties. Officials from both counties say the idea merits discussion, but note it's not time for such a commitment.
A law pushed through the state Legislature last year by Dann now permits the two counties to use lodging tax revenue to fund the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, which the port authority runs. Hotels and motels collect the tax and send a check to the counties; until the law changed the Mahoning and Trumbull commissioners had struggled to fund the airport.
Dann's now touting the next step in a letter sent to Trumbull and Mahoning commissioners, their legal counsel, and two of the eight port authority members: Bill Reali, chairman, and Michael Harshman, also an attorney.
Such two-county promotion and marketing schemes have occasionally surfaced since the mid-1980s, and the counties have been reluctant to give up their identities to a joint venture. Such an idea was last raised in July 2004 by former Mahoning Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock, who said the merger idea shot down in 2003 by Trumbull officials should be revisited.
Just this month, Trumbull's commissioners reiterated their stance that they must appoint all the board members of the county visitors bureau.
The new twist here would be involving the port authority, which operates across two counties. The port authority has become involved in cross-county efforts such as the Mahoning River cleanup, foreign trade zones and enterprise zones.
March 31 deadline
Jason Earnhart, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said the commissioners' position is to give the visitors bureau until a March 31 deadline to comply with commissioners' directive on board membership.
After that, "all bets are off and the commissioners certainly will be entertaining their options," Earnhart said. "This is certainly one of them, and I think the concept of it has a lot of merit. You'll have to get a lot of local officials to cooperate, but that's on them."
Dann's letter urges the elected leaders to contact his office to discuss the issue.
Trumbull Commissioner James Tsagaris said he'd prefer to wait to see what happens March 31 and after.
His colleague and board chairman, Daniel Polivka, said he's spoken with Dann about the idea but noted Trumbull County could also pursue two other options: forming a new bureau, or using an ad agency. The Trumbull bureau is on Youngstown-Warren Road in Niles but plans to close March 31. A new bureau could run out of the commissioners' hearing room or space in the board of elections building, Polivka said.
Anthony Traficanti, Mahoning's commissioner chairman, said he has talked with Dann about regionalizing the visitors bureaus. "We can certainly talk about the possibility [of] one marketing piece for Mahoning and Trumbull counties," he said.
But Traficanti remains concerned about Trumbull County's funding for its bureau and the litigation facing both counties' bureaus, which he said could render moot any merger talks. Also to be worked out, he noted, are how funding and board structure would be set up.
Both struggling
Both counties' tourism efforts are struggling:
UThe Trumbull County Convention and Visitors Bureau is without funding because county commissioners last year directed that all 4 percent of the lodging tax be used to fund the port authority's operation -- $400,948 last year. The bureau's board is continuing its common pleas court fight to claim tax proceeds.
UIn October 2003, Mahoning commissioners stopped funding the Youngstown/Mahoning County CVB with lodging tax revenue, a matter also being litigated. Mahoning assesses a 3 percent tax on all hotel and motel rooms. The county gives one third, about $150,000 annually, to a second CVB, a board the commissioners created; and the rest -- about $300,000 annually -- to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport run by the port authority.
"Now is the time to bring the Trumbull and Mahoning County visitors bureau together under the auspices of the port authority," Dann said. "Instead of allowing both of our visitors bureaus to fall to pieces, it is time to pull all of our efforts together, and work together, in order to promote the Mahoning Valley and showcase this area not just to visitors, but to businesses as well."
Dann envisions the port authority using both counties' lodging tax proceeds and having a supervisory position over five subdivisions or commissions: tourism advisory, airport and community marketing advisory, film advisory, technical-education-workforce development, and military growth advisory.
Earnhart said the only legal impediment he sees would be if the port authority's legal counsel pans the idea.
"It is certainly legal for us to give them the money," he said. "It's kind of a nice solution for the commissioners because they don't have to do anything, they're already giving the 4 percent to the port authority."