MAHONING COUNTY Crawford to retire from post

Commissioners will begin a search for a new director.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Delores Crawford, executive director of Mahoning County's Department of Job and Family Services for eight years, is retiring effective April 29, when her contract expires.
Commissioners were expected to pass a resolution approving her retirement at their meeting today.
"Given the change in administration and the direction the county is going at this time, I decided it's time for me to move on," Crawford said Monday.
She was the first black woman to head a county department.
Crawford has served as executive director of JFS, formerly known as the welfare department, since 1996, when she replaced Robert Douglas Jr., now a Youngstown Municipal Court judge.
The JFS is primarily funded by the federal and state governments. The county supplies about $1.7 million annually in general fund money to the department.
Crawford oversees a total operating budget of $370 million, which includes the department's food stamp, child care and Medicaid programs.
She leaves a staff of 323, which consists of the Department of Human Services and the Child Support Enforcement Agency.
Search to begin
Commissioners will begin a search for her replacement. Crawford was making $88,504 a year, county records show.
Crawford said she will remain in the Youngstown community and serve it in "whatever capacity that may be." She plans to do private consulting work and "get in a lot of fishing."
She was vice president and director of planning and fund distribution for the Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way and a coordinator at Youngstown State University's Center for Urban Studies.
Before working at YSU, she served 15 years in the county's Department of Human Services in capacities from caseworker to manager.
A graduate of Youngstown South High School, she has bachelor's degrees in sociology and languages from YSU.
She received the ATHENA Award sponsored by the Regional Chamber in 2000.
She has a son, DeWayne Jennings of Reynoldsburg, a stepdaughter, Joan Crawford of Youngstown, and three grandchildren.