Applicants for administrator need an independent review

In the fall of 1993, when then Mahoning County commissioners Thomas Carney, David Engler and Frank Lordi were conducting a search for a county administrator, they appointed a screening committee to review the applications and submit seven finalists to them. And while the panel included the commissioners, Carney, Engler and Lordi stayed out of the screening process until decision time.
The other members were Claude Malone, former Montgomery County administrator, who coordinated the selection process; Edward Reese, who subsequently was elected commissioner, and George Tablack, county auditor at the time.
Yes, the same George Tablack who is now director of the Office of Management and Budget and one of the 14 applicants for county administrator.
We provide that bit of history -- Gary Kubic was selected from a field of 102 applicants -- to bolster our call for a similar screening process to review the 14 applicants and submit three finalists -- given the relatively small number who applied -- to commissioners David Ludt, Anthony Traficanti and John V. McNally IV.
Tablack -- who quit his job last July as auditor to start a new life in Florida but quickly concluded that he had made a mistake and returned to Mahoning County to take the position of OMB director offered by Ludt and Traficanti -- should certainly agree with us. After all, he has long advocated such an independent review of applicants for high-ranking positions in county government.
Primary election
As we pointed out in a recent editorial, commissioners should wait until after the May 2 Democratic primary to fill the position because Ludt is seeking re-election and is being challenged for the Democratic Party nomination by former Youngstown mayor and county treasurer George M. Mc-Kelvey, who also applied for the county administrator's position.
Ludt has publicly stated that he believes Tablack is well-qualified to be administrator. He did that before all the applications were in. If he does not want to be accused of wiring the process for Tablack, the way he and Traficanti did with the OMB directorship, he not only will urge his colleagues to hold off on a decision, but will push for an independent review of the applications.
Tablack would be hard-pressed to oppose such a move, seeing as how he was on the panel in 1993.
A screening panel would serve a larger purpose than simply reviewing the applications. Members would have the opportunity to answer many of the questions that have surfaced since Traficanti announced that he could no longer fulfill his responsibilities as commissioner and serve as acting administrator.
The most important question is this: Can one person adequately perform the duties and work in some other capacity in county government? Tablack would retain his OMB job, and McKelvey has said he would serve as administrator if he were elected commissioner.
Then there is the question of relationships in government. Tablack has been endorsed by several key county officials, which makes us wonder if that is a plus or a minus, insofar as the administrator is the buffer between county employees and the commissioners.
As we noted recently, time is not of the essence, and waiting a few months won't cause county government to collapse.