Valley senator takes pulse of area economy

Humility of Mary Health Partners passed up three others to be the Valley’s top employer.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — By hearing from business and community leaders at a roundtable discussion, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown listened to the barrage of economic challenges facing Mahoning Valley employers and workers.

Brown, elected senator last November, said he has such discussions to give smaller communities like Trumbull County a voice in government. The session was Friday in Warren’s Community Services Building on Main Avenue Southwest.

Attendees such as Robert W. Shroder, president and chief executive officer, Humility of Mary Health Partners, reminded Brown of the extent of the job losses experienced in the Valley in the past 18 months.

Humility of Mary, which operates St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center, St. Joseph Health Center in Warren, rose from fourth place to first in the area, passing General Motors, Delphi Packard and Forum Health in employees, Shroder noted.

That rise came about only because of job losses at the other three. And those setbacks make it harder for health-care providers to continue to maintain services, he said, because it reduces hospital revenues.

Likewise, having fewer workers earning top wages has changed the focus of school administrators, said Ruth Zitnik, the principal of Warren Harding High School.

She described the times she has cried after leaving the home of a student who faces daunting social and family challenges that make it difficult for the child to focus on getting an education.

In many of her students’ homes, there is only one parent who comes home late at night after work and doesn’t have time to help the child with homework.

“Spend one day with me and you wouldn’t believe it,” she told Brown. “I don’t know how they deal with it.”

One girl was living out of a car until a group of people took her in. The girl didn’t live with her own family but told Zitnik she was happy to at least have a place to sleep every night and the knowledge that she wouldn’t get beat up.

Zitnik said the federal No Child Left Behind law that is due for reauthorization soon focuses on achievement levels that are not realistic for children facing such challenges.

Sharing good news with the group, Charles H. Cook, director of Delphi Packard electrical electronic engineering for North America, said the company’s bankruptcy and downsizing have finally left it with the ability to operate successfully.

“We’re trimmed down now to where we are ready to go,” he said. “We’re very competitive and ready to grow. I think we’re in a good position.”

Cynthia Bezik, chief financial officer of WCI Steel, said government does make it difficult for companies to be profitable when it requires such things as a $29 million air pollution control system at WCI.

“That money could have been used for a new pickling line,” she added.

Mark Zigmont, economic development planning coordinator for Trumbull County, said one of the most important things government can do to help manufacturers is take away their health-care burden. Almost none of manufacturing nations around the world pay health-care costs like American companies do, he said.

Brown said he feels the federal government will head in a positive direction on health care in the coming years, no matter who is elected president.

runyan@vindy.com