Mahoning County pays to get out of a bad deal

Had commissioners rejected the $913,590 settlement that resulted in the Cafaro Co.’s dropping its lawsuit against Mahoning County, they would have been on the hook for more than $2 million with a loss in court.

As county Prosecutor Paul Gains put it, the government was shackled by the lease it had entered into in 1987 for space in Garland Plaza (formerly McGuffey Mall) on the city’s East Side.

The public should remember that none of the current commissioners, Anthony Traficanti, David Ludt or John McNally IV, was in office then, and neither was Gains.

But in explaining why the county would pay almost $1 million to one of the leading shopping center developers in the nation, the prosecutor noted under the terms of the lease the county not only paid rent, but was responsible for maintainence of the space it occupied. Indeed, it had to shoulder the cost of repairing the roof.

Who negotiated such a lopsided agreement? The prosecutor 20 years ago was Gary Van Brocklin, and the commissioners were Tom Carney, John Palermo and Leonard Yurcho.

In suing the county, the Cafaro Co. claimed government failed to regularly maintain the space it occupied resulting in damage to the structure. Officials claimed it would cost more than $2 million to make the necessary repairs.

Of course, the lawsuit was filed after commissioners Traficanti and Ludt announced that they were severing ties with the developer — the lease expired 10 years ago and a month-to-month was in effect — and moving the Job and Family Services agency to Oakhill Renaissance Place (the former South Side Medical Center complex.)

Taxpayer lawsuit

Cafaro Co. executives, led by President Anthony Cafaro, also filed a taxpayer lawsuit to block the relocation of the Job and Family Services agency. A visiting judge dismissed that suit, which cleared the way for the move.

While Prosecutor Gains is right in pointing out that the commissioners had no choice but to settle the second lawsuit, he, Traficanti, Ludt and McNally must know that the taxpayers wlll not give them a pass if there is a repeat of this situation.

Therefore, we believe Gains and the commissioners should review whatever leases are in effect and pledge to negotiate new terms when they expire if, like the Cafaro lease, the county is holding the bag.

It is worth noting that because of the foresight of commissioners Traficanti, Ludt and county Administrator George Tablack, Renaissance Place is a government-owned complex. As Traficanti pointed out on numerous occasions during the debate on the JFS relocation, the county had been paying more than $1 million a year for the space in Garland Plaza — for rent and other expenses.

Its occupancy of Renaissance Place will ultimately result in savings to the taxpayers.

While we agree that a settlement was the most obvious response to the lawsuit filed by the Cafaro Co., a full-blown court hearing would have perhaps provided an answer to the overarching question about the lease: What were Van Brocklin and the commissioners thinking when they agreed to a pact that clearly benefited the company?