Ethics probe of JFS move should answer questions

It has already been established that Mahoning County officeholders were in regular contact with officials of the Cafaro Co. while the real estate developer was fighting to retain the county’s Job and Family Services agency as a tenant.

The JFS had been located in the Cafaro-owned Garland Plaza on Youngstown’s East Side for more than 20 years, but commissioners Anthony Traficanti and David Ludt decided to relocate the agency to Oakhill Renaissance Place.

Traficanti and Ludt were responding to pleas from JFS employees to be moved out of Garland because they believed the building was a health hazard.

The commissioners also were unable to negotiate a new lease with the Cafaro Co. that they felt gave the taxpayers the advantage — rather than the other way around.

The developer’s original lease held it responsible for only the structure of the building. The county had to take care of everything else, including roof repairs.

Traficanti and Ludt, therefore, decided to buy Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former South Side Medical Center complex in Youngstown’s central business district, and relocate the JFS agency.

However, their colleague, James McNally, objected on the grounds that county government had not done its due diligence with regard to the costs involved in purchasing Oakhill.

McNally was joined by Auditor Michael Sciortino and then Treasurer John Reardon. All three admitted in depositions and during a trial that they had numerous conversations about the JFS move with Cafaro Co. officials during the battle over Oakhill.

Reardon’s successor, Lisa Antonini, also admitted to talking on numerous occasions with Anthony Cafaro, chief executive officer of one of the nation’s leading shopping center development companies, but denied that JFS or Oakhill were broached.

Conflicts of interest?

Commissioners Traficanti and Ludt, along with county Prosecutor Paul Gains, believed that the McNally, Sciortino, Reardon, Antonini and other county officials were guilty of conflicts of interest and the Ohio Ethics Commission and the county sheriff’s department were brought in to investigate.

Last week, the ethics commission issued more than 20 subpoenas in its effort to determine whether the actions of McNally and the others amounted to criminal violations of state statutes.

Seeing as how all the targets have admitted to being in regular contact with Cafaro Co. officials, the question that must be answered is this: Did these individuals sell out the county?

In the months leading up to the March primary, The Vindicator met with Prosecutor Gains, two members of his staff and county Administrator George Tablack, who laid out their allegations.

They provided the newspaper with copies of depositions and trial testimony. That information was the foundation for an interview with McNally, questioning of others and subsequently a front page story.

The story amounted to McNally et al denying there was any quid pro quo in their relationship with the Cafaro officials.

Indeed, voters in the Democratic primary gave McNally and Antonini the nomination, ignoring their opponents’ contention that they were acting at the behest of the Cafaro Co.

Now, there’s a formal investigation by an outside entity and we trust the truth will come out.