Area agency quits as levy-funds administrator

An area agency spokeswoman said its goal has been to ensure levy money was spent properly.

WARREN — The wrestling match involving the SCOPE senior centers and the agency that monitored levy money from Trumbull County will come to an end Sept. 30.

The Niles-based Area Agency on Aging 11 oversees many federal and state senior-citizen programs in several counties. It resigned Monday as administrator of the $2.6 million in annual senior-citizens levy money approved by Trumbull voters in November 2005.

County commissioners, the referee in the match, will begin looking for a new administrator immediately and hope to have the position filled by Sept. 30, said Commissioner Frank Fuda.

Lisa Solley, spokeswoman for the agency, said the resignation is the result of a dispute with SCOPE dating back a couple of years and the more recent attempt by county commissioners to secure a contract with SCOPE. The contract set terms under which SCOPE will be paid in the future.

SCOPE and the commissioners agreed to a contract last week, but commissioners agreed that on the last page of the contract, where signatures of the parties would be included, SCOPE would be allowed to use the words “under protest.”

Solley said such an agreement is not acceptable, saying it renders the contract unenforceable.

Fuda and Commissioner Paul Heltzel disagreed, saying that the legal opinion from the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office is that those words do not harm the agreement.

Solley has said the agency was no longer sure it would be able to continue to administer the contract because the commissioners were failing to ensure adequate oversight of the levy money. Heltzel took exception to that.

“We said we didn’t appreciate the criticism,” Heltzel said, adding that it is the second time Solley has leveled such accusations, which he said are not factual.

The new contract with SCOPE did not affect agency’s ability to continue to oversee SCOPE’s levy spending, Heltzel said.

Also, SCOPE’s contract is between SCOPE and the county commissioners, not between SCOPE and the agency, he said.

“Apparently they don’t understand that,” Heltzel said.

Fuda agreed that the SCOPE/area agency dispute appears to be a power struggle, with area agency overstepping its authority.

“SCOPE and all the agencies receiving money have to answer to the commissioners,” Fuda said. “I think [area agency] felt SCOPE answered to [area agency],” Fuda said.

Solley, at a news conference Monday, said the agency’s goal since 2005 has been to ensure that levy money is being spent properly, and commissioners are preventing the agency from doing that.

She added that Trumbull commissioners in recent decades have had a poor record of safeguarding taxpayer money.

She cited the conviction of former county Engineer James Fiorenzo in 1994 for stealing county money through a remodeling project at his office; and the purchasing probe, which led to a prison term for former county employee Tony Delmont, who authorized $400,000 in overpriced janitorial supplies between 1999 and 2002.

Area agency has tried to get SCOPE to spend levy money by the same standards that Area Agency requires of other agencies for federal and state money, Solley said.

Solley said leaving the words “under protest” in the contract could weaken area agency’s position in court if SCOPE ever brought legal action regarding some provision of the contract.

“We are unable to work with any agency that says it is working under duress,” Solley said.

The commissioners agreed in February that SCOPE was overpaid for some services it provided in recent years for classes such as boccie and line dancing and ordered SCOPE to reimburse the levy $90,000.

The levy, which expires in 2010, provides services to Trumbull County residents age 60 and older.

No matter who monitors the levy spending in the future, “Things are not going to change,” Fuda said. “We’ll still demand accountability.”

Area Agency was paid $5,000 per month for its administration services, but in 2008 the agency spent twice that much to administer the levy spending, Solley said.

Most of that was legal fees associated with trying to get SCOPE to meet guidelines, Solley said.

runyan@vindy.com