Group stays focused on Boardman business

By Denise Dick

The committee met last week with incoming trustees.

BOARDMAN — A group of business-minded residents plans to remain active in offering recommendations for improvements to township officials.

The 10-member business citizens committee formed in mid-2008 to make recommendations to township leaders.

James Rosa, a certified public accountant who leads the group, said it remains active and met last week with trustees-elect Thomas Costello and Brad Calhoun.

“We discussed the history of what our involvement has been and what we have done,” Rosa said.

Committee members endorsed the township’s 2008 police and fire levy and offered recommendations to trustees for changes aimed at addressing financial difficulties.

Those recommendations included development of a capital-improvement budget, an end to the township’s reliance on inheritance-tax receipts for operating expenses and advice to focus on allowing no cost increases in upcoming labor contracts.

“We shared with them the information we have provided to the township over the last year and a half,” Rosa said.

The meeting with the trustees who take office next month went well, he said.

“I have great expectations that [the process] will work even better than it has in the past,” Rosa said.

Costello, who also served as trustee from 1999 to 2005, agreed that last week’s gathering, which also included Trustee Larry Moliterno and William Leicht, township fiscal officer, went well.

“I was very impressed,” Costello said. “These people have given a lot of personal time and effort for the benefit of Boardman.”

He sees the committee’s role as advisory but also as an avenue off which trustees may bounce ideas. Because they also have taken the time to learn about the township, its budget and operations, they’re in a position to know that achieving a particular goal in government isn’t always as easy as it may seem.

They can serve in an ambassador-type role in explaining things to others in the public, Costello said. Government doesn’t operate like a business.

He continues to review the packet of information from committee members.

“These are people I respect for their business knowledge and what they’ve accomplished,” Costello said. “I have to listen them because they’ve earned that respect.”

Even when the committee isn’t issuing recommendations to township officials, it remains active.

One member resigned recently for personal reasons, but the committee continues to meet monthly, he said.

“We’ve never had a meeting where less than half [of the members] attending,” Rosa said. “Most of them have had more than that.”

denise_dick@vindy.com