Local port authority to vote on hiring

By Ed Runyan

VIENNA — Members of the Western Reserve Port Authority will vote today on whether to hire as economic development director Rose Ann DeLeon of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority.

The hiring would culminate a six-month search, and a year before that of planning to secure the start-up money to hire a person.

The position will make use of the powers that a port authority has under state law to help companies expand and locate in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Ultimately that means working to attract jobs, officials say.

DeLeon is vice president of strategic development and government affairs in Cleveland and has been with the Cleveland port since 1993.

She has been a project manager for the Cleveland port and handles intergovernmental relations with city, county, federal and state governments, community relations and public relations, handles the port’s foreign-trade-zone program and managed the port’s tax- levy campaign.

Trumbull County Commissioner Paul Heltzel said DeLeon was the strongest candidate the committee interviewed.

“She has extensive experience with the Cleveland Port Authority over about 15 years,” he said. “She’s very familiar with the powers of a port authority and programs available for companies contemplating a move here.”

He added that she was also a major part of the Cleveland port’s campaigns to pass a levy to support operations of the Cleveland port authority.

Heltzel noted that DeLeon very likely could make an impact immediately. Officials with V&M Star Steel, the company looking to build a factory on land along U.S. Route 422 in Youngstown and Girard, and have expressed an interest in working with the local port authority, Heltzel said.

The port authority has the ability to offer attractive benefits such as off-balance-sheet financing and avoidance of sales taxes, Heltzel said. Off-balance-sheet financing allows a company to raise capital without that loan showing up on the company’s balance sheet, Heltzel said.

Heltzel said an advisory committee consisting of representatives of the Mahoning and Trumbull County government bodies that contributed money toward the operation of the office approved her hiring at a meeting last week.

Approval by the port authority will be the last step in the hiring process, Heltzel said.

Local government bodies learned of a proposal spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, in the middle of 2008 to create the position.

After several months, the county commissioners from both counties, plus the city councils in Youngstown, Warren and Niles, plus Howland and the building trades agreed to contribute $1.2 million over three years to the position.

In May, the company Heidrick & Struggles of Chicago began the search and recommended several finalists to a port authority subcommittee.

Officials have said the Western Reserve Port Authority’s economic development position should be funded at a high level to attract a highly qualified person and preferably filled by a person with few personal ties to this area to avoid favoritism.

When asked what DeLeon would be paid, Heltzel referred the question to John Masternick, port authority chairman. Masternick was not available to comment Tuesday.