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Auditor candidates list their successes
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
As he seeks re-election, Michael V. Sciortino boasts numerous accomplishments in the centralization and regionalization of government services since he became Mahoning County auditor in September 2005.
His Democratic primary challenger, Andrew D’Apolito, retired superintendent of operations for the county’s Sanitary Engineering Department, says he brings experience in supervising 70 people and managing a budget of more than $20 million a year.
During his 20 years as superintendent, D’Apolito said he was accountable to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies for the operation of seven wastewater treatment plants. D’Apolito, who joined the sanitary engineering department as a laborer in 1973, retired last year.
“I’ve accomplished a lot in the past 4-and-a-half years with technology advances,” Sciortino said.
Sciortino lists many accomplishments as auditor, such as consolidating county government computer systems, Web sites and telephone systems; eliminating unnecessary telephone lines; converting the county to a new paperless accounting computer system; receiving Ohio Government Finance Officers’ Association recognition for excellence in financial reporting; and establishing the Mahoning-Youngstown Regional Information System.
Sciortino said he accomplished all this while abolishing a $55,000-a-year accounting position and keeping three full-time positions in his office vacant.
Sciortino proposes to use MYRIS to centralize all the county’s 911 center computer operations in downtown Youngstown to reduce energy and maintenance costs. Such consolidation could be the forerunner to consolidating the 911 dispatching centers, he said.
Despite all the accomplishments Sciortino proclaims, he is working under the cloud of a grand jury investigating potential conflicts of interest concerning the dispute over the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place.
Sciortino and two other opponents of the county’s purchase of Oakhill — Commissioner John A. McNally IV and then Treasurer John B. Reardon — met with Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., then president of the Cafaro Co., in Cafaro’s office the day the county bought Oakhill in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 2006.
The three officials said they opposed the Oakhill purchase because of uncertain costs of buying, operating and maintaining the former hospital complex.
Cafaro, who was the landlord for the county’s Department of Job and Family Services at Garland Plaza on the East Side, unsuccessfully sued the county in an attempt to rescind the county’s purchase of Oakhill, to which the county moved JFS. Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
Sciortino said he has done nothing wrong and doesn’t expect to be indicted, but, if he is indicted, he won’t resign. “I’ve been elected to do this job, and I’m doing it, and I would not step down,” he said. “I still can’t believe I’m being investigated.”
Perhaps the meeting with Cafaro should have been in the auditor’s office with the door open, he said.
“He’s in the race because he thinks I’m going to get indicted,” Sciortino said of D’Apolito.
D’Apolito said he initially planned to run against Commissioner David N. Ludt, but he said it appeared that his chances of winning were slim when Carol Rimedio-Righetti decided to run against Ludt. Rimedio-Righetti received the Democratic Party endorsement.
Sciortino, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Party, went on the offensive against D’Apolito, saying the state’s attorney general sued the county for polluting local waterways because of D’Apolito’s neglect of his duty to properly supervise the county’s wastewater treatment system.
“There was no neglect ever shown anywhere,” D’Apolito replied, saying the state sued over “tiny violations” as its Environmental Protection Agency lowered its tolerances for pollutants. “Their regulations got to be extreme,” he said. “We have more regulations for sewage than for drinking water.”
To settle the lawsuit, the county commissioners agreed in August 2008 to pay $150,000 in fines, eliminate the Wilson Avenue sewer overflow in Campbell, upgrade three sewage-treatment plants and build a $2 million sewer in East Alliance.
Andrew D’Apolito
Residence: Canfield
Education: Cardinal Mooney High School, attended Youngstown State University for 18 months.
Employment: Retired last June 30 as superintendent of operations at the Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department, where he was employed for 36 years.
Family: Wife, Jeanne; daughter, Joulette; sons, Andrew and Adam; four grandchildren.
Priorities: Honesty and transparency in government, cutting costs and operating within budget.
Michael V. Sciortino
Residence: Austintown.
Education: Bachelor’s degree from YSU, master’s in public administration and law degree from the University of Akron.
Employment: County auditor, formerly assistant county administrator and deputy director and director of the board of elections.
Family: Wife, Karen; children, Kaitlyn, Vincent and Michael.
Priorities: Fostering financial stability for county government and a more-regional approach to government, eliminating duplication and waste in government, getting stimulus money to bring high-speed broadband technology to local government computer centers.
Source: The candidates