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Sciortino takes hiatus from office of state group of county auditors
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Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino
By Peter Milliken
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino said he’s taking a hiatus from the vice presidency of the County Auditors’ Association of Ohio until the Nov. 2 election to focus on his priorities at home.
“It would be unfair to the association [to remain], knowing that I couldn’t give 100 percent to that organization,” Sciortino said, adding that the association post requires spending considerable time in Columbus.
Sciortino remains a member and executive committee member of the association, a professional organization con- sisting of Ohio’s 88 county auditors.
Sciortino said he temporarily stepped aside last week from his association post to focus on his four major commitments in Youngstown: spending time with his family; maintaining the operation of the auditor’s office; running his re-election campaign: and preparing his legal defense in the Oakhill case, in which he is one of 10 defendants.
“My first responsibility has to be my office here, making sure that we get the job done,” Sciortino said. The auditor’s office is in the midst of a countywide real-estate reappraisal and has been recently engaged in a major county computer-system conversion.
The 73-count Oak- hill grand jury indictment alleges a criminal conspiracy among defendants to prevent or delay the relocation of Mahoning County’s Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza on the city’s East Side to Oakhill Renaissance Place.
The county bought Oakhill in 2006 and moved JFS there the next year. Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
Sciortino refused to issue the county’s $75,000 check for the Oakhill purchase until a judge ordered him to do so in July 2007.
Sciortino is charged in the July 28 indictment with two counts each of conspiracy, perjury and conflict of interest and one count each of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, filing a false financial-disclosure statement and soliciting or accepting improper compensation.
“I look forward to the proper forum to fight those political charges,” Sciortino said.
Kim Perez, Stark County auditor, is now fulfilling the duties of association vice president.
Sciortino’s one-year term as association vice president ends at the end of this year, and he is now president-elect of the association, which puts him in line to assume the association presidency next year.
Sciortino said he believes he’ll clear his name in the Oakhill case and intends to serve as association president next year.
After he was indicted, Sciortino said he received numerous supportive calls from other county auditors, state representatives and senators and other government officials.