Oakhill purchase has cost taxpayers big bucks, say current, former Mahoning officials

YOUNGSTOWN — Two current Mahoning County officials and one former county official, who opposed the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place four years ago, emphatically deny any wrongdoing with regard to that opposition.

They also say the accumulated costs of buying, operating and maintaining the former hospital since then have substantiated their objections.

At a news conference at the Covelli Centre this morning, Commissioner John A. McNally IV, Auditor Michael V. Sciortino and former county Treasurer John B. Reardon said they haven’t considered pleading guilty to any crime in connection with Oakhill if they were to be charged. They have not been indicted.

The extended grand jury and special prosecutors probing potential criminal conflicts of interest regarding the controversy concerning the Oakhill purchase have a June 3 deadline to complete their work.

McNally, Reardon and Sciortino met with Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., then president of the Cafaro Co., in Cafaro’s office on the day the county bought Oakhill in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 2006. Oakhill is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.

Cafaro, the former landlord for the county’s Department of Job and Family Services at Garland Plaza on the city’s East Side, sued the county in an unsuccessful attempt to rescind the county’s purchase of Oakhill, to which the county moved JFS in 2007.

For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com