43
Indicted auditor: I am only qualified candidate
Photo
Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino
MAHONING COUNTY
Auditor
Candidates running for the county auditor’s seat in November. An * indicates the incumbent.
Michael V. Sciortino (D)*
Residence: Austintown
Education: Austintown Fitch High School; bachelor of science in political science with a minor in economics from Youngstown State University; master of public administration and law degree from the University of Akron.
Occupation: Mahoning County auditor since 2005.
Previous county employment: Director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections and assistant county administrator.
Family: Wife, Karen Marie; children, Kaitlyn, 10; Vincent, 8, and Michael, 6.
Relative on county payroll: Brother, Dan Sciortino, a clerk in the county treasurer’s office, hired in 2004.
Priorities if re-elected: To develop programs to foster financial stability for county government; to continue to work closely with local school districts and local municipalities to implement disbursements by electronic fund transfers; to build on an already aggressive strategic plan for a more regional approach to governing; to assist county government and local law enforcement to achieve 911 consolidation by having the auditor’s data center centralize and maintain all 911 hardware downtown to cut energy and maintenance costs and eliminate duplication and waste.Accomplishments: Instituting strategic telecommunications and networking initiatives, resulting in general fund savings of $1.7 million, while increasing services and functionality, consolidating all independent county websites; developing a single point of access to county government on the Internet known as the Mahoning County Communicator; developing MYRIS in 2009; merging all county phone lines into one master agreement; conducting seminars with school treasurers, township clerks and city finance directors; receiving recognition in 2007 and 2008 from the Ohio Government Finance Officers Association for excellence in financial reporting; providing property tax relief in 2007 for 22,000 elderly and disabled people through the Homestead Exemption program.
Tracey S. Winbush (R)
Residence: Youngstown
Education: Graduated Hubbard High School; attended Irvine Valley College.
Employment: T-Win Media Group; host of “Morning Coffee with Tracey and Friends,” 8 to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday on WASN Radio AM 1500.
Family: Single.
Former elected office: Youngstown Board of Education member.
Reasons for running: The county needs balance in its political environment and effective and efficient management procedures; to encourage countywide cost-savings programs and procedures.
Priorities if elected: To analyze and assess the auditor’s office for cost-efficient ways to cut operational spending; to better coordinate daily procedures with the county treasurer’s office.
Qualifications: Proven efficient operations and information manager, effective team builder, experience in organizing trade shows and managing multimillion-dollar sales forces.
Joseph B. Markovitch (I)
Residence: Boardman
Education: Woodrow Wilson High School, Youngstown; Adrian College, Adrian, Mich., bachelor of business administration with a marketing major.
Employment: Owner and president of JBM Enterprises Inc., which he founded in 1990.
Family: Wife, Laura; sons, Joseph and Luke.
Reasons for running: To re-establish public trust in the county auditor’s office; to serve county residents’ interests, without the influence of special interests or of those who may have their own political agendas; to operate the office in the most effective and efficient manner. County taxpayers are the “customers of the county auditor’s office and deserve to be treated as such.”
Priorities: Create a positive and productive work atmosphere, ensure that tax monies are treated and used responsibly, promote and extend inter-office communication with other county departments, and eliminate wasteful spending.
Qualifications: A business owner for 20 years, serving more than 200 nursing home accounts, Markovitch said he understands the importance of quality and efficient customer service and manages his business’ payable and receivable accounts.
YOUNGSTOWN
As he seeks re-election, Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino maintains his innocence in the Oakhill Renaissance Place scandal and says he’s the only qualified candidate for auditor.
Sciortino is one of eight defendants under indictment, charged withl conspiring criminally to prevent or delay the relocation of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services from Cafaro Co.-owned rented quarters to Oakhill, which the county bought in 2006.
In the indictment, Sciortino is charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, filing a false financial disclosure statement with the Ohio Ethics Commission, soliciting or accepting improper compensation, and two counts each of conspiracy, perjury, and conflict of interest.
JFS moved in 2007 to Oakhill, which is the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
“We’re going to fight this thing, and I’m going to get exonerated,” Sciortino said, adding that he thinks the indictment is politically motivated.
“That is really the only issue that these folks can run on,” Sciortino said of his two challengers in the Nov. 2 general election, Tracey S. Winbush, a Republican, and Joe Markovitch, an independent candidate.
“I find that my opponents are uniquely unqualified,” to be auditor, Sciortino said.
Sciortino points to his master’s degree in public administration in government finance and to his law degree.
Fifty years ago, someone with less education might have been able to function as auditor, Sciortino said.
Today, the auditor must be knowledgeable about governmental fund accounting, Sciortino said.
The auditor supervises the county’s accounting, payroll, real estate valuation, information technology and weights and measures functions.
Winbush and Markovitch acknowledge that Sciortino’s legal troubles make their candidacies more viable.
No one under indictment should run for, or remain in, office, Winbush said of Sciortino. “I am not corrupt. ...I know how to keep my nose clean and how to do a job well,” she added.
“I don’t believe that any political party should have a one-arm stronghold anywhere,” Winbush said, referring to the overwhelming Democratic majority among elected county officeholders.
Winbush promised she’ll appear for her county job daily, if she’s elected, but she said she’d maintain her daily 8 to 10 a.m. radio show.
Despite her lack of a college degree, Winbush cited her having organized hundreds of people to conduct trade shows and her having managed multimillion-dollar sales forces in the Los Angeles offices of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gillette.
“I know some people who have never gotten past the 10th grade, who are some of the most brilliant businessmen I know,” Winbush added.
Markovitch said Sciortino “is serving himself right now, and a selected group, instead of serving Mahoning County residents.” Markovitch, of Boardman, also said: “Politics as usual in Mahoning County is unacceptable. ... I will not compromise the integrity of the office.”
A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, Markovitch has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from Adrian College in Adrian, Mich, and owns a small business, which sells adaptive clothing and diabetic products for nursing home residents.
Having an accounting degree or being a certified public accountant is not necessary to be a county auditor, Markovich said, noting that Sciortino is a lawyer.
A county auditor should be a good administrator and communicator, pay the county’s bills, and surround himself or herself with good accountants, Markovitch said.
“I’m a quick learner,” Markovitch said. “I’m in this to win,” the election, he said.
His father, Joseph, is a former Democratic 7th Ward Youngstown city councilman.
If elected, Markovitch said he’ll be a full-time auditor and will likely sell his business. He said he wants the auditor’s office to be open every Friday.
Sciortino said his office is closed on selected Fridays to save the county money.
Sciortino emphasized the financial challenges facing the county’s general fund, which had $71 million to spend in 2008, but dropped to $53 million this year, and is projected to have $51 million next year.
Sales-tax revenue is down due to the recession, Sciortino said. A few years ago, interest income was $2 million to $4 million annually, but it is now just a $1 million a year, he added.
The county no longer gets any income from housing federal inmates in its jail, and the general fund budget no longer has any year-end carry-over, Sciortino said. The general fund is the county’s main operating fund.