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New fiscal officer, 19, taking it all in stride
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Tom Shay, left, 19, Braceville Township’s new fiscal officer, stands by as Dan Polivka, Trumbull County commissioner, completes the paperwork for Shay’s recent swearing-in ceremony. Shay was elected to a four-year term in November.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Perhaps the most surprising thing about 19-year-old Tom Shay, who was elected Braceville Township fiscal officer in November, isn’t the fact that he oversees a $1.6 million township budget while completing his freshman year in college.
It’s more the fact that he shows no sign of being the least bit apprehensive about it.
While many college freshmen have enough on their plate just adjusting to college, Shay is earning a $19,806 salary this year, writing budgets and getting out the payroll.
And, he earned mostly A’s last fall at John Carroll University in Cleveland, where he completed his first semester while running his door-to-door election campaign.
Though all of that and taking office at the beginning of the year might be a bit overwhelming to some, the boyish 2011 LaBrae High School graduate is taking it all in stride.
It’s clear he is a time- management expert, keeping up with another full load of classes this semester while handling his responsibilities to the township, but he’s also something else: a competent fiscal officer.
“I think it’s going pretty well,” Shay said from his tidy office in a township building on rural Braceville Robinson Road last week.
“Within the first three months, we started direct deposit here in the township, so it’s very exciting for the employees. When I first started, it was something everyone was mentioning,” Shay said.
“My main goal is to bring the township up to the 21st century. We don’t have anything like a website, or we still paid everyone by checks. Filing tax reports online. My first week in office, it was the first time I used a typewriter. So now we just do it on the computer.”
Longtime Trustee Todd Brewster admits he was a little concerned about how Shay would do when Shay took over Jan. 1 for two-term fiscal officer Bonnie Blazsek. Shay graduated from high school with one of Brewster’s sons.
“He has certain things he has to learn, but as far as his ability to do the job, I’m 100 percent confident he knows what he’s doing,” Brewster said.
Brewster asked Shay to take office in January instead of the normal April 1 because Blazsek resigned early.
“He said, ‘Absolutely,’” Brewster said of taking over early. “By the end of January, my confidence level was extremely high. If he doesn’t know the answer, he’ll find it in short order. He’s doing a phenomenal job.”
Brewster said he knew Shay was intelligent because of his full-ride scholarship to John Carroll, but Shay’s youth provides the township of 2,777 residents with something else — technological know-how.
“He’s not afraid to jump right in,” Brewster said of the computerization of township record keeping, the direct-deposit of paychecks, “things like that that make our job as trustees easier. So far, all his trustees are quite pleased with him.”
Shay said he looks forward to creating a township website so residents can find phone numbers to call for help with a problem — “something every township is moving to these days,” Shay said.
He also wrote the township’s 2012 budget during his first couple of months, advised the trustees on the purchase of a new mower and police car and has ensured that trustees have timely information on the status of township finances.
“It’s a difficult job. It’s not all fun and games all day,” Shay said, adding that he pays about 75 bills per month.
Brewster said Shay also has taken time to meet political leaders.
Shay, who won his election by 29 votes (455 to 426), says he contacted Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka, who is also Trumbull County Democratic Party chairman, to seek advice last fall on his campaign.
When it was time to be sworn in, Shay asked Polivka to do the honors, since Polivka was also just 19 when he was elected to Warren City Council.
Shay said Polivka gave him advice — campaign door to door and bring a female along — that clearly helped his campaign.
The door-to-door treatment clearly impressed voters, Shay said, because most of them said no politician had ever come to their door before.
“A lot of people were just shocked at how young I was,” Shay said. “I told them I was an accounting student, and they said, ‘Well, this must be what you really like,’” Shay said, adding that he felt that people responded positively to him.
In most cases, Shay’s 17-year-old sister, Hannah, filled the role of female and supporter — something Polivka said improves a candidate’s image.
“Instead of seeing just one lonely person coming and knocking on your door,” Shay said was Polivka’s advice.
“Just so you’re not the lone soul standing there.”
Shay has designed his college course schedule so that he is done by noon Tuesdays and Thursdays and 10 a.m. Wednesday and Fridays. Monday is his long day at school. That lets him maintain office hours in the township four days per week plus extra time on weekends.
Shay says he likes his busy lifestyle even though it requires him to give up certain youthful pleasures.
There have been a few times his friends from John Carroll asked him to go along to the Cheesecake Factory near campus, and he had to decline.
“I say, ‘I can’t go. I have a trustees meeting tonight or the payroll has to be done. I can’t go.’ They said ‘When are you ever free?’ And I said, ‘Never.’
“I always know there will be other opportunities to hang out at some other time or something else to do later on.”