Tuesday, February 21, 2012
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Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains, right, and Youngstown City Prosecutor Jay Macejko, left, answered questions from a panel during Monday’s candidate forum at New Bethel Baptist Church.
By Elise Franco
Youngstown
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said his opponent Jay Macejko has changed since leaving the county prosecutor’s office.
“When he worked for me, he was supervised,” Gains said of Macejko. “Since he left my employment, he’s not the same person I knew.”
Macejko, Youngstown city prosecutor, agreed with Gains’ assessment during a candidate forum Monday at New Bethel Baptist Church.
“I’m not the same person,” Macejko said. “I’m better.”
Macejko, appointed to the city prosecutor’s position by former Mayor Jay Williams, first worked under Gains in the county prosecutor’s office.
Both men focused on his own qualifications and track record in each respective prosecutor position,
“We’re moving cases faster through the court system since I took office,” Gains said. “I’ve spent the last 16 years fighting the enemy, and nobody can question my integrity.”
Macejko said that the city also is prosecuting high volumes of violent crimes but has focused on “quality of life” crimes as well.
And while the pair didn’t agree on much, both said Ohio would benefit from a witness-protection program.
Macejko and Gains both said their respective offices do help witnesses make special accommodations, such as paying for a safe hotel room or increased patrols around their residences, if they feel threatened.
Gains said a witness’s name is never disclosed until it’s absolutely necessary for a case.
Macejko said that at the city level, the prosecutor is able to decide whether a witness’s name is privileged or can be shared with the defense.
“In these dangerous cases, we definitely need to be using that [ability to withhold],” he said.
Candidates for the Mahoning County commissioners, engineer’s office, sheriff and treasurer also participated in the forum, hosted by the Community Mobilization Committee.
The evening’s two biggest issues for sheriff’s candidates had to do with the understaffed jail in downtown Youngstown and current Sheriff Randall Wellington’s decision to cease video arraignments for inmates.
Candidates Jerry Greene, director of support services with the county sheriff’s department; Jimmy Hughes, former Youngstown police chief; and Brian Goodin, Poland Township police chief, said they support finding a way to fully staff the jail.
“My goal is to fix the lack of capacity at the jail,” Greene said. “We need to get our budget and funding under control.”
Greene said re-establishing a relationship with the county commissioners will be an important step in doing so.
Hughes touted his experience working with large budgets while serving as chief in Youngstown.
“I understand the concept of a jail and the concept of what money is needed to run a fully open jail,” he said.
Goodin said he would have handled the video-arraignment situation differently.
“My goal would have been to work with agencies and discuss the problems before the arraignments were stopped,” he said. “For me, safety of officers, citizens and civil servants in the courtroom takes top priority.”
Greene said that though he openly supported Wellington in his decision, he wouldn’t have done the same thing if the decision were his to make.
“That decision was tough to make, and I said I supported him,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have made the same decision.”
Five of the eight commissioner candidates attended the forum: Anthony Traficanti, current county commissioner; David Ditzler, Austintown trustee; Walter Pishkur, director of project development for United Water and former CEO of Forum Health; Joe Teague; and Richard Ouzounian, owner of Mill Creek Media.
They discussed several issues, including jail funding and budgeting, as well as privatization of government services.
Pishkur and Ouzounian said if the need was there, they would support exploring the option of privatizing services in the county.
“I don’t know if we’re doing our jobs if we don’t at least look at if we’re giving you the best money value we can for our services,” Ouzounian said.
Ditzler, Traficanti and Teague vehemently opposed the idea.
“Privatization ... generates additional money into the private companies and corporations and takes away the jobs from the people who are doing all the work,” Ditzler said.