Mahoning, Trumbull United Ways won’t merge

Staff report

HOWLAND

Financial contributors to the United Way of Trumbull County defeated a resolution to dissolve the agency which, if approved, would have eliminated the last major barrier to a merger with the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

The vote meeting, attended by 86 people who contributed to Trumbull United Way from August 2011 through July 2012, took place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Leo’s Ristorante in Howland.

The boards of trustees of the Trumbull and Mahoning United Ways previously approved a merger in voting that concluded July 2, said Laurie Reuben, spokeswoman for the Cheshire Consulting Group of Maryland, hired by the two United Way agencies to facilitate exploration of a merger.

However, the Trumbull United Way’s bylaws also require that its contributors vote on whether to dissolve the agency, said Thomas J. Krysiek, president and chief executive officer of United Way of Trumbull County.

In a published letter, John Taylor, a Trumbull United Way board member, questioned the wisdom of a merger.

He noted other communities in Ohio, which he said have rejected such a move, and said he did not think a merger is “the best or most appropriate means of dealing with human needs or the needs of our local neighborhoods.”

In response to Taylor’s letter, another published letter with the names of the Vision for the Valley members at the bottom, opined that the two communities would be best served by the creation of a new United Way organization rather than either existing United Way taking over the other.

Further, the Vision for the Valley letter said the team believes that merging would create a more relevant United Way that would ... be a more effective catalyst for positive change in the community ... and serve as a model for the power of cooperation.

The merger proposal includes 12 primary recommendations and 16 secondary recommendations and was structured so that additional steps would be required if the merger were approved.

One of the recommendations is that the existing agencies be dissolved and one new United Way formed, thus ensuring that neither organization takes over the other, Reuben said.

If the merger were approved, a process was put in place to create a board of directors for the new two-county United Way that would chose a new agency name and hire its staff, Reuben said.

The last formal talks of a merger between the two neighboring United Way agencies in 1999 ended with the Mahoning agency’s board voting to form an alliance and the Trumbull United Way directors nixing a partnership.

The impetus for previous consolidation efforts, in 1987 and 1994, when both agencies fell short of their fundraising goals, and in 1999, were the possibility of saving money by sharing services and having more success raising money working together, according to reports.