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Misocky hired to new position with Trumbull commissioners
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
James Misocky, former chief of the civil division of the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office, has been hired to a new position called special projects administrator for the Trumbull County commissioners.
Misocky, who retired several years ago, will make $49,525 annually in a role that will focus on several large-scale projects commissioners are attempting to carry out in the coming months.
Misocky, as an experienced attorney who formerly provided legal advice to commissioners, will be valuable in negotiating with gas and oil companies to secure a lease for the 2,000 acres the county owns, said Commissioner Paul Heltzel.
Misocky also is expected to play a role in helping Trumbull Transit Service take on the transportation services of the Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services and Office of Elderly Affairs.
Commissioners approved a resolution this week that brings the $1 million in Job and Family Services transportation and $600,000 Office of Elderly Affairs transportation under the administration of Trumbull Transit.
Trumbull Transit is the transportation service the county formed last year to take over the services formerly provided by Niles-Trumbull Transit, which was run by the city of Niles.
Heltzel said Misocky also will help secure new office space for two county offices that work out of the county-owned Wean Building on North Park Avenue downtown.
The county is accepting bids for office space in Warren that will accommodate the Planning Commission and Building-Inspection Department. The Wean Building is inefficient to heat and cool and would be too expensive to renovate, so the county plans to demolish it.
Misocky might also work on a possible consolidation project involving the county’s Eastern District and Central District courts, Heltzel said.
Mark Hess, Niles engineering and grants coordinator, who has been helping Trumbull Transit during its start-up phase, said the merger of transportation services of JFS, Office of Elderly Affairs and the former Niles Trumbull Transit (about $400,000 annually) will improve efficiencies and keep federal funding.
Having the three transportation services together should eliminate duplication, Hess said.
Further, the county commissioners have said they will not provide the $635,000 in seniors levy money to Trumbull Transit in 2013 that commissioners gave Trumbull Transit in 2012.
The $635,000 was used as matching money for $688,000 in Federal Transit Administration funding the county received in 2012, Hess said.
Once JFS and Office of Elderly Affairs funds are under the administration of the Trumbull Transit Service, they can be used as matching funds for the federal money, Hess said.
The goal of the merger is to continue the door-to-door services of the Office of Elderly Affairs, on-demand services of Trumbull Transit and the various transportation services of JFS without asking voters for more tax money, Hess said.
Terrence Thomas, president of Community Bus Services, the company that provides the rides for Trumbull Transit, said joining the three entities into one might help Trumbull County residents better understand what Trumbull Transit does.