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WESTERN RESERVE Port authority Board mulls director’s wages, benefits
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
The Western Reserve Port Authority will decide within the next month what kind of wage and benefits package to offer its executive director, but it will be less than her current $155,000-per-year deal.
Scott Lynn, chairman of the port authority, which runs the Youngstown- Warren Regional Airport and carries out economic development work, said the next contract Rose Ann DeLeon is offered will pay less.
“We’re looking at reducing her pay rate and offering some incentives to get some deals closed, and the deals would help generate her salary,” Lynn said Wednesday after the board’s regular monthly meeting.
Lynn said the port authority has had input from county commissioners from Mahoning and Trumbull counties, who control much of the funding the port authority receives, “indicating they’d like to see some numbers reworked.”
DeLeon was hired in December 2009 to a three-year contract that expires this December.
Her base pay is $155,000 per year, but she also received a $5,000 bonus in 2011 based on performance.
DeLeon’s pay, which is believed to be among the highest of any government employee in the Mahoning Valley, has ignited criticism among some officials, including Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti.
“As a taxpayer and as a county commissioner, I would like to know what bang we get for our buck for our $300,000 for the port authority. I don’t know,” Traficanti said in March.
Traficanti was referring to the money U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and others persuaded Mahoning and Trumbull commissioners to spend over three years to get DeLeon’s economic development office started.
Commissioners from both counties have approved increases in their bed taxes — money paid by people who stay in local hotels and motels — to continue the work of DeLeon and her assistant, Sarah Lown.
Mahoning County’s bed tax provides the port authority with more than twice as much revenue as Trumbull County’s bed tax.
Andres Visnapuu, a Mahoning County member of the port authority, raised the wage and benefits issue at Wednesday’s meeting, asking that the board vote to notify DeLeon by Nov. 7 that her contract will not be renewed.
Visnapuu, board member Don Hanni III and member Richard Musick voted in favor, with Lynn and board members Scott Lewis, Rick Schiaraldi and James Floyd voting against it.
Lynn said after the meeting that it was inapproprate for Visnapuu to call for nonrenewal of DeLeon’s contract at a public meeting, and that discussion should take place in a committee.
Hanni, conversely, said it makes sense to nonrenew now, advertise for a replacement and let DeLeon compete with anyone else interested in the job.
“They like to make it look like a circus,” Lynn said of Hanni and Visnapuu.
“I think what would be good is putting the job out to the public. They never have,” Hanni said.