Port authority board extends DeLeon's contract

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Western Reserve Port Authority board voted unanimously Wednesday to extend Executive Director Rose Ann DeLeon’s employment contract.

The extension will find DeLeon at the helm of the port authority, which owns and operates the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and conducts economic- development activities throughout the region, until Dec. 31, 2014.

Board President Scott Lynn said the move does not change DeLeon’s base pay, which stands at $95,000 per year, with two additional incentives built in.

As part of her contract, DeLeon receives 1 percent of any leasing deal she lands for the port authority and 2.5 percent of any grant money she manages to attract.

Her salary is capped, however, at $150,000 annually.

“I’m extremely pleased that Rose Ann will continue to lead our economic- development efforts for the next 19 months,” Lynn said in a statement shortly after the extension was approved. “During her tenureas executive director, she has succeeded in positioning the port authority as a go-to economic-development agency in our region.”

Lynn said that DeLeon’s work in attracting grants, such as one for $600,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month to aid in the cleanup of brownfield sites that include the former Delphi complex and others along the Mahoning River Corridor, to name a few, was a primary reason for keeping her at the port authority.

He added that she has excelled in economic- development discussions with both private- and public-sector entities.

“The WRPA has an essential role to play in the drive to attract and retain businesses and jobs to our region,” DeLeon said in a statement. “That includes exploring every opportunity to maximize the positive impact our location atop the Marcellus Shale fields will have on our community in the years ahead.”