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Recommending committees have some questions
YOUNGSTOWN
Two Mahoning County Mental Health Board committees have recommended Duane Piccirilli be paid $112,000 a year to be the board’s executive director.
The board’s ways and means and programs and planning committees made the recommendation at a meeting Thursday.
If the contract is approved by the full board, Piccirilli, who has been at Help Hotline Crisis Center for 22 years, many as executive director, will replace Ronald Marian, who has been with the mental-health board for 40 years, the last 36 as executive director.
Marian, who is paid $138,169 a year, is expected to retire by the end of this month.
During a joint meeting of the ways and means and programs and planning committees, which included a 70-minute executive session to discuss personnel, the members also included in Piccirilli’s proposed contract that he pay the full 10 percent employee’s share to the Public Employee Retirement System, receive three weeks vacation, and be able to accumulate sick leave according to the county’s policy on the matter, said Daniel Yemma, mental-health board chairman.
There is no requirement in the contract that Piccirilli, who lives in Hermitage, Pa., must live in the county, despite a strong recommendation by Marian that the new executive director be a county resident.
“There is no way to do the job without living in the community,” Marian said.
Yemma said, however, he inquired about requiring residency and was told by the county prosecutor’s office that such a requirement probably would not stand up in court.
There is a caveat that may keep Piccirilli’s proposed contract from being recommended for approval, however.
Committee members approved a motion that required Piccirilli to answer several questions by the time the full board meets next Thursday. They did not discuss their questions in open session.
The mental-health board offered Piccirilli its top position at its March 20 based on a recommendation by its seven-member selection committee, pending approval by Piccirilli and the board of a compensation package.