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County commissioners, port authority: panel will continue
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
Close to four hours of meetings put the commissioners from Mahoning and Trumbull counties and members of the Western Reserve Port Authority in a good mood Tuesday afternoon.
The six commissioners and four port-authority members emerged from the closed-door meetings at the Mahoning County commissioners’ office confident that the port authority can be put back together with the appointment of three more authority members and the hiring of a director.
“It was very positive. We’re not disbanding the board. We’re not pulling the funding,” Mahoning Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said.
“We’ll be filling the appointments,” said Trumbull Commissioner Dan Polivka said. Two Trumbull County appointments to the port authority and one from Mahoning County are vacant.
Mahoning Commissioner David Ditzler had threatened in May to pull about $500,000 of Mahoning County bed-tax money from the port authority’s annual budget and disband the port authority board.
It stemmed from the infighting he witnessed at a port authority meeting May 2 in which authority members Don Hanni and James Floyd clashed over the way Floyd, who was then chairman, handled a project involving the Mahoning County dog shelter.
Later, Ditzler and other commissioners cried foul when the port authority’s current chairman, Ron Klingle, revealed that he was recommending that the authority hire John Moliterno as director without consulting the county commissioners or even some of the port authority members.
Bed taxes controlled by the commissioners from each county provide most of the funding for the port authority, which runs the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, and the commissioners from each county each appoint half of the port authority’s eight members.
After Tuesday’s meetings, Klingle and Ditzler stayed behind and continued their conversation, with Ditzler saying he doesn’t want to “micromanage” the port authority’s affairs, but there needs to be “communication and transparency” between the commissioners and port authority.
“Now that we’re all working in synch, I don’t feel that we need to dissolve the board,” Ditzler said.
The commissioners from both counties met first for close to two hours, followed by about 90 minutes with four port authority members present. Hanni did not attend. Floyd is no longer a member.
Klingle, CEO of Howland-based Avalon Holdings, promised that communication between him and the county commissioners would improve “immediately” and said the accusations that followed the Moliterno announcement were prompted in part by his discussions with Moliterno and other candidates occurring quickly.
Ditzler said hiring an interim director right away and conducting a broader search in a couple of months should reduce the workload on Klingle and other port authority members, who are unpaid.
“I’m sure he has 100 things more important to do” than meet for four hours regarding the port authority, Ditzler said of Klingle.
Ditzler pointed out that he has admitted all along that the county commissioners also are to blame for the poor relationship with the port authority, for failing to more closely keep abreast of authority matters.
Ditzler also noted that one of the communication methods relied on in the past — emails — wasn’t working for him, because he hasn’t received port-authority emails for more than a year.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said the commissioners and port authority met in private under the exemption for discussing personnel matters.