OAKHILL CHRONOLOGY | A look back

A brief history of Oakhill Renaissance Place:

September 1998: Forum Health sells its former Southside Medical Center for $1 to the nonprofit Southside Community Development Corp.

August 1999: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development releases a $1 million grant to convert the former hospital into a multi- tenant facility, which is renamed Oakhill Renaissance Place.

May 2006: SCDC files for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy, threatening Oakhill tenants, including the Youngstown Health Department and Mahoning County coroner’s office, with possible eviction on short notice.

July 2006: The county buys Oakhill in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and keeps the city health department and coroner’s office there, but assumes responsibility for more than $900,000 worth of mortgages and liens, including a $430,000 Ohio Department of Development loan to SCDC and a real-estate tax bill of about $400,000.

July 2007: The county moves its department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza on the city’s East Side to Oakhill, and the Cafaro Co. loses in the bench trial of its lawsuit to rescind the county’s purchase of Oakhill. The trial judge orders County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino to immediately issue the $75,000 check for the former hospital. Sciortino does so.

November 2008: At the request of Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, the county common pleas judges appoint Dennis P. Will and Paul M. Nick as special prosecutors to probe potential criminal conflict of interest related to the purchase of Oakhill.

December 2008: The county moves its Veterans’ Service Commission from its Southside Annex to Oakhill.

February to July 2010:A Mahoning County grand jury hears testimony and examines documents on Oakhill in at least 12 sessions with the special prosecutors, concluding its work this week. The grand jury, which was scheduled for a four-month session ending April 30, was extended twice at the request of the special prosecutors, but the county’s common pleas judges said the extension ending this week would be the final extension.

July 29, 2010: The grand jury returns a 73-county indictment charging seven people and three organizations with multiple felony and misdemeanor charges related to the relocation of the county’s Job and Family Services offices from Garland Plaza to Oak- hill Renaissance Place.

July 11, 2011: Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-conspiracy case under investigation since 2007 and under indictment for nearly a year, ended abruptly in a 10-minute court hearing and a one-paragraph entry of dismissal. Visiting Judge William H. Wolff Jr. of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court dismissed the 73-count indictment without prejudice, meaning the charges could be re-filed later. Special prosecutors from the Ohio Ethics Commission and Lorain County said their inability to obtain tape recordings held by the FBI and provide them to the defense made it impossible to proceed.

May 14, 2014: Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty announced an 83-count indictment against Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino and Youngstown attorney Marty Yavorcik.

Source: Vindicator files