Mahoning commissioners approve merger of 2 agencies

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County commissioners approved the plan to consolidate the county’s Mental Health Board and Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board into a new Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board.

In September, those boards voted unanimously to consolidate.

“Many of their functions overlap, and their mission is the same, and that is treatment,” said Commissioner Anthony Traficanti, who has a master’s degree in counseling.

The merger makes sense because many of the clients of mental health and addiction recovery agencies have dual diagnoses of mental illness and substance abuse, Traficanti said.

The resolution the commissioners adopted Thursday “is for the beginning stages of the consolidation process,” said Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.

“I believe it will be an easy transition, and we’re looking forward to having this process begin,” she said, noting that the consolidation of mental health and addiction-recovery functions is a statewide trend.

The commissioners also authorized establishment of a criminal and administrative justice fund. Beginning Jan. 1, that fund will contain the revenue dedicated to the sheriff’s, prosecutor’s and coroner’s offices and 911 emergency dispatching center that will be derived from the 0.50 sales tax renewal and the additional 0.25 percent sales tax that voters approved Nov. 4.

Read more about the merger and the fund in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.