Mahoning County government will soon be in public spotlight

After months of being on the defensive because tax dollars were squandered on bonuses and raises — yes, fattening the wallets of public employees in the midst of economic uncertainty meets the definition of the word squandered — Mahoning County government officials finally got to wallow in high praise last week.

The verbal pat on the back came from Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, who visited Youngstown Tuesday and joined commissioners Anthony Traficanti, Carol Rimedio-Righetti and David Ditzler, Auditor Ralph Meacham and others in announcing that Mahoning County will be the first county in Ohio to put its checkbook online.

What that means is we, the people, who finance government with our taxes will be able to get on our computers or other electronic devices and monitor how much money is flowing into the county’s coffers and how much is flowing out.

But the beauty of the online ledger, as illustrated by OhioCheckbook.com, Treasurer Mandel’s nationally publicized commitment to transparency and accountability, is that every dollar in revenue and every dollar in expenditure will be listed.

Because most of government’s operating budget goes for wages and benefits, the payrolls of all county departments, agencies and offices will be available with the click of the mouse.

Thus, local residents will have the ability to review the list of employees and figure out if they got their jobs the old-fashioned way (via family ties or politics), or possess legitimate qualifications for serving the public. Taxpayers will find out just how financially “rewarding” government service can be.

That said, we take exception to county Budget Director Audrey Tillis’ answer when she was asked if the website will contain current payroll information concerning specific employees and any raises and bonuses they receive.

“Eventually, we would like to probably have some of that out there, but we want to take it step by step,” she said.

Unacceptable

Tillis’ hedging is unacceptable and disconcerting.

As Mandel pointed out, all state employees’ and public school and state university employees’ salaries are on the state website.

“That actually preceded OhioCheckbook.com,” he said.

Mahoning County taxpayers will not take kindly to being given the runaround.

The county commissioners, who were hailed by the state treasurer as leaders, rather than followers, should make it clear to Tillis and everyone else in government that the first order of business will be to put every payroll online.

In praising county officials, Mandel pointed out they were the first to answer his call to all political subdivisions and school districts in Ohio to make transparency and accountability the rule, rather than the exception.

“What you’re going to see is dominoes fall all across the state because of leadership from counties like Mahoning County,” he said.

There also was praise from state Auditor Dave Yost, who wasn’t at the press conference but has first-hand knowledge about OhioCheckbook.com., how it works and what was involved in setting it up.

“Mahoning County should be proud to be at the front of the line,” Yost said.

But while Mandel and Yost were singing the praises of county commissioners Traficanti, Rimedio-Righetti and Ditzler, and others, we believe Meacham is deserving of special recognition.

That’s because the Republican political newcomer ran on a platform of government transparency and accountability and promised to be the antithesis of the corrupt, self-serving former auditor, Michael Sciortino, a Democrat.

Despite facing 16 state criminal charges relating to his role in the Oakhill Renaissance Place scandal, Sciortino sought re-election last year — and garnered a shockingly huge number of votes.

Strength of character

Fortunately, Meacham won, largely on the strength of his character and his private sector resume — he is a certified public accountant. And shortly after the election he had conversations with Mandel and Yost about putting the county’s financial transactions out there.

His suspicions about the way Sciortino ran the auditor’s office were confirmed when he found out that his predecessor had granted raises and bonuses to some management and union employees, and that an attempt was made to keep crucial information away from him and The Vindicator, which broke the story about the raises.

But it wasn’t just Sciortino who was tossing money around. This paper has detailed others.

Although Traficanti, Rimedio-Righetti and Ditzler continue to insist that they have no say in how officeholders spend the money in their budgets, they are being blamed because they control the General Fund.

The online checkbook will be their salvation.