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Audit finds problem with Trumbull Transit reimbursements, orders $518 repayment
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
John Moliterno, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, repaid $518 to the Trumbull County Transit Board for alcohol and other expenses he turned in to the transit board that were improper, a state audit says.
Moliterno was mobility manager for the transportation agency for nine months in 2014, he said Wednesday. He was named interim executive director of the port authority in September 2014 and became port authority executive director in May after the port authority conducted a national search.
Brittany Halpin, press secretary for Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, said one problem was that Moliterno turned in expenses of $158 for alcohol, and the board approved the expenses. Alcohol is never permissible as a reimbursable government expense, Halpin said.
Moliterno also turned in $360 in other expenses that lacked proper documentation from the restaurant, such as a receipt, to verify what type of purchase was made, Halpin said. The board also approved and reimbursed those expenses.
Dan Keating, legal adviser to the transit board, said the board plans to approve changes to its procedures at its meeting this month relating to the findings of the audit, and Moliterno repaid the $518.
Attempts to reach the transit board chairman, Bob Faulkner, were unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon.
Moliterno said he became aware of the problem after he left the transit board and promptly repaid the $518 but said he doesn’t know specifically what was improper about what he did.
Moliterno said he submitted receipts “a lot of times,” adding all of the expenses were for legitimate meetings he had with people in the transportation business on behalf of the transit service.
Moliterno admits he was unfamiliar with how to properly submit expenses for a government agency, having had little experience in such matters.
“I’m a private-sector guy most of my life,” said Moliterno, who was once president of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber and owner of Pegasis Printing. He is also a Girard councilman.
The transit board was created in 2012, after Niles officials informed the Trumbull County commissioners that the city would no longer be able to run the countywide Niles Trumbull Transit service it had operated for many years.