Top rock-salt suppliers did more than conspire

With A huge number of OHIO communities lining up to claim a share of the state’s $11.5 million settlement with rock-salt suppliers Morton and Cargill, there’s a reality that should not be ignored: People’s lives were jeopardized by corporate greed.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who is overseeing distribution of the settlement money to more than 700 counties, cities, townships, villages and other public entities, must make it clear that the state won’t be willing to settle future lawsuits stemming from such collusion, and that the parties to the crime will be hauled into court.

This issue goes beyond the price of rock salt, which is used to de-ice roads, highways and bridges.

When the cost gets so steep that local governments are forced to scrimp, untreated roads become a safety hazard.

And when people’s lives are endangered, governments have a responsibility to step in and seek to punish the offending parties.

The $11.5 million settlement agreed to by the state of Ohio stems from a lawsuit that accused Morton Salt Inc. and Cargill Inc. of colluding to drive up prices not once, but three years in a row – July 2008 to July 2010. The state alleged that the two companies agreed not to compete with each other to inflate prices, leading state and local governments to pay above-market prices for rock salt.

Minnesota-based Cargill will pay $7.7 million, while Chicago-based Morton agreed to pay nearly $3.8 million. But here’s the kicker: Both companies denied wrongdoing.

Therein lies the problem. Morton and Cargill were wrong in what they did, and they could well continue to manipulate the market unless they are convinced that the next time will find them in the dock. The settlement amount paid to Ohio is a mere pinch of salt for the corporate giants.

As for the distribution of the $11.5 million, DeWine is to be commended for extending the deadline to Aug. 21 for local governments and other public entities to submit claims.

Minimum payments

The attorney general’s office will determine how much each eligible claimant gets. The office also plans to establish minimum payments to ensure that even the smallest payouts are substantive and worth the effort of processing the claim.

“What we don’t want to have happen here is where somebody’s proportional payment is only gong to be a few dollars,” Dan Tierney, spokesman for the AG’s office, told the Associated Press. He said the office’s goal is to validate claims and send settlement checks by fall, before the first snowflakes hit the roads.

In the Mahoning Valley, the claimants include the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office; Boardman, Kinsman, Salem, Bazetta, Hubbard and Champion townships; the cities of Struthers and Columbiana; and the villages of New Waterford and Lordstown.

In making their claims, all the jurisdictions reported the amount of money they spent to purchase salt from Morton and/or Cargill in the three years, but they did not ask for a specific amount of settlement money.

“The amount that each entity will receive will be proportional to the total amount of rock salt the entity purchased, but we also likely will set a floor amount that each eligible entity is guaranteed to receive,” Kate Hanson, a public information officer with the attorney general’s office, told The Vindicator.

But Mahoning County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti cautioned against high settlement expectations.

The county bought $724,669 worth of salt from Morton for the 2008 season and $487,832 for the 2009 season. It bought $604,322 worth of salt from Cargill for the 2010 season.

From Cargill, Lordstown reported it bought $146,146 worth of salt in 2008, $106,982 in 2009 and $124,982 in 2010.

From Morton, Boardman bought $73,155 worth of salt in 2008 and $221,835 in 2009.

The township bought $209,191 worth of salt from Cargill in 2010.

It should be clear by now that those of us living in the Snow Belt depend on the roads and bridges to be passable during the winter, which means local governments must have a dependable, reasonably priced supply of rock salt.

It is unfathomable that two companies with a global reach would be so venal as to collude on prices of a product that is an absolute necessity in communities in the Mahoning Valley and Northeast Ohio.

We, therefore, urge Attorney General DeWine to take into consideration all the factors that define this region during the winter and use them as the basis for the distribution of the $11.5 million settlement.