Area lawmakers cut ties with regional chamber after money asked for help

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning Valley’s state legislators abruptly split from the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber after they had been teamed up to prioritize local projects for a piece of Ohio’s multimillion-dollar 2016 capital spending.

At issue is the chamber’s solicitation of $5,000 from Valley arts entities to lobby on their behalf. Three Valley agencies already committed funds, and a few others were considering it.

Legislators said the dual role created a perception of bias.

Chamber officials said they respect the legislators’ decision, but they never intended to rank the arts projects because that would be a conflict of interest.

The legislators wrote a letter today to Thomas M. Humphries, chamber president and chief executive officer, and Guy Coviello, its vice president of governmental affairs and economic development, that reads: “The nature of your conversations and affiliations with entities in the capital bill raise serious concerns. Therefore, we will no longer regard you as a facilitator for capital bill project submissions. We are disappointed that what was initially a strong collaborative process has been tainted by poor communication and concerns of bias. We feel these actions have undermined our cooperative efforts to strengthen our region’s arts and cultural institutions.”

The legislators also wrote letters to various community leaders informing them the working agreement with the chamber is over because it solicited “various entities to retain them on a fee-for-service basis to advocate for capital bill requests.”

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, one of the legislators who signed the letters, said, “I’m getting calls from people that the chamber is soliciting $5,000 contributions for advocacy. If they’re charging for advocacy, then we as legislators can’t work with them. There can’t be money solicited with our names on it.”

To date, Stambaugh Auditorium and the Mahoning Valley Historical Society have paid $5,000 to the chamber. Another organization is sending $5,000, and about four others are considering it, Coviello said.

“We would have prioritized community projects, but if the arts community wanted us to prioritize, we would have refunded the money,” Coviello said. “That would be a conflict of interest. But we provide services to help arts communities beyond the capital bill.”

A letter obtained by The Vindicator sent to six arts and entertainment facilities, Youngstown State University, Kent State Trumbull Campus and the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County asks for $5,000 each for an arts collaboration effort that would advocate for state, federal and other funding, establish an arts committee, and to “meet regularly to identify and rank capital improvement projects in Trumbull and Mahoning counties.”

Read more about the situation in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.