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Sciortino done as county auditor
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Sciortino
COLUMBUS
Eight months after it was created, a panel of three retired judges agreed to suspend Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino — less than two weeks before his term expires.
If Sciortino is to be replaced, county commissioners said they’d select Ralph Meacham, the Republican who beat him in the general election in November.
The last day on the job for Sciortino, a Democrat, was to be March 8, with Meacham taking over a day later. Meacham is to have a ceremonial swearing-in March 4. Meacham could take over then or later this week. The auditor- elect couldn’t be reached Monday by The Vindicator to comment.
The decision to remove Sciortino on Monday, effective immediately, was related to his indictment in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal corruption case.
Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, a Democrat, in his previous capacity as a Mahoning County commissioner; attorney Martin Yavorcik, a failed 2008 independent county prosecutor candidate, and Sciortino were indicted May 14, 2014, on a total of 83 counts accusing them of being involved in a conspiracy.
The conspiracy case accuses the three — and numerous others who haven’t been charged — of illegally trying to impede or stop the move of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
Under state law, Sciortino has 30 days from Monday to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Public officials charged with felonies directly related to their positions are subject to suspensions with pay, according to state law. Sciortino gets $89,109 in annual salary. His term expires March 8.
He will be paid about $3,182 while suspended.
On Feb. 17, the judicial commission, created by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor on June 13, 2014, finished a hearing it started in late June of last year.
In a three-page ruling Monday, the commission determined that certain criminal acts allegedly committed by Sciortino were grounds to suspend him with pay. But it also ruled other acts he allegedly committed didn’t impact his ability to serve the rest of his term as auditor.
The panel wrote that allegations he accepted free legal services from Businessman 1 — revealed in other court documents to be Anthony Cafaro Sr., the former president of his family-owned Cafaro Co. — and that company had an “adverse effect” on Sciortino’s ability to remain as auditor.
The panel also determined allegations that Sciortino provided money to Yavorcik to have the latter allegedly block an investigation into Oakhill, and his alleged violation of ethics-disclosure requirements for not including the value of legal services supposedly paid by Cafaro and his company were reasons to suspend him.
The commission ruled that false statements Sciortino allegedly made during depositions while under oath, and accusations of meeting with attorneys representing Cafaro and his company, and a campaign donation from Cafaro weren’t “grounds for his suspension.”
Attempts Monday to reach Sciortino and his attorney, John B. Juhasz, were unsuccessful.
County commissioners can appoint a person to fill the vacancy, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting this case with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
Under normal circumstances, the temporary appointee would be in place while the county Democratic Party chose a permanent replacement. State law requires the county party to appoint no earlier than five days after the vacancy and no later than 45 days.
However, these aren’t normal circumstances.
March 8 is the last day of the term of Sciortino, a lame-duck auditor since his Nov. 4 defeat.
County Democratic Chairman David Betras said the party will not meet to select a replacement.
County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said his office is looking at the law to determine if state law requires county commissioners to replace Sciortino, and mentioned Meacham is getting sworn in March 4.
Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said if anyone is appointed to replace Sciortino it would be Meacham.
The panel of retired judges had a preliminary vote to suspend Sciortino, and met July 18, 2014, to supposedly hear his appeal.
Instead, the retired judges said they didn’t agree with the state law that didn’t permit Sciortino to have an attorney advocate for him, present evidence, examine and cross-examine witnesses. The judges asked the attorney general’s office to ask the state’s top court to clarify the hearing procedure, which it did.
The Supreme Court on Nov. 10 ordered the judges to follow the state law. More than three months later, the panel met.
Also Monday, Daniel Kasaris, senior assistant attorney general and lead prosecutor on the Oakhill case, filed a court motion stating prosecutors have provided the names of confidential informants who recorded conversations with Sciortino and Yavorcik to the attorneys for those two and McNally.
The filing was made to respond to a court filing — rejected by the case’s judge last week as it failed to follow local court rules — by Mark Lavelle, Yavorcik’s attorney, that prosecutors have “never revealed the name/identity of its informants to the defendants.”
In Monday’s filing, Kasaris wrote that prosecutors specifically provided the names of the confidential informants twice to Lavelle in early October 2014, and also to Jennifer Scott, Yavorcik’s previous lawyer on this case, on July 10, 2014.
“The state of Ohio has never withheld the names of the confidential informants from any defense attorney in this matter,” Kasaris wrote.