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Port Authority to weigh financial support for air-base survival
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
The Western Reserve Port Authority will discuss next month whether to financially support a local military affairs commission that will work full-time to avoid closure or reductions at the 910th Airlift Wing, Youngstown Air Reserve Station.
Atty. John Rossi of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber presented a proposal Wednesday for the authority to provide $25,000 per year for three years to hire someone to lead the commission.
That money would be combined with $20,000 per year the chamber hopes to secure from local private foundations. The goal is to get the chamber-led commission running by the end of September.
The chamber has been working the past year with military consultants, YARS personnel and local leaders to review data and strategies related to base stabilization and enhancement, Rossi said. It’s part of a statewide effort.
The work is important because of military cuts taking place nationwide and the potential for more, Rossi said. YARS already lost four of its 12 C-130 aircraft. Cuts at YARS have reduced the economic impact of the base from about $238 million in 2012 to about $186 million in 2014, he said.
The base is the fourth-largest employer in the Mahoning Valley, but it has lost a couple hundred personnel in recent years.
The committee would include military leadership, U.S. and state legislative leaders, Trumbull and Mahoning county leaders, Veterans Affairs agents, local economic-development and base-support organizations and representatives from local communities.
The process is playing out differently from the Base Realignment and Closure process used in the past, in that Congress did not support the BRAC process President Barack Obama sought, Rossi said.
Instead, the Department of Defense is “unilaterally” making cuts without the input of the Mahoning Valley’s delegation of U.S. senators and representatives, he said. The next BRAC is scheduled for 2017, “but who knows if it will happen,” Rossi said.
Authority member John Boccieri, a former one-term congressman and eight-year state senator and state representative who is also squadron commander at YARS, spoke on the issue.
Boccieri’s position puts him in charge of flying operations, military readiness and training of the 910th Airlift Wing, but not budgets or contracts, he said. He said one of the most important reasons to have a military-affairs commission is to lobby federal officials to support upgrade of the avionics in the eight C-130s at YARS because they are older aircraft and won’t be allowed to fly in certain areas of the world after 2017 if not upgraded.
Congress authorized the upgrades but has not approved money, “so the Air Force is scrambling to figure how to upgrade with the existing money,” Boccieri said.
After the meeting, Boccieri was asked whether talking about funding for the reserve base where he serves is a conflict of interest, and he said he does not believe it is, but he has written to the Ohio Ethics Commission to seek clarification.
“I’m requesting an advisory opinion as to whether I can serve in both capacities and vote on matters relating to the administration of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport,” says Boccieri’s letter, dated Jan. 15. Mahoning County commissioners appointed Boccieri on Dec. 22.
The military base and airport operate jointly, with the Air Force using the same runways. The port authority, which runs the airport and conducts economic-development activities, is reliant on the air base for survival. That’s because most of the airport’s funding comes from hotel-motel taxes that the Legislature approved only because the airport operates jointly with a military base.
Atty. Dan Keating, longtime legal adviser to the port authority, said he believes Boccieri can serve on the authority, but “there may be instances where he has to recuse himself from decisions.”
John Moliterno, the authority’s interim director, said it would be “ridiculous” for anyone on the port authority not to support the air base.