What was Sciortino ‘buying’?

That question immediately came to mind when The Vindicator revealed that outgoing Mahoning County Auditor Michael Sciortino gave some office employees pay raises and bonuses.

The answer — from the conspiratorial mind of someone who has written extensively about Sciortino’s penchant for corruption — is ... SILENCE.

The ex-auditor, who was unceremoniously drummed out of office and now awaits his date with judicial destiny, certainly would not want his former employees telling what they know about his extracurricular activities.

Sciortino is facing 16 felony counts and six misdemeanor counts for what Ohio Attorney General Mike De- Wine and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty say was his participation in a criminal enterprise to undermine county government’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Southside Medical Center.

Pattern of corrupt activity

The felony charges against Sciortino are one count each of money laundering and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, two counts each of conspiracy and bribery, four counts of tampering with records and six counts of perjury.

With that black cloud hanging over his head, it stands to reason he would try to buy the silence of those who could bolster the state’s criminal case against him.

Any other explanation for his granting the pay raises and bonuses is inadequate because it does not give Sciortino his proper due: He epitomizes the corrupt Democratic politician. He slopped at the public trough with no shame — and had even less shame about taking taxpayer-funded jobs for which he had no discernible qualifications.

His tenure at the Mahoning County Board of Elections was forgettable, while his nine-plus years as county auditor is now defined by the criminal charges against him.

It is important to remember that his involvement in the criminal conspiracy to block the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place occurred while he was on the job. He spent an inordinate amount of time doing the bidding of prominent Mahoning Valley businessman Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., the purported mastermind of the conspiracy.

Cafaro has not been charged, but is implicated in court documents that relate to the case against Sciortino, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally (stemming from his tenure as a county commissioner), and Youngstown Atty. Martin Yavorcik.

Cafaro, president of the Cafaro Co. until he retired, got Sciortino, McNally and other county officials to join him in the battle against Commissioner Anthony Traficanti and then-Commissioner David Ludt.

But despite all the influence-peddling and financial transactions, Cafaro and his minions could not block the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance.

The coup de gras was the relocation by Traficanti and Ludt of the county’s Job and Family Services agency from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza on Youngstown’s East Side to Oakhill Renaissance.

And now, the participants in the grand conspiracy must answer for their actions.

Let there be no misunderstanding: when Sciortino was rushing to fulfill Cafaro’s every wish — demand? — he was, in fact, stealing time from the taxpayers of Mahoning County.

Thus this question: To what extent were the employees in the auditor’s office privy to what was going on, and how many of them actually witnessed meetings between their boss and members of the Cafaro cabal?

In the words from that immortal song, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” — as in windfall of pay raises and bonuses.

Epidemic?

There could well be an epidemic of amnesia in the auditor’s office.

If so, we can only hope it isn’t so debilitating that the employees forget how to push their pencils.

On the other hand, the dedicated, trustworthy, upstanding members of the auditor’s staff may well decide not to remain silent for a man who has brought shame to the office.

They can prove their commitment to honest government by telling state prosecutors all they know about Democrat Sciortino’s activities relating to Oakhill Renaissance.

And, they could go public with any information they have about his spitting the hook on a drunken driving charge and meetings he may have had with any other county officeholders prior to his departure.