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Michael V. Sciortino is officially the ex-Mahoning County auditor
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Sciortino
YOUNGSTOWN
About four months after losing a re-election bid while under indictment on criminal charges related to his public-sector job, Michael V. Sciortino is no longer Mahoning County auditor.
Sciortino’s term ended Sunday with the Democrat spending the final 13 days of his term on paid suspension. Sciortino received about $3,182 while suspended.
The job pays $89,109 annually.
A panel of three retired judges determined Feb. 23 that certain criminal acts purportedly committed by Sciortino — including accepting free legal services paid by businessman Anthony Cafaro Sr. and not including the value of that on ethics-disclosure reports — were reasons to suspend him.
The panel ruled those alleged illegal acts had an “adverse effect” on his ability to remain auditor.
The paid suspension is largely based on a May 14, 2014, indictment accusing him, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally in his previous capacity as county commissioner, and attorney Martin Yavorcik of being part of a conspiracy.
The three — Sciortino and McNally are Democrats, and Yavorcik is an independent — are accused of 83 counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, perjury, tampering with records and money laundering. They’ve pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The indictment alleges the three illegally tried to impede or stop the move of the county Department of Job and Family Services from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza to Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
After the resignation of George Tablack as county auditor, Sciortino was appointed in September 2005 to the post by the county Democratic Party, and elected to a full four-year term by voters in November 2006.
At the time, the party’s chairwoman was Lisa Antonini, one of Sciortino’s closest friends who’s since been found guilty of a federal count of honest services mail fraud for failing to report a $3,000 cash gift from Cafaro on her ethic-disclosure reports.
Antonini is cooperating with prosecutors in the case against Sciortino, McNally and Yavorcik.
Sciortino was re-elected in 2010 but lost the 2014 general election by 3.8 percentage points to Ralph T. Meacham, the first Republican to win a nonjudicial countywide election in Mahoning in 30 years.
In his final weeks in office, Sciortino approved a contract with the union representing 22 members of the auditor’s office that included $1,200 cost-of-living payments in January this year and in January 2016, and a 2.5 percent pay raise effective January 2017.
He gave pay increases ranging from 1.13 percent to 12.53 percent to 13 employees, including three to union members in violation of their contract.
Sciortino also gave bonuses to 14 employees, including 13 who received raises, on Feb. 12, though that wasn’t made public until six days ago.