For Mahoning, what will May bring?

I enjoy some pretty spirited exchanges with our sheriff, Jerry Greene, and I may have had our most-spirited one in March.

At that time, The Vindicator reported on the bonuses handed out by Mahoning County officials: 250 bonuses totaling $165,400.

At the next Mahoning County commissioners meeting, officials decried us — an occurrence as expected as wedding soup. A parade of officials, including Greene, went to the podium either defending themselves and their spending, or ridiculing “the local media” — which was guvspeak for us.

An odd bit of media coverage from that display was when WKBN and 21 WFMJ-TV joined in the fray. When a county official explained the bonuses as increases to offset potential hits from state pension changes this year, they both reported this bit from the state: There will be no increased costs this year.

It was a polite but pointed undressing by TV news. Had it just been us, it would have led to another county podium parade.

A day later, I had a spirited chat with the sheriff. The chats are always honest and loud, and, oddly enough, fun.

He ran down a list of things about how we were wrong, and bad, and such.

Greene takes any spending scrutiny as personal as any official because he was the face of the sales-tax passage last fall. The pledges from county officials then were to use the money to shore up operations and public safety. It would not be used for pay raises, was the pledge. That pledge is at the core of our current focus, besides just our general watchdog role.

He had some good points. But typical of any of us — he saw it only from his side of life.

I finally listened enough and fired back on a whole list of observations from our view. It may have been my most heated with him.

I closed the rant with:

“Worry about us all you want. If I were you, I would worry about April.”

I explained that February brought the county the bruising from the Mike Sciortino/Carol McFall hidden bonuses and pay raises. March brought more bonuses, some justified by a state cost that won’t happen.

I said something to the effect of: “Who in the county will make you look dumb in April?”

Well, April came.

At Thursday’s county meeting, the Children Services Board revealed $600,000 in pay hikes to its union staff. We reported it in Friday’s paper. They will ponder “me-too” raises for nonunion in two weeks.

Friday morning, while still in bed, I got my call from Greene. I’ll get to that call in a bit.

The CSB dilemma is well understood. Some county staffers are at the low end of peer pay scales. It’s true across many county departments, and CSB has among the worst pay disparities.

But the reality is: Such disparity is a truism across many Valley work sectors — public or private.

If you were to compare media pay around Ohio, the jobs here do not pay as well. Jobs at Youngstown State University do not pay as well as Ohio peer schools. Property owners take cut rates because there is an abundance of space that renters can choose. Small businesses close every week. Even our new golden goose — Vallourec Star — has new austerity measures.

You can trace this challenge all around the Valley.

In the private sector, revenue boosts come from the consumers. You can’t easily impose more revenues on them. Companies live with the reality that workers will leave for better pay. That change will affect service, and you must work to serve in some way. Service might not be at the level you wish, but it’s the level you can afford.

Government pay and service endure the same — with one exception. They can impose new revenue on the market with new taxes sold via impassioned pleas, brow-beating and staff marching orders to the masses.

CSB sold a fall levy that earned them $2.8 million more a year. That’s separate from the added money the county is earning from the public-safety sales tax. That’s separate from the added money the county is earning from the bed tax it increased a couple of years ago.

At issue with the new taxes is A) Can the residents afford them, and B) Is the money going where it’s most needed?

The irony of Thursday’s CSB news was that at the same meeting, area township officials outlined for the county the disintegrating roads that purportedly cause emergency vehicles to slow to a crawl. In contrast, CSB serves endangered kids. Both compelling arguments.

None of these new tax measures ever admit that the new money will go to staff salaries. New taxes are always about children, about criminals, about lots of things.

In reviewing our CSB coverage, I think we could have been stronger in having CSB explain how $2.8 million will be spent. We will be stronger in future levies — despite our diminished services. We have to be stronger. Ours was the only media effort I could find explaining CSB’s levy plans. Resources are too diminished at other media — because of what the market allows.

I think using part of CSB’s $2.8 million to affect salaries had to happen. The alarming issue was to use the money to correct eight years of freezes, as CSB boss Randy Muth explained. That was an 18-percent and $461,000 one-year impact.

Imagine if it were that easy to do over tax hikes from 2008, 2009, 2010, etc.

Greene’s status in all of this is poetic in that, when Mahoning deputies had their benefits restored after several years of freezes, benefits were simply restarted. The $8,000 or so per year that they gave up for several years was gone forever.

The data of whether our economy is better now than it was in 2009 is mixed. One site says Mahoning’s average earnings per job is up $5,000 annually from 2008. Another site shows the Valley’s real household income is down $2,000 from 2008. You pick. How’s your home income?

The victims of CSB, Sciortino, and Judge Dellick spending decisions will be future tax requests. The same day CSB was outlining its raises, Mill Creek Metroparks was in the newsroom outlining their funding dilemma. Poland schools announced plans this week for new school construction. Recently, Canfield talked about new city taxes.

And then there’s my pal Greene.

When he called me Friday morning regarding our coverage of CSB’s new contract and the 18 percent pay fix, for the first time in many, many phone calls, he wasn’t frustrated with The Vindicator.

I wonder what May will bring him.

Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes emails about stories and our newspaper. Email him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on vindy.com. Tweet him, too, at @tfranko.