Political shake-up hits Niles

It wasn’t just the longtime mayor of Niles, Ralph Infante, who was a victim of the political shake-up in the Democratic primary last Tuesday.

The Niles Democrat Men’s Club, a powerhouse in Trumbull County politics for decades and the launching pad for many a political career, also sustained major damage in the election. Infante is a club mainstay who has benefitted greatly from his ties to Democratic movers and shakers not only in Niles, but throughout Trumbull County and the region.

Case in point: the mayor had not had an opponent for 16 years until this election season when former councilman-at-large and safety director, Thomas Scarnecchia, threw his hat in the ring.

Thus, Infante was wrapped in the cloak of political invincibility as he sought another term. Scarnecchia had been out of politics for several years and away from the public spotlight.

Government corruption

But a funny thing happened on the way to the ballot box — or not so funny, if you’re a resident of Niles: A state investigation of government corruption in Niles City Hall.

While Mahoning County has been the epicenter of state and federal probes of criminality in the public sector, there have been officeholders in Trumbull County who also have ended up on the wrong side of the law.

Last May, a state criminal indictment relating to the (Youngstown) Oakhill Renaissance Place conspiracy provided an inside look at the extent of the corruption in the Mahoning Valley.

According to the indictment, “Businessman 1” paid cash to former Trumbull County Commissioner James Tsagaris, a Democrat. In 2009, Tsagaris pleaded guilty to two counts of “honest-services mail fraud” for failing to report a $36,551 loan from an unnamed local businessman in 2004 as commissioner and voted on matters that directly affected that person.

Businessman 1 has now been identified as Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., who was president of the Cafaro Co., one of the leading shopping-center developers in the nation, at the time of the Tsagaris transaction. Cafaro has since retired, but remains in the public spotlight because he’s portrayed in court documents as the mastermind of the Oakhill Renaissance conspiracy.

His goal was to prevent Mahoning County government from purchasing Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Southside Medical Center. Cafaro did not want the county owning Oakhill because the Job and Family Services agency was to be relocated from the Cafaro Co.-owned Garland Plaza on Youngstown’s East Side.

Commissioners Anthony Traficanti and David Ludt voted to buy the former hospital complex. Commissioner John A. McNally, now mayor of Youngstown, voted against the purchase.

McNally, along with former county Auditor Michael Sciortino and Youngstown Atty. Martin Yavorcik, is facing a slew of state criminal charges relating to the conspiracy. The three are scheduled to go to trial in March 2016 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

It should be clear by now that government corruption in the Valley is the rule, rather than the exception. But it should also be clear that honest residents are saying, “Enough’s enough!”

Investigation in Niles

In Niles, the ongoing criminal investigations of city government caused the political shake-up Tuesday.

During the campaign, Infante, who has been mayor since 1991, was forced to explain why members of the Special Investigations Unit of the Ohio Auditor’s Office searched for documents and other records in his office.

Infante told The Vindicator’s Editorial Board that he asked the state auditor to send in a team to review city government’s finances.

Scarnecchia, however, claimed during the campaign that computers and files were taken from the mayor’s office.

Infante was also forced to respond to charges by his challenger that Niles’ being in state-declared fiscal emergency was ultimately his fault. Such a designation means, in everyday parlance, that the city’s finances are a mess.

Infante sought to blame the city’s treasurer and auditor for not informing him and city council about the extent of Niles’ fiscal problems.

But Scarnecchia, at 73 years old and a veteran of area politics, instinctively knew that wrapping the investigations around the mayor’s neck would put the veteran politico on the defensive.

The voters obviously agreed.