2016: A not-so new year

A colleague in the newsroom suggested a positive column from this writer to ring in the new year. The implication being that week-after-week readers are treated to an unending stream of negative commentary about the Mahoning Valley’s dysfunctions.

The observation from Mark Sweetwood, who manages the reporting staff of The Vindicator, struck a chord and prompted a search for an appropriate platform for the launch of 2016.

Here it is:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

Why Psalm 23:4?

Because it clearly defines what has been taking place in this region for such a long time.

Read Psalm 23:4 in the following context: The political corruption (evil) that has tainted the Mahoning Valley for years (shadow of death) is not to be feared because we will ultimately be comforted by indictments (the rod) and convictions (the staff) of those public officials who have betrayed our trust. We will thus take comfort in seeing them hauled off to prison in chains.

Now, isn’t that an inspiring message for the new year? If you don’t think so, you need to get rid of those rose-colored glasses. The Mahoning Valley’s reality is political corruption – historically Mafia-engendered, but now kept alive by self-serving, greedy businessmen.

March madness

And that reality will be played out in March when the mayor of the city of Youngstown, John McNally, the disgraced ex-auditor of Mahoning County, Michael Sciortino, and a lawyer with influential friends, Martin Yavorcik, are in the dock in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court facing more than 80 criminal charges stemming from the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal- conspiracy case.

Make no mistake about it, McNally, whose charges are related to his time as a county commissioner, Sciortino and Yavorcik aren’t the only ones on trial: We, the residents of the Mahoning Valley, all are.

Why? Uncomfortable as the truth may be, this region has long had a ho-hum attitude toward government corruption. When the Mafia was alive and well and mobsters lived among us, we shrugged and said, “The street that mob boss Joey Naples lives on is the safest one in the Mahoning Valley.” We also let them run the tables for barbut and poker at wedding stags, and took pleasure in their presence at church festivals.

More importantly, we took it for granted that mobsters would own the county sheriff (read the court testimony of mob boss Lenny Strollo) and infiltrate local law-enforcement agencies because they wanted their business interests, especially gambling, protected.

But then the FBI swooped down and did what our local police and sheriff’s departments had refused to do: dismantled the Mafia by rounding up all the usual suspects and hauling them to court.

Unfortunately, that did not end the influence peddling that has defined local governments for so much of our history.

The late James A. Traficant Jr., the former sheriff of Mahoning County and long-time member of Congress from this region, epitomized the corrupt politician. Traficant was twice put on trial in federal court in Cleveland – where all the political laundry was aired.

He beat the first rap stemming from his campaign for sheriff, during which he was accused by the feds of taking bribes from local mobsters Charlie and Ronnie Carabbia. Traficant defended himself, and the not-guilty jury verdict turned him into a local folk hero. He parlayed that support into a 17-year stint in the U.S. House of Representatives.

But that political house of cards came crashing down when Traficant was charged with taking bribes and other criminal offenses relating to his years on Capitol Hill.

This time, he was convicted, expelled from the House and sentenced to eight years in federal prison.

Again, the trials weren’t just about one man. As witness testimony revealed, government corruption in the Mahoning Valley is so deeply rooted that indictments, charges and convictions of public officials are hardly a shock to the senses.

Prosecutor, sheriff

Even when more than 70 individuals, including judges, a prosecutor, a sheriff, other officeholders and mobsters, were convicted in the federal government’s dragnet, there wasn’t the public outcry resulting in a revolution by the honest and law-abiding.

This writer has often made reference to what occurred in Cuyahoga County when a similar FBI crackdown of government corruption occurred. A county commissioner and other county officials were convicted, but rather than shrug their shoulders, the people decided they had had enough.

The business community, led by prominent corporate chieftains, concluded that the stranglehold of the Democratic Party had to be loosened. The business leaders used their influence and power to silence the political class as they formulated a change in the structure of Cuyahoga County government.

They came up with a metropolitan system led by a chief executive officer elected by the people. An elected 12-member county commission is the policymaking body. The new system also eliminated most of the administrative offices, thus removing layers of possible government corruption.

There have been attempts to create metropolitan county governments in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, but the public has been disturbingly disinterested in such change.

Which brings us to the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal conspiracy trial.

Similarities

The similarities between the charges against McNally, Sciortino and Yavorcik and those that resulted in Traficant being sent to prison are plain to see. At the heart of both is the violation of the public trust and corruption of government.

When the Valley’s dirty laundry is aired – again – in Cuyahoga County, the region’s history of corruption will be laid bare.

And like the first Traficant trial – it featured tape recordings made by the Carabbias when they met with the then candidate for sheriff – the court proceedings in March could well include tape recordings of political wheeling and dealing in Mahoning County.

Pretrial hearings have revealed that for at least a decade, a self-styled political consultant, Harry Strabala, was an FBI informant and wore a wire when he dealt with local public officials and others.

If the information in the tapes are as juicy as the conversation between Traficant and the Carabbias in the basement of their mother’s house, the media and the public will be enthralled and, yes, shocked.

Why shocked? For the simple reason that the Strabala tapes will reveal the sheer brazenness of the region’s public officials and the disdain they have for those they are supposed to serve.

But the Strabala tapes aren’t the only ones.

Disgraced former county Probate Judge Mark Belinky, who had a close relationship with Strabala, was also said to have recorded conversations he had with other government officials and the public.

Belinky, who resigned from office, was convicted of a third-degree felony relating to his criminal behavior in office. He is cooperating in the ongoing investigation of government corruption in the Mahoning Valley.

Mastermind

No discussion about the Oakhill Renaissance case can be held without bringing up the name of the individual who has been identified in court documents as the mastermind of the plan to block county commissioners from buying Oak- hill: retired Cafaro Co. President Anthony M. Cafaro Sr.

Cafaro has not been indicted in this case, but his name appears numerous times in the filings by prosecutors.

Thus, as 2016 unfolds, the Valley of the Shadow of Death again braces for more national embarrassment.

Will this be the year when we, the people, say “Enough”? Don’t hold your breath.

A new year? Hardly.