State Auditor Yost openly criticizes mayor of Niles

55With that poetic bombast directed at Niles Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia and members of his administration, Ohio Auditor David Yost served notice recently that playing politics with the city’s financial well-being is unacceptable.

Indeed, Yost went a step further in an interview with Vindicator correspondent Jordan Cohen and blasted the first-year mayor for being more concerned about preserving jobs than dealing with the city’s fiscal realities.

“[You can’t] go on making decisions based on not wanting someone to lose a job,” Yost said. “I expect political leaders to serve their constituents and not their cronies in city hall. This is not a labor versus management problem, it’s a politician problem.”

Lest anyone think that the state auditor is simply rattling his saber, consider this: It was Yost who in 2014 determined that the city of Niles met the standard for a declaration of fiscal emergency. And it’s Yost who will decide if the emergency should be lifted.

Therefore, rather than dig in his heels or attempt to do the fiscal shuffle – he has shown himself to be quite inept thus far – Scarnecchia should kowtow to the state auditor and his staff.

As a result of fiscal emergency, a statutorily mandated Financial Planning and Supervision Commission is overseeing the city’s spending. In addition, there are state-appointed supervisors who are responsible for guiding city officials as they develop a five-year recovery plan. The law requires that the operating budget in each of the five years is balanced.

Recently, supervisors Nita Hendryx and Tim Lintner told the commission that city officials were ignoring their suggestions for expediting Niles’ recovery.

Two of the main recommendations that have been embraced by state Auditor Yost are the outsourcing of the city’s income-tax collections and moving dispatchers to the Trumbull County 911 Center.

Judgment

“Niles is really making itself an outstanding example of how it’s not supposed to work,” Yost said. “If local officials had it together, we wouldn’t be here, and if their judgment was superior, they wouldn’t be in this position.”

In other words, Mayor Scarnecchia and his administration have no grounds to ignore the advice from the experts, nor do they have any justification for their arrogant attitude.

Niles officials cannot be left to their own devices. While the state auditor has refrained from using the power of his office to force Scarnecchia and others to cooperate, there could come a time when he will have no alternative but to bring down the hammer.

Yost’s communications director, Benjamin Marrison, followed up his boss’ public berating of the mayor and members of the administration with a verbal lashing of his own.

Marrison was on the mark when he said that “political reasons” were at the heart of Scarnecchia’s refusal to outsource income-tax collections.

In numerous editorials on Niles’ fiscal problems, we have criticized the administration for its unwillingness to recognize this reality: Most of the city’s operating budget is taken up by employees’ wages and benefits. Therefore, absent a major infusion of revenue, the only viable option is to cut the payroll.

We acknowledge that from a political standpoint, laying off workers is easier said than done. But when you’re faced with an untenable situation, politics must take a back seat to commonsense.

Scarnecchia is simply exacerbating the problem by refusing to do the two things state auditors believe will go a long way toward reducing the budget deficit: outsourcing income-tax collections and moving dispatchers to the county’s 911 Center.

Marrison notes that a 2014 audit said the city could save $138,000 a year with an outside tax-collection agency. He also points to the positive experience of cities such as Youngstown that have eliminated their tax departments.

However, Scarnecchia isn’t buying the facts and figures presented by the state auditor’s office and wants proof of cost savings.

He’s just stalling – hoping for a miracle.