State audit: Records destroyed in Niles ex-mayor Infante's office

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

NILES

The Ohio Auditor’s Office concluded in 2015 that a “destruction of records” took place at the office of former Mayor Ralph Infante.

A 2015 management letter says state investigators used a subpoena in an effort to secure copies of receipts for permits or licenses from the mayor’s office for 2008 through 2013, but the investigators “could not locate” them.

They also could not find a complete record of the permits or licenses, the letter said.

The search is apparently the one conducted Oct. 14, 2014, by the Special Investigative Unit of the Ohio Auditor’s Office. At the time, the auditor’s office only said the search was part of an ongoing audit.

Infante, when contacted Thursday, asked what type of permits the auditors were looking for because the only ones handled at the mayor’s office were for things such as block parties or ambulance services. The management letter doesn’t say what type of permits were sought.

Building permits, such as the ones state investigators later seized with a separate subpoena, were all handled in the building department, the former mayor said.

A search by state investigators in February at Infante’s house and business further deepened suspicions that investigators were looking at Infante for possible prosecution. A special prosecutor was appointed in December to investigate “alleged illegal activity” involving government officials and others in Niles.

Infante said his secretary in October 2014, Bonita Marchionte, “kept everything,” and all the records from the office should have been readily accessible in her office or in boxes stored in the basement of city hall if they were more than a couple of years old.

Marchionte, 35, died March 21, 2015, in her Bazetta Township home. The Trumbull County coroner ruled her death a suicide.

Longtime Niles Councilman Steve Palalas said he heard about the state auditor’s finding regarding the “destruction of records,” but the finding did not seek recovery of missing money, so he assumed no evidence of wrongdoing had been found.

“Maybe because she was dead, maybe that’s the reason it didn’t go further,” Papalas said.

The letter said both the mayor’s office and Mayor Ralph Infante Wellness Center failed to handle money according to regulations.

The wellness center deposited cash collections weekly instead of within three business days, and the mayor’s office sometimes held onto money as long as two weeks, the letter said.

“Delays of this nature could cause daily receipts to be lost, stolen or misplaced without being detected in a timely manner,” the letter said.

Another problem cited by state auditors is an additional $35,305 from 2010 through 2014 that auditors believe should have been generated by the sale of bottled beverages at the wellness center.

The letter says beverage sales showed a profit in 2010 and 2011 but losses in 2012 and 2013. Auditors calculated the revenue that should have been generated by the amount of beverages purchased should have been $12,000 higher in 2012 and $9,800 higher in 2014. The total of “lost” revenue should have been $35,305 higher, the letter says.

The management letter released last October and another one released Thursday for the most-recent audit – covering 2014 – says beverages were stored in an unlocked room, where “products could be easily taken and not paid for.”

Scott MacMillan, who was the center’s full-time director until last September, said Thursday he admits the oversight of the beverage vending machines was not as thorough as it should have been because he was the only full-time employee responsible for 50,000 visitors per year.

But the center “never had that much product” coming into the center to have made it possible for $10,000 or $12,000 of beverages to have gone missing.

“Did some walk out the door? Probably, but not that much,” he said.

MacMillan said he was never in charge of the facility’s finances; the mayor’s office and auditor’s office were.

AVI Foodsystems has been operating the bottled-beverage vending machines since last year.

Papalas said it bothers him no one was held accountable for the money discrepancy at the wellness center, but the auditor’s office made no finding for recovery of lost money, so it appears to him they found nothing criminal.

The 2014 audit released Thursday contains 11 findings, which are problems the state auditors want to be fixed. Seven of them were listed in the 2013 audit as well.

Papalas, however, said he thinks the new auditor, Giovanne Merlo, and the new treasurer, Janet Rizer-Jones are going to fix the remaining problems.

Merlo took over in September after the retirement of then-Auditor Charles Nader. Rizer-Jones took over after Treasurer Robert Swauger resigned May 9.