Nles fiscal commission complains publicly they're being ignored

NILES

For the first time since their appointment by the state auditor more than 18 months ago, the city’s financial supervisors have complained publicly that their solutions for getting Niles out of fiscal emergency are falling on deaf ears.

“Unfortunately the city has chosen not to take a lot of our ideas [and] it is difficult to help when our ideas aren’t considered,” supervisor Nita Hendryx told the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission during its monthly meeting today.

The commission oversees the city’s finances while it remains in fiscal emergency.

While Hendryx and fellow supervisor Tim Lintner did not name anyone specifically, it was clear they were referring to Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia, who sits on the commission. The mayor, who took office five months ago, has opposed several of their recommendations.

The original financial recovery plan put together by then-mayor Ralph Infante shortly before he left office included proposals for outsourcing income-tax collection and moving police dispatchers to the Trumbull County 911 Center. Scarnecchia eliminated both when he developed a modified recovery plan that was later approved by city council and the commission.

The supervisors were not happy with those changes and cited a problem they discovered in the income-tax office to buttress their points. The Vindicator reported last week that $154,000 in uncashed corporate and residential income tax payments remained in unopened boxes for more than a month in the treasurer’s office. Robert Swauger, treasurer at the time, later resigned.

Read more on the latest of this ongoing situation in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.