State auditor blasts Niles mayor, officials for ignoring fiscal advice

NILES

State Auditor Dave Yost blasted the Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia administration Friday for not going along with fiscal supervisors’ proposals for getting Niles out from under fiscal emergency.

In an interview with The Vindicator, Yost’s criticisms were anything but subtle.

“Niles is really making itself an outstanding example of how it’s not supposed to work,” the state auditor 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.”

Yost’s comments followed complaints from state-appointed supervisors Nita Hendryx and Tim Lintner that Niles’ leaders were ignoring their suggestions for expediting Niles’ financial recovery, such as outsourcing the city’s income-tax collection and moving dispatchers to the Trumbull County 911 Center.

“It’s difficult to help when our ideas aren’t considered,” Hendryx told the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission that oversees the city’s spending earlier this week.

Read more about the situation in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.