Yost blasts Niles mayor for rejecting fiscal advice

By Jordan Cohen

news@vindy.com

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 the city’s 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.

“It’s an unusual comment for my staff to make in public,” Yost admitted, but the state auditor directed his fire at city hall and not his financial supervisors.

“Their motto seems to be ‘Come weal or come woe, our status is quo,’” he told The Vindicator. “It’s not a healthy situation.”

Asked if there are any punitive steps he might take should the cooperation issues continue, the state auditor said he has “no interest” in making threats. Yost said, however, attitudes, particularly about saving jobs, have to change.

“[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 at city hall.

“This is not a labor versus management problem – it’s a politician problem.”

Told of Yost’s comments, Scarnecchia said he has not ruled out further changes to the recovery plan, including some of the measures advocated by the auditors that he previously had rejected such as tax-collection outsourcing.

“We are revisiting all past recommendations, meaning the tax department, the dispatchers and anywhere else that we can save the city money,” the mayor said. “It’s not easy, and there are bumps in the road, but we are trying to get over them and do the right thing.”

Council President Robert Marino, who along with Scarnecchia sits on the fiscal commission, said he agrees with Yost’s comments and analysis.

“It’s almost six months into this administration, and we’ve done virtually nothing to address the fiscal paralysis in our city,” Marino said. “We’ve gone from one pot of money to the next to continually fund government, and we’re going to run out of it.”

The council president said he supports the supervisors “who have our best interests in mind.”

The state auditor said he believes the will of the people will have to be respected as the city works to overcome the fiscal emergency that has existed in Niles since October 2014.

“I am confident the people of Niles will make it clear that they want a solvent city government,” Yost said.