Trumbull commissioners hold two days worth of budget hearings without notifying public

Staff report

WARREN

The Trumbull County commissioners may have violated the Ohio Open Meetings Act by failing to notify the public via the news media about two budget hearings Monday and Tuesday.

The annual budget hearings enable department heads to talk to county commissioners and Auditor Adrian Biviano about their written budget proposals and get feedback.

Hearings were scheduled at half-hour intervals from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. both days and included meetings with Sheriff Thomas Altiere and Sheriff-elect Paul Monroe, Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and heads of about 20 other departments.

Because no notifications were sent to area newspapers, no local newspaper sent a reporter to the meetings. One television reporter attended one of the hearings after being alerted to it by employees concerned about possible budget cuts.

The Vindicator has written stories from the hearings every year for more than a decade.

When asked about the lack of notification, the office staff member who sends notices said she made a mistake and apologized.

“Evidently somebody didn’t tell the press,” Commissioner Frank Fuda said. “Nobody here knew why,” he said of the three commissioners in the hearings. “Usually we see [The Vindicator and the Warren newspaper] and the TV stations,” he added.

Commissioners Dan Polivka and Mauro Cantalamessa did not return messages seeking comment.

According to the Ohio Open Meetings Act, public bodies must “take official action and conduct all deliberation upon official business in open meetings where the public may attend and observe.”

Public bodies also must provide notice to the public indicating when and where each meeting will take place.

Any formal action of a public body that did not take place in an open meeting or that resulted from deliberations in a meeting improperly closed to the public, or that was adopted at a meeting not properly noticed, is invalid, the act says.

A meeting is defined as a prearranged gathering of a majority of the members of a public body for the purpose of discussing public business. All three county commissioners usually attend budget hearings.