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A state board recommends the outgoing Youngstown mayor get a public reprimand
YOUNGSTOWN
The state Board of Professional Conduct is recommending the Ohio Supreme Court issue a public reprimand to outgoing Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally for his four misdemeanor convictions related to the Oakhill corruption investigation.
That is what McNally sought when he went in front of the board in October. The Mahoning County Bar Association had sought a 12-month license suspension with all 12 months stayed.
The final decision will be made by the Supreme Court. It typically takes six to 12 months after the court receives the recommendation before it makes a decision.
“I’m pleased with the recommendation,” McNally said.
Meanwhile, McNally said he will seek to have his law license placed back on active status in a few days.
But he said: “It’s undecided what I’ll do when I’m done with the mayor’s job.”
McNally, a Democrat, pleaded guilty Feb. 26, 2016, to four misdemeanors – two counts of falsification and one count each of attempted unlawful use of a telecommunications device and attempted disclosure of confidential information – in connection with the Oakhill Renaissance Place corruption scandal.
McNally’s convictions are related to his improperly faxing Mahoning County’s confidential offer – when he was a county commissioner – to buy Oakhill Renaissance Place, a former hospital on the city’s South Side, on July 26, 2006, to attorneys at Ulmer & Berne, a Cleveland law firm that represented the Cafaro Co.
Judge Janet R. Burnside of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who accepted the guilty pleas, placed McNally on one year’s probation and put his law license on inactive status for one year, which the mayor did March 23, 2016.