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Trumbull commissioners OK 3 citizens panel recommendations
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County commissioners Wednesday approved three items recommended to them by the Citizens Budget Review Committee, the group of 12 people who studied county operations earlier this year.
One was hiring a qualified and trained county administrator who would oversee daily operations. The committee said the administrator would “carefully review all new potential hires for all county departments” and “oversee annual employee performance evaluations.”
The county has not had a full-time administrator since Tony Carson left in 2006.
It has three part-time administrators now – clerk/interim administrator Paulette Godfrey, Atty. James Misocky working on special projects and Human Resources Director Richard Jackson.
The commissioners agreed Wednesday that Jackson would prepare a job description for county administrator/purchasing director and research salary guidelines.
Committee member Atty. Jeff Goodman, who attended Wednesday’s commissioners meeting, said he envisions an organizational structure in which the full-time administrator will be like the CEO and the commissioners will serve as the board of directors.
Guy Coviello, vice president for government affairs with the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce, said that structure will make the administrator the “one person to report to.”
The three part-time administrators and the rest of the people who report to the commissioners would report to the administrator.
Commissioner Dan Polivka said purchasing is important because it is the second largest expense in county government behind payroll.
Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said it would be welcome to have an administrator to hold department-head meetings and coordinate services among departments.
“Sometimes department heads don’t know who to answer to,” Polivka said.
“The vision and direction of the county comes from us and implementation comes from the administrator,” Cantalamessa said of how he would like things to work.
Goodman said he’s also pleased that the commissioners followed their recommendation to hire Geostar Consulting of Canfield to conduct money-saving audits and recommend savings on telecommunications, electricity, gas, insurance and office supplies.
Coviello said an example is auditing the use of phone lines to ensure that the county is only being billed for ones being used.
Commissioner Frank Fuda said Geostar must produce $52,000 per year in savings or the company will have to reimburse its $42,000 annual fees.
Fuda said the commissioners have to sign large stacks of bill payments every week. He and an office employee have found errors in the past that have saved the county hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it’s hard to examine all of the bills thoroughly enough to find all of the mistakes.
The commissioners also authorized spending no more than $18,135 to send up to 13 county officials and department heads to the Lean Ohio Boot Camp for public-sector employees offered at Kent State University.
Goodman said the training, which is designed to teach people how to make their organization simpler, faster, better and less costly, could create subtle changes that could produce long-term benefits. Teaching a young county employee these skills could be especially beneficial since many county workers remain in their jobs for many years, Goodman said.