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Trumbull commissioners expected to hire transit administrator today
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County commissioners are expected to hire Medina County Transit Director Michael Salamone today to serve as administrator of Trumbull Transit, the county’s public transportation system.
Salamone has run the Medina County system since January 2009 and also held other transit jobs in Cincinnati and Kalamazoo, Mich., since 2000, according to his resume.
Salamone will earn $78,575 annually in Trumbull County and will also get a free apartment above the Trumbull County 911 Center in Howland, where he will live during the week while commuting back to his home in Kalamazoo on weekends, said Frank Fuda, County commissioner.
Salamone will replace Mark Hess, who served as Trumbull Transit administrator for several years but retired. When he left in April, the commissioners hired Atty. Rebecca Gerson as transit administrator and county administrator, but Gerson resigned both jobs in late August. Hess returned temporarily.
The Federal Transit Administration, which provides some of the funding to operate the system, has been insistent that Trumbull Transit hire a permanent administrator soon.
Fuda says he, Hess and the FTA want the Trumbull Transit administrator to be independent of Community Busing Services, the contractor that provides the rides for the service. The transit administrator oversees he contract with CBS.
Fuda said he was initially concerned when he learned that Salamone is friends with Terry Thomas, who runs Community Busing, but Hess has indicated Salamone is “very qualified” to do the job.
“I’m just hoping it works,” Fuda said.
Fuda says he and Hess believe some of the four transit board members are too close to CBS and that CBS is “directing the transit board,” so he’d also like to change the makeup of the board.
An article in the Medina County Gazette last week said Solomone earns $68,000 per year there.
“I’ll go from [managing] about 50 people to none,” Salamone said. “The difference is going to be here I’m a transit director and oversee the entire system. Over there, I report to the Trumbull County Transit Board. I can’t make any final decisions. The board makes the final decision. I can make recommendations.”