A former city official challenges for Niles mayor

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

NILES

Jimmy DePasquale, who served as Niles service director from January 2016 to February 2017, wants to defeat current mayor Steve Mientkiewicz in the May 7 Democratic Party primary to return the city’s health and income-tax departments to the city and work more aggressively to annex land into Niles.

Mientkiewicz, meanwhile, points to former Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia, saying he fired DePasquale as safety-service director because of an “inappropriate, back-room deal” involving an employee as one reason not to vote for DePasquale.

In his administration, Mientkiewicz said, “We’re doing everything right. We’re going by the book.”

Niles emerged from fiscal emergency last month after 41⁄2 years under state supervision of its finances that began under former Mayor Ralph Infante, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for public corruption as mayor.

DePasquale came back from retirement to be Scarnecchia’s service director after a 30-year career in Niles departments such as parks, light and sewer.

DePasquale said 2016 was one of the toughest years to run the city in its history after 24 years of “one-mayor domination” by Infante. DePasquale said he and Scarnecchia “walked into a hornet’s nest” in trying to correct all of the city’s problems. He said one of his personal successes was creating the city’s impound lot to increase revenue.

But he disagrees with the city’s eliminating its three-person Niles income-tax department and turning that job over to the Regional Income Tax Agency.

DePasquale says RITA has had a small financial benefit, but the change has resulted in a loss of service to Niles taxpayers and the loss of three jobs. The closest place where a customer can talk to someone from RITA in person is RITA’s Austintown office, he said.

He also disagrees with the city eliminating its health department and turning those duties over to the Trumbull County Combined Health District.

DePasquale says the proposed Cafaro Co. Enterprise Park development just north of Eastwood Mall is an example of a missed annexation opportunity.

“The last time we annexed anything was Eastwood Field,” he said of the baseball complex. “That was 1995. Enterprise Park will be the biggest thing in the area since the Eastwood Mall,” he said.

He urged Scarnecchia in 2016 to talk to council about annexing the Enterprise Project area, but nothing was done. Warren pursued annexation, but “the city of Niles had nobody at the table, and it’s gone. We lose another area we should have been annexing.”

DePasquale says as mayor, he would pursue annexation in areas such as Howland, Weathersfield and Vienna townships.

Mientkiewicz, who became Niles mayor in August by a vote of the Trumbull County Democratic Party after Scarnecchia resigned, says statistics show moving the Niles health and income-tax departments out of the city have been a success.

The Niles Health Department had a budget of $332,000 in 2014, its final year. “Now we pay $39,000 per year to the combined health district,” Mientkiewicz said.

The income-tax department had a budget of $268,000 in 2017, its final year. In 2018, the city paid RITA $273,000 to handle income-tax collections, a $5,000 increase, but RITA increased income-tax collection by $600,000 over 11 months in 2018, Mientkiewicz said.

“RITA, for income-tax collections, was our saving grace. The state auditor’s office recommended it in 2015,” he said.

The county health department, which is in the city three days per week to address Niles health issues, provides a liaison for Niles, Mientkiewicz said. “Citizens seem to be very pleased. And most importantly, it shows financial responsibility.”

Despite rumors, there are no plans to eliminate any other city departments, such as police and fire dispatching or the light department, Mientkiewicz said.

As for Enterprise Park, Mientkiewicz said it “has been in the works for a couple of years now. The previous administration was at the table with the Cafaro Corp. When I came in, it was almost a done deal.”

“As far as annexation is concerned, we are going to develop a comprehensive plan ... that addresses everything from infrastructure to annexation,” Mientkiewicz said. “We are taking the necessary steps to make sure we can attract and grow.”

He said Enterprise Park will “bring in thousands of people should it come to fruition into literally our backyard and stabilize the Eastwood Mall and the [U.S. Route] 422 corridor. We certainly are welcoming with open arms, and we are trying to create political stability and financial stability to sort of lift the dark cloud that has been above the city of Niles for quite some time now. I do believe businesses are realizing this.”

A third candidate, Geo Kuriatnyk, officially dropped out of the race Wednesday.