Cafaro v. Mahoning County

Once again Mahoning County leaps to the forefront of corruption. It seems that over the past 20 years, Mahoning County has been at the center of one corruption investigation after another. Just when you start think the pit has been cleaned out, here comes another wave.

Now we are at the center of another scandal as indictments were issued against a county commissioner, the county auditor, a local lawyer, a former county treasurer, and Anthony and Flora Cafaro, who are among the most prominent of families in the Mahoning Valley. The indictments center around the purchase of the Southside Hospital by Mahoning County. The primary goal was to do some consolidation of county offices, but mostly to move the Family Services Department from the McGuffey Mall, owned by the Cafaro Company, to the new facility.

At the center of the controversy was the lease between the county and Cafaro for the McGuffey Mall facility, requiring the county to repair the leased premises. My understanding was the lease was a triple net lease, requiring the county to do the repair work when they vacated the premises. A lawsuit followed, and the county ended up having to pay for the work required under the lease.

A political brouhaha developed around the purchase of the old hospital facility, renovated previously under a public/private partnership that went belly up. Sides were drawn up between those who wanted to purchase the facility, and those who wanted to continue to lease the existing premises at the McGuffey Mall. The Cafaro’s, over the years, made campaign donations to those opposing the move which tied into a political fight to control the local Democratic Party…somehow. I can’t figure it out.

Here is what I do know. The Cafaro family has been a prominent and an extremely philanthropic family in the area for as long as I can remember. We owe them a lot. The headquarters was kept within the City of Youngstown helping its tax base. Its real estate holdings in Mahoning and Trumbull County help support our schools and roads. They have been major backers and source of funds for Youngstown State University. The Cafaro family has always made political contributions to just about every candidate running for office at every level of government. There is nothing new here.

The indictment was non-specific…and it appears to me that something else is in play here. I just don’t know what…yet. I do know that on its face this appears to be an effort to criminalize normal political behavior. People can have differing opinions, even among our elected officials, as to the wisdom of various government financial decisions.

Was the original lease bad for the county? Yes...but the county signed it years ago, and it was reviewed and held up for public comment. Could the Cafaro’s have met with local public officials regarding continuing a $500,000.00/year lease for Family Services at the McGuffey Mall? Of course, they run a business! It is also possible the public officials involved could buy the Cafaro argument and conclude that the purchase of that monster building on Oak Hill would be a financial boondoggle, which it may turn out to be as the assumed figures of the purchase proponents are starting to look a tad iffy. Does that mean the Cafaro’s and the public officials broke any laws or the public trust? NO!

Unless they are able to prove that there was some quid pro quo between the Cafaro’s and public officials; unless they are able to prove the public officials did something illegal in support of the Cafaro position; unless they can show there was intentional fudging of proposal numbers and manipulation of county funds…what we really have here are two factions within the local Democratic Party fighting among themselves using the legal proceedings as a club.

I read the lease which was the seed of the dispute. Let’s just say I am willing to keep a very open mind on who is doing what to whom on this one. Time will tell.