Quit Bashing the Cafaro's!!!!

The Vindicator reported this morning  that at an FOP meeting somewhere in Boardman the other night, Jay Macejko, the Democratic endorsed candidate for Mahoning County Prosecutor, when asked what he would do different than Paul Gaines, the current prosecutor, replied that he would show up to work sober. That sent the audience a twittering with Gaines asking Democratic Party Chairman David Betras if Macejko just called him a drunk. To which Betras replied, “It sounded like it.”

Now on its face, this is hysterically funny especially if you know all of the parties involved. It is Mahoning County politics at its worst, or best, depending on your point of view. It certainly merits comment, but this is Mahoning County, folks, and this is lame compared to most of what goes on.

Vindicator columnist Bertram de Souza seized this political moment and pontificated poetically in his Sunday column. Unfortunately, he turned it into an anti-Cafaro rant. That wasn’t so funny. De Souza dredged up all the old allegations surrounding the move of Family Services from Cafaro’s plaza on Youngstown’s east side to the old South Side Hospital building, and all the attendant legal falderal that went with it.

It’s time to get over this and leave the Cafaro family alone. At the end of the day, Mahoning County made a bad bargain when entering into the McGuffey Mall lease with the Cafaro’s and the Cafaro’s were proven right in the courts. Without commenting as to who was right and who was wrong, this turned into a criminal prosecution instigated by the Mahoning County Prosecutor rooted at least partially in the fact the Cafaro family allegedly funded someone to run against him. Those charges extended to numerous county officials as well as the Cafaro family, and were eventually dropped except for the County Treasurer who pled guilty to something or other. Whether or not the move to Oak Hill was the right thing to do has yet to be determined, and won’t until all of the financial ramifications are washed out over the next several years. We all hope for the best…AND NOW IT IS TIME TO PUT ALL OF THIS GARBAGE BEHIND US.

The Mahoning Valley, after 35 years of taking it on the chin, now faces unprecedented opportunity for growth. Indeed, this area will probably lead Ohio in growth over the next several years. But there are challenges: legal, technological, and quality of life issues all mixed up into one that needs to be addressed, and it will take all of us working together.

The Cafaro family have been leaders in the community. They have been generous to a fault in philanthropy to this area. Their name is everywhere. The family kept its headquarters in the City of Youngstown when everyone else deserted the city. When business and people were leaving the area in droves, the Cafaro family invested tens of millions of dollars in its Niles – Eastwood Mall facility including a stadium and conference/display facility…and a minor league baseball team.

Maybe de Souza knows something I don’t know, but enough already. He is shocked that a business interest would donate money to a political candidate? Bertram, go to Washington for a day and look for the where the lobbyists are. Believe me, I would rather have Cafaro fund candidates than any of the mobsters that did it for 30 years landing a good portion of our judiciary and legal profession in jail, disbarred, or dead.  We all want good government. But with this kind of garbage being written in the paper continually when a local business becomes involved in local politics, it’s a wonder anyone would do anything at all.  We need the help of the Cafaro's, and everyother business in this area if we are to succeed and reach our full potential.

I don’t know whether what the Cafaro’s did was legal, illegal, or otherwise. And I don’t care. This family has been a mainstay for this area for as long as I can remember. I can think of at least two local projects in the works right now that could benefit from their help, but I won’t ask. If I were Anthony Cafaro, I would tell this area to go to hell.  But he won’t. At the end of the day, he believes in this area, and I think he will continue to do his best to see this area succeed.

Now it’s time for Bertram and the Vindicator to get off the high horse, and put this matter to rest. Stirring up old "stuff" just doesn't cut it anymore.