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WARREN -- The Trumbull County Board of Commissioners spent much of Wednesday's meeting taking jabs at one another over American Rescue Plan Act spending.
Other disagreements involved the condition of county-owned buildings and being able to work with other county offices.
Commissioner Niki Frenchko requested that her colleagues have a member of the staff fill in a spreadsheet that she created, outlining ARPA requests from organizations and highlighting what they want to do with money. The spreadsheet also would allow commissioners to identify the areas being served by the grants, the encumbered amount given to the organizations and the total project costs.
This information is designed to allow the commissioners to determine how the remaining $10.5 million should be allocated.
Board President Denny Malloy emphasized the commissioners already have documents from the county auditor's office that contain much of this information. The information also was discussed during Tuesday's workshop meeting, which Frenchko did not attend.
Frenchko responded, saying that the documents the commissioners received from Auditor Martha Yoder do not contain all of the information that she is requesting.
In addition, Frenchko emphasized, the commissioners should not be depending on Yoder and attorney Jim Misocky, who works in the auditor's office, to do work that is the responsibility of the commissioners.
Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said the auditor is the county's chief financial officer and the commissioners should be working in concert with her office.
Malloy added it was the previous commissioner board -- prior to his arrival -- that made Misocky responsible for sorting through the ARPA requests.
Malloy said he will not have the commissioners' clerks complete Frenchko's spreadsheet because much of the information already has been provided by the auditor's office, with the assistance of Shara Taylor, who is accounts payable clerk for the commissioners.
Frenchko said before awarding any more money all the commissioners should look at the remaining funds to identify the projects that will have the greatest impact.
The commissioners agreed to stop taking applications for the ARPA funds on Sept. 15.
"At that point, we will address all the applications in the portal, then we will categorize them and lay the groundwork on how we will spend the money," Malloy said. "Half of what we have left, I believe, should be earmarked for villages and townships."
Misocky is working on a spreadsheet that will look at where the money already has been allocated.
ROOF REPAIRS
Frenchko sought to add to the agenda a vote to use ARPA money to pay for the repairs of roofs on a county engineers office garage that collapsed at 650 Warren Meadville Road in Cortland and the county planning commission building on East Market St.
"The county has known about the (planning commission) roof for years," Frenchko noted. "Just like they've known about other problems. It is the failure to plan for preventive maintenance."
"It always cost more when you wait until something deteriorates and collapses rather than taking care of something when it needs done," she noted.
Malloy responded if she knew about the condition of the roof, then why didn't she work to address it over the last two-and-a-half years. "Why did you wait until it collapsed."
Frenchko asked how anyone thinks she can get an inspection program established if she cannot get employees to bring her contracts to inspect and sign.
"You can put it on the agenda," Cantalamessa said.
It was then that Frenchko asked to add to the agenda a resolution to have all the of county-owned buildings graded within the next 90 days and have a spreadsheet developed that would include all major systems, dates of installations, upgrades that have taken place and the current conditions of the buildings.
She noted that preventive maintenance can occur only with grading and proper record keeping.
"The (county's) maintenance director knows exactly where the problems are," Cantalamessa said. "The problems were not with preventive maintenance or with capital improvement funds. The county was hit very hard with the loss of local revenue funds and the loss of sales tax revenue."
"We had to put off a lot of the projects," he said. "You can label all the buildings you want. You need money" to do improvements.
Cantalamessa said that, over the past three years, the commissioners have done millions of dollars of improvements on facilities.
Frenchko questioned where the records of the work are.
Cantalamessa responded, saying they can befound in commissioners' past votes.
"Nothing can be done without our voting on them," he noted. "No dime is spent without it being on our agenda."
Auditor Martha Yoder has said the county is in good financial position, which will allow it to borrow the funds needed to do the necessary repairs or replacements.
She noted that because of time restraints, it might be quicker to borrow the money, rather than going through the process of getting the ARPA funds on at least one of roof replacement projects.
"The reason we are in this position is because: A. We have little debt, and B. Our borrowing position is very strong," Cantalamessa added. "We kept everything low and watched our finances. We have more than $200 million in savings."