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HOWLAND -- Trumbull County Council of Governments members are seeking a response from the state auditor's office on whether they can continue with demolition of vacant buildings throughout the county.
The COG had attorneys with Baker / Dublikar in Canton sent a response to state Auditor Keith Faber's office this summer. This followed a management letter received last spring from the auditor over the demolition of the former Niles Times building through an agreement with COG.
The Times building was demolished and the land has been used by the city for additional parking.
COG Chairman Jim Lapolla said what COG has done is make demolitions inexpensive for many local communities. He said the council has received a favorable legal opinion on the group handling demolitions in the county.
Lapolla said the COG has done several demolitions in Vienna, Braceville, Brookfield, Farmington and Niles. However, for some reason the demolition of the Niles Times building "caught someone's attention" and ''received so much scrutiny."
PARTNERSHIP
In 2019, the county commissioners made a memorandum of understanding with Niles and COG for demolition of the structure in Niles.
Niles agreed to reimburse COG all costs incurred for such work. Work was done in 2021 by county employees.
County Engineer Randy Smith said: "We reviewed the management letter which cites certain sections of the Ohio Revised Code as it relates to demolitions … It is a well-reasoned letter. I hope this will convince them that we do have the authority."
Vienna Township Trustee Phil Pegg said the COG received three legal opinions to see if continuing the demolitions would be appropriate.
"Everything we did was within those guidelines and what we were doing was legal. We did ask ahead of time and were following the legal opinions that we had," Pegg said.
Smith agreed that members of COG reached out to state officials before forming the group to see what COG can and can't do.
He said the issue seems to be the Niles Times property being used as a parking lot.
Lapolla said the auditor letter stated the demolition did not fall under an allowable power of the county engineer.
Niles previously worked with COG for demolition of other structures such as the former Garfield School and the former Waddell Park swimming pool.
COG officials said the other two demolitions never were considered a problem.
Smith said the engineer's office and COG felt the group had the authority to do the Niles Times demolition.
"What has been the heart of the COG has been demolition projects. We need to find out what we can and can't do and if we can contract out for a company to do the demolitions," he said.
EXCEEDED SCOPE
The management letter received by the commissioners from the Ohio auditor in March stated the demolition work done by the county engineer's personnel exceeded the scope of the county commissioners and the engineer's office.
Lapolla said that after the state auditor's management letter came up last March, COG members want to see if they can continue with other demolitions.
"When we received the letter, we put the demolitions on hold. … The letter from (our) attorneys indicates we have not done anything wrong," Lapolla said.
Lapolla said this week, to the best of his knowledge, he is not aware of a response to the letter.
He expects to have further discussion and an update at the October COG meeting.
"I believe we are good to go on future demolitions. There was no stoppage placed on them. We don't have any demolitions scheduled because we were not soliciting doing any while this matter was being addressed," Lapolla said.
COG had Baker / Dublikar send a letter in July to Faber's office that requests the state office "revisit the findings of the management letter and retract the statement that the Trumbull County Board of Commissioners improperly conduct the demolition work," which implies the county improperly entered into an agreement for demolition that has been expressively permitted by way of the Ohio attorney general.
The COG letter from Baker / Dublikar states that a letter was sent in 2016 to the Ohio attorney general relating to the authority of COGs, and a response was received that indicates a demolition is a permitted function.
The attorney general responded that a board of county commissioners, and board of township trustees, "may form a regional council of governments to perform functions related to the demolition of vacant and abandoned buildings and the remediation of other nuisance properties in the county, as long as the function performed by the regional council comes within the delineated powers set forth."