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WARREN -- Trumbull County commissioners on Jan. 2 will select the person to lead the board through the 2024 election year.
Commissioner Niki Frenchko in her first three years on the board has railed against the leadership of former commission president Frank Fuda, and its current president, Denny Malloy.
Next year will be the last time that Frenchko will have an opportunity to lead the three-person board during her current term.
Frenchko, a Republican, is running for a second term in 2024. Mauro Cantalamessa, a Democrat, also is running for reelection. Cantalamessa has served as a commissioner since 2014. Malloy, a Republican, does not have to run in 2024, as he is just completing his first year of a four-year term.
Both Frenchko and Cantalamessa will have challengers in the March primary.
The county commissioner's' presidency is determined by a vote among the three commissioners during the board's reorganizational meeting in January of every year.
The board president does not have any more political power than the other two commissioners. However, the president leads the commissioners' weekly meetings and is in charge of the administrative function of the commissioners' office.
In January 2023, Malloy, who had not previously served as a commissioner, was nominated to be the board's president by Cantalamessa. Malloy seconded the nomination, thus winning the seat.
Malloy, who defeated longtime Warren Democrat Michael O'Brien for the commissioner's seat, has for much of 2023 sparred with his fellow Republican legislator over how the meetings should be run, the management of the office staff and the reporting of department heads to the commissioners.
Frenchko, over the last year, has not attended regularly scheduled 10 a.m. Tuesday commissioner workshops. The commissioner instead, holds separate 11 a.m. Tuesday meetings with available department heads in her office.
The three commissioners' private offices are located just outside their meeting room.
Most of the county's department heads attend the scheduled workshops. It is during those workshops that Malloy leads discussions about all the items on the next day's agenda.
In addition to agenda items, Malloy often allows discussion of other pertinent issues occurring around the county that may not be on the Wednesday agenda.
During the last half of the year, Malloy has encouraged attorney Jim Misocky, special projects administrator, and Trumbull County Auditor Martha Yoder to update the board on the American Rescue Plan spending. It is also during these meetings that department heads have been able to tell the commissioners about issues they have faced.
The workshops, on average, last about two hours. Malloy argues the workshops count as part of the commissioners' regular meetings. Like the Wednesday morning meetings, at which commissioners vote on the items on the weekly agenda, the workshops are recorded and placed on YouTube, where they can be viewed.
Frenchko has been critical of the workshops being used to discuss issues that are not on the week's agenda.
"An untrained novice was made president in an unprecedented move to facilitate disruption, chaos, and use the public meeting forum as a place to grind a political axe," Frenchko said. "This is the first time in living memory that a commissioner has been excluded in the rotation for president."
"When a newcomer's promise of bringing order to meetings sharply turned to continued use of our business meeting to lodge and facilitate personal attacks, and interrupt recommendations, I lost faith in having orderly meetings with these two."
Looking toward to 2024, Malloy said Frenchko has not done anything to show she deserves to lead the commissioners and stated he would not support her becoming the board's next president.
Frenchko does not expect to be given an opportunity to serve as the board's president in 2024.
She notes it takes the vote of two commissioners to select the board's president. Malloy and Cantalamessa have, over the last year, often not provided Frenchko a second when she requested votes, so the issue dies.
"I am more interested in being president of a new board in 2025 to bring order, efficiency and professionalism with a new member who wants to move the county forward, and will treat female counterparts with dignity and as an equal," she said.
O'Brien said it is not typical for commissioners who express interest in the presidency not being given the opportunity to serve in that capacity. O'Brien served as a commissioner from 1994 to 2004.
"In the past, the Trumbull County commissioners would alternate who would be chairman of the board," he said. "It is not a written policy, however, it has been a common courtesy among each board. In the event that a commissioner does not wish to serve as chairman, the other two would work out among each other who would serve."
Dan Polivka, a former commissioner who was defeated by Frenchko in 2020, and who filed as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for a 2025 seat, agreed that during his time as a commissioner they generally rotated the presidency of the commissioner board
"There was more cohesiveness at the time," Polivka said. "It is about relationships. We pretty much rotated the president's position. There were no written or unwritten rules. It was just the way it was done."
Frank Fuda, who served as the commissioners' president during his final two years in office, noted the commissioners would decide which person would be best for the job at the reorganizational meeting during the first week of the year.
"It generally is the person willing to do the work," Fuda said. "The president has to be able to work with others. It is not a job for those that are not willing to go into the office, meet with constituents, department heads, and those wanting to work to help the county grow."
"It is a demanding job,"Fuda continued. "The commissioners are working to manage hundreds of millions of dollars and are in charge of managing hundreds of county employees. The person in the job has to be willing to work in the office."
Fuda, who served as a commissioner for 16 years, compared running the county to a big business.
"It is not only going to work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the workshops and the business meetings," he said. "It is more than a 40 hours a week job."
Fuda said the commissioners must be able to work with one another, even if they sometimes disagree with each other's positions.
It is something Fuda, at times, did not often follow while serving with Frenchko. The two commissioners often verbally jostled with one another, hurling insults, getting loud, with him using his gavel to quiet the room.
Frenchko repeatedly accused Fuda of being against her because she was a woman and because of her ethnicity.
Her fellow commissioners have, at various times, have suggested that it has been Frenchko that launches personal attacks not only against them, but also against various department heads.