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WARREN -- Dawn Inc. once again failed to obtain enough votes from Trumbull County commissioners to approve a tax abatement for improvements at the company's Sferra Avenue headquarters.
The construction company asked for a 75%, 10-year tax abatement for a $1.2 million expansion and renovation project.
It was the second attempt by Dawn Inc. following a unanimous vote in January against the abatement, which was projected to create four full-time and one part-time job over 10 years.
On Wednesday, board President Denny Malloy voted to approve the abatement, Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa voted against it and Commissioner Niki Frenchko abstained.
Dawn Inc. was looking to use the abatement to help with the renovation cost of an approximately 4,500-square-foot warehouse at 2861 Sferra Ave., which would be office space. The savings also would have offset the purchase price of an approximately 8,500-square-foot warehouse at 2961 Sferra Ave., do gas and electrical upgrades, place new overhead doors and install a new parking lot to connect the two facilities.
The reason commissioners denied the first request was because incorrect salary information was submitted with the application.
That same incorrect salary information also was provided to Warren City Council when it initially voted to approve the abatement request.
Commissioners, at the time, asked for the salary information to be corrected and sent back to city council for reconsideration. Earlier this month, city council unanimously voted to approve the tax abatement request.
In the meantime, Warren City Schools Board of Education, through its president, Patty Limperos, spoke out against the tax abatement. It is the city schools that would not benefit from the property taxes.
Although she disagreed with the abatement request, Frenchko said she ultimately decided to abstain from voting because she was not provided the information she requested.
Frenchko also said she believes the process done by city council after commissioners referred the abatement back to them for reconsideration was not done correctly.
She argued city council should have begun the process for the abatement from the beginning, instead of making adjustments in the original proposed abatement and revoting on it.
"They should have started over," Frenchko said. "They did it incorrectly."
After the meeting, Nick Coggins, assistant director with the Trumbull County Planning Commission, said Warren did restart the abatement process after being confronted with it by commissioners.
"Warren City Council was presented with the corrected information and it went through three readings before approving the tax abatement request," Coggins said.
Coggins said his job has been to make sure all agencies have the current information about the proposed abatement request.
Cantalamessa said he voted against the tax abatement because the company did not have the coalition of support from the affected community as well as the local school district.
"It isn't necessary, but for me, it certainly enters into the equation," Cantalamessa said. "Right now, families and seniors are strapped with property tax increases."
"We, as commissioners, have no authority over the state formula when it comes to property reevaluations. But we have authority when it comes to abatements," he said.
He said Dawn Inc. is a company that earns $10 million a year and the requested 75% tax incentive would create only four-and-a-half new jobs when the company already has a tax abatement on one of the properties it is requesting a new abatement for.
"That's a bit much," he said. "There should have been, at least, an effort to negotiate a lower percentage after it was sent back to the city."
Malloy supported the abatement request because the company did everything it was required to do under current rules.
"These are bad rules," he said. "I didn't think it was fair to penalize them since Warren unanimously approved it and our economic director at planning also advised that we have passed others in the past with smaller payroll benefits."
"Until we have a new rubric or guidelines it would've been discriminatory to deny her request, in my opinion," Malloy said.
Malloy suggested the company reapply and lessen their percentage or duration.
Coggins said the owner of Dawn Inc. previously noted the company's expansion would not go forward without obtaining the tax abatement. In addition, Coggins said, company executives alluded they may consider moving outside of Trumbull County.
Coggins also said he has never previously seen a tax abatement request rejected once it arrived at the commissioner level.