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The Ron Verb Show - 4pm Hour - #w, 07/15/26 · Ron Verb

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, long segment now, 4.06 in the afternoon, 92 degrees, hot,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: humid Wednesday, July 15th. Ron Verb from the Kingdom of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Mahoning talking with Tom Samery. So if I jump around
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on you for a second here. So in 2024, when
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the library had, I would just say, $ 50 million additional money, okay?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Right, in round figures, right?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: All right, in round figures. That is my money, though.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: That is my tax dollars for the property taxes that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: they put on me and my state tax dollars, right?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, that isn't their money. That's taxpayers' money where
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: they've taken in more money than they need or could
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: spend to have $ 50 million in a bank account.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: That's correct.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, I want..
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: It's in bank and cash and in investments and in savings.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: It's still... they still had 48, well, 50, ballpark $ 50 million, right?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: And it is money that either came from the taxpayers
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: directly or was earned as a result of money being
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: in the bank that was paid by the taxpayers. See,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: earning that $ 5 million in interest, they wouldn't have that
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: if they didn't have all that extra money.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Think about that. So basically, just to simplify for everybody,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: they are overtaxing people because they have this huge surplus
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: of in the library system. Am I accurate on that? Okay.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And the Vindicator was a big proponent of that, and
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: so was another of our local media. But anyway, you know,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: they sold it on a basis of 2.4 mil. You
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: ask the average guy on the street, what does 2.4
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: mil mean for you for a tax, and they won't.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: What are you talking about? You know, how much money?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: You have to explain to people. People have a right
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: to know if they're paying that kind of money, they
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: have to write to know not only how much is
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: it going to cost them on their tax bill, but
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: what are they getting for that money every year. And
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: that's another issue here. I'll leave it. I'll stop there.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: All right. So now I want to go with the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: additional money that's there. And when you were listening to
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Bob yesterday, I mean, talk about... this was built and
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: here's what it costs at the time and how much
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: it was a square foot and how spectacular it is
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and how this can be fixed. And here's what the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: problem is. And we can fix this very easily as
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: opposed to spend more per square foot and have a
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: smaller library that isn't nearly as spectacular building wise and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: abandon this facility. That doesn't make any sense to me,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: does it to you? I just, I'm just, you're a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: smart guy.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I agree with Bobby. You have this building.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: It's paid for.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: It was paid for. Why get rid of it and
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: build something half the size, nowhere near the, you know,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: apparently be a little 16,000 square feet. But why would
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: you go and throw away a building that you already
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: have paid for? I agree, you know. And I would
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: tend to buy his... explanation of what's going on, that
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: it isn't going to cost that much to repair. He's
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: been around a long time in the field of architecture.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: I'm not an architect, nor am I an accountant, but
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I believe what he had to say. And so why
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: get rid of that building? And it is a beautiful building.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: He didn't decide to build that building. The Board of
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Trustees did back in 2000.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Right. Again, now, When it was built and it's spectacular,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: it's kind of a gem of the community. And then
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: what was your reaction where you had people who donated
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of money to put the bricks in that
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: should be there forever, and then she rips them out
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and puts pink concrete in, or his family that put
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the bust up there that it worked? taken away or
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: some of the other stuff, the display from the solid
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: waste district that they had there for money that came
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: from the solid waste district. I mean, when people do
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: this stuff, they do it so it's there for an eternity,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: if you will, in loving memory of their family and
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: their contribution. And now to say in a short period
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of time, rip it out. Tell me about your thoughts there.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Well, there's another point to that, too. I agree. People
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: gave that money because they wanted a certain type of
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: historical kind of perspective with that building. They didn't want
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: a supermarket building. And so they contributed a million and
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: a half dollars for these things. And just a year
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: before they decided they wanted to get rid of them
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: or started thinking about getting rid of the Bowen Library,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: they spent $ 350, 000 of tax dollars to, quote, renovate, unquote,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: the Portland Library, which included getting rid of all that stuff.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: So they spent $ 350, 000 in the process, and they got
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: rid of all these things that these people gave that
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: they invested millions of dollars in or a million dollars in.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: So that's my feeling. Why did you spend that much money?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Why did you spend all that money before you all
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: of a sudden say, hey, we can't keep this building going?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense. It's the financial decisions that bother
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: me about what they've been doing. How did they, all
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: of us, why did they do that, spend that kind
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of money, that short a period of time before they said, well,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: we got to get rid of this building?
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Do you sense that..
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: And I think anybody who gives, the people who gave it,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: there are laws that govern gifts like that, too. And
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: I can't quote them for you right now, but they're
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: supposed to have agreements with people on keeping those things
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: for periods of time that they want.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Think how arrogant that is, though, in... that short a
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: period of time to rip out that contribution that somebody made.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: You follow me as far as..
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: It made it like a modern library. They got rid
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: of a lot of things. It went from a traditional-looking
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: building to more like a modern library, and that wasn't
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: what people wanted there. They gave them money.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Even the furniture that was just... Who knows where that
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: disappeared to?
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: I'm not as familiar with all the detail of that.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I just know that I follow the money is what
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I do, but I listen to this... Over a period
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: of time, that's true. They got rid of the furniture,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: the carpeting, paintings, I don't know, you name it. And
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: what happened to it, they don't really know. And even
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the bricks outside, that was started, too, and that was,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: you know, an expensive thing, too. That was part of
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: that $ 350, 000 that was spent to renovate the library. You know,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: the taxpayer has a right to know how much he's
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: paying and what he's getting for it, and that's not
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the case here.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Why are they untouchable?
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Because some good-hearted person years ago, I can't remember, the Youngstown,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Mahoney County, Reuben-McPillan Free Library is not incorporated as a library.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: It's incorporated as an educational institution. And the law that
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: governs educational institutions, in this case, this specific part of
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the Ohio Revised Code, which is Ohio law, really gives
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: all the power in the world to the Board of Trustees.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Not only do they have all the decision-making, nobody else does.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: The county commissioners are supposed to enter into a... I
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: won't get into that, but the trustees have all the
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: power when it comes to the building, the property, you
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: name it. They have all the power. And the only
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: place you can go to complain about it is to
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: the Ohio Attorney General. And that was put in the law,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: and some people misunderstand other libraries. There are... There's 251
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: libraries in Ohio, and about 20 of them have the
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: same kind of incorporation as our library. One of them
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: is Girard. But none of them are as big as
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: this one. And so they have all this independence. So
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: you have to get the state legislature to take away
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that power. And I think given what all the people
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: that asked to keep this building, and I don't believe
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: the information that they gave for reasons for getting rid
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: of it, All the people that were asking for it,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: hundreds of people, and you had bipartisan support of that,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: keeping the library there. And these people say, nope, we
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: don't care who you are. You're not a principal stakeholder.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Who is, I don't know.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Does the library director get $ 250, 000? No, she does not
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: make that kind of money.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: She makes about a little better than half of that,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: plus benefits.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I meant to mention that. I didn't want to get
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: into people's salaries, but That's true. I'm glad you mentioned
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: that because it's about half of that plus benefits, which
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: brings it up to another $ 20, 000 or so.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: All right. So would it be around, what, $ 150, 000 plus benefits?
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: A little less than that.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: No, not $ 150, 000 plus benefits, with benefits.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: All right. And have you followed what Bob was talking
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: about yesterday, all these additional people that have been hired?
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know what they did. They did hire... They
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: have all these positions. What is an experienced officer? And
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: then you have the chief stakeholder relations officer. I look
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: at the big picture. The big picture is I have
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: records on the library spending back to 2008. And they
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: never went above $ 10 million for employee salaries and benefits.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And that's to... That's a pretty remarkable experience, not to
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: raise above $ 10 million in all those years. But all
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, in the last three or four years,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: it went from $ 10 million to almost just $ 40, 000 short
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: of $ 15 million in 2025. And so that went from
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: taking on half of the amount of money they get
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: every year from us, from the county, and from the state,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: to taking... using three-quarters of it. Where is that money
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: being spent? I don't know. There are four people in
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the library who make $ 100, 000 or more, and that's all.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: So I don't know what they're doing with that kind
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: of money. I don't know whether it's in base salaries
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: or whether it's in fringe benefits. Who knows what it is?
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Or retirement?
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: The library needs to explain why such a tremendous increase
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: in the cost of personnel in such a short period
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: of time. No business could survive that.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's see. This has nothing to do with the library.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to throw you a curveball. I'll get back
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to the library. What are your thoughts about this Eastern
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Gateway fiasco the commissioners are trying to pull?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Well, when I say the library isn't the only one
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: that needs to be looked at, we didn't just pick
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: on the library. It just so happens that they had
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: a levy. You're right. They need to look at it.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: You know, the new veterans office for the county, that's
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: owned by Eastern Gateway. I looked up who owns that building.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: I just wonder, what are we getting? What are we
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: doing with all this? If you look on the county
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: auditor's website, that Eastern Gateway owns a lot of property.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: a lot of property, maybe 20 or 30 parcels. I
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: forget exactly how many. And, you know, what are we
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: paying in rent for this building? And they have vacant
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: buildings somewhere. I don't know where they are, but the
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: county has vacant buildings. And there needs to be– there's no–
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: there's a problem with the government at this point. There's
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: no oversight of how this money is being spent. They
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: do financial audits, which tell you whether or not the
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: money was spent legally. But it doesn't tell you... Remember back,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: they had the Pete Marwick study done by the county,
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: the chamber. The chamber was even in favor of that.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: They did a study. They did it in limited parts
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: of Mahoney County government. The county engineer's office is the
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: principal target, and it was wasting a lot of money,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: and they fixed that. But there needs to be some
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: oversight business. If it isn't making money or if it's
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: spending too much money, knows from profit and loss when
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: it's going to start making changes. In the government... It's
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: new taxes. And look, they're going to raise the taxes
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: again now, property taxes, with this latest valuation. And there
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: are people who can't afford that. So what they need
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: to do is take a look at everything. And not
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: only that Eastern Gateway, whatever.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Fiasco. It's called the Eastern Gateway Fiasco, Tom.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And what are we doing with all the money
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: we send to the airport? That's money that comes from
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: people who go to hotels. You know, it's money that's
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: taxed there. But everything needs to be looked at. I
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: told the county commissioners and the former budget director, you
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: don't have adequate staff at your level to make the
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: kind of decisions you need to make about whether or
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: not these levies are... or correct or even whether or
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: not the amount of money that people are asking you
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: for is really what is needed. They need, you're penny
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: wise and pound foolish. When you're spending $ 300 or $ 400
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: million a year, and that's what the commissioners do, not
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: just local money, that's all the money that goes to federal, state,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: you need to be paying attention to what's happening to
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: that money. And that's why the library became a thing,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: because When you see things like electric charging stations, hiring
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: a social worker, having a culinary kitchen, having rooms so
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: large that you can have a wedding reception at it,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: and you go on with all these things, you can't
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: even think of them. That's being driven by an organization
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: called the American Library Association. And there's somebody who I
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: think has more say in what goes on in our
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: local library than the taxpayers here.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: So..
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: There is a need for more oversight. If you need more,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: they should have a long time ago on the Dan
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Rivers show, Anthony Trafficante told Dan Rivers that before any
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: new levy would go on the ballot, there would be
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: a performance audit conducted on that agency, and that has
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: only happened about five times in that ten or years
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: or so. They need to do performance audits about every
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: five years or so. Are you spending the money right?
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: You know, I mentioned mission creep in an interview with
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Sam Boney. The people at the library were upset about
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: that term. Mission creep means doing something that's outside of
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: your responsibility, and the library does a lot of that.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: It's more like a child care place at times. You
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: name it. I mean, if you look at their– they
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: do publish it on their annual reports and on their website,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: but the average person doesn't have a clue what's done
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: by the library. And that needs to be done. When
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: you're spending $ 100 million every five years, the taxpayers have
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: a right to know what's being done with that $ 100 million.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And they don't know. Tom, how would you like to
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: live in a city of Canfield where I want you
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to think of, let me do my break and I
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: want to ask you a question about something. Stand by,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: all right, Tom? It's going to be a trick question,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: so be ready. Are you ready?
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: I know you're going to be really nervous. Ron Verb
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: from the Kingdom of Mahoning, News Radio 570, WKBN. It's 422.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: Now, Ron Verb on NewsRadio 570 WKBN.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: All right, long segment now, 4.06 in the afternoon, 92 degrees, hot,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: humid Wednesday, July 15th. Ron Verb from the Kingdom of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Mahoning talking with Tom Samery. So if I jump around
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: on you for a second here. So in 2024, when
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the library had, I would just say, $ 50 million additional money, okay?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Right, in round figures, right?
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: All right, in round figures.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: That is my money, though. That is my tax dollars
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: for the property taxes that they put on me and
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: my state tax dollars, right? I mean, that isn't their money.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: That's taxpayers' money where they've taken in more money than
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: they need or could spend to have $ 50 million in
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a bank account.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: That's correct. In bank and cash and in investments and
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: in savings. They still had $ 48 million, $ 50 million, ballpark
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: $ 50 million, right? And it is money that either came
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: from the taxpayers directly or was earned as a result
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: of money being in the bank that was paid by
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: the taxpayers. See, earning that $ 5 million in interest, they
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: wouldn't have that if they didn't have all that extra money.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Think about that. So basically, just to simplify for everybody,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: they are overtaxing people because they have this huge surplus
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: in the library system. Am I accurate on that?
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: The Vindicator was a big proponent of that, and so
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: was another of our local media. But at any rate,
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: they sold it on a basis of 2.4 mills. You
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: ask the average guy on the street, what does 2.4
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: mil mean for you for a tax, and they won't,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: what are you talking about? You know, how much money?
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: You have to explain to people. People have a right
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: to know if they're paying that kind of money, they
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: have to write to know not only how much is
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: it going to cost them on their tax bill, but
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: what are they getting for that money every year, and
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: that's another issue here. I'll leave, I'll stop there. All right.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So now I want to go with the additional money
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that's there. And when you were listening to Bob yesterday,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, talk about this was built and here's what
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: it cost at the time and how much it was
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: a square foot and how spectacular it is and how
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: this can be fixed. And here's what the problem is.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: And we can fix this very easily. as opposed to
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: spend more per square foot and have a smaller library
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: that isn't nearly as spectacular building-wise and abandon this facility.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense to me, does it to you?
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I just, I'm just, you're a smart guy.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: I agree with Bob. You have this building, it's paid for,
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: it was paid for. Why get rid of it and
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: build something half the size, nowhere near the, you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Why would you go and throw away a building that
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: you already have paid for? I agree. And I would
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: tend to buy his explanation of what's going on, that
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: it isn't going to cost that much to repair. He's
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: been around a long time in the field of architecture.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I'm not an architect, nor am I an accountant, but
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: I believe what he had to say. And so why
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: get rid of that building? And it is a beautiful building.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: And the board, he didn't decide to build that building.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: The board of trustees did back in 2000.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Right. Ken, now, when it was built and it's spectacular,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: it's kind of a gem of the community. And then
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: what was your reaction where you had people who donated
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of money to put the bricks in that
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: should be there forever and in? she rips them out
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and puts pink concrete in, or his family that put
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the bust up there that were taken away, or some
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: of the other stuff, the display from the solid waste
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: district that they had there for money that came from
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the solid waste district. I mean, when people do this stuff,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: they do it so it's there for an eternity, if
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: you will, in loving memory of their family and their contribution.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: And now to say in a short period of time,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: rip it out. Tell me about your thoughts there.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Well, there's another point to that, too.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: People gave that money because they wanted a certain type of...
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: They wanted a historical kind of perspective with that building.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: They didn't want a supermarket building. And so they contributed
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: a million and a half dollars for these things. And
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: just the year before... a year before they decided they
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: want to get rid of them or started thinking about
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: getting rid of the Bowling Library, they spent $ 350, 000 of
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: tax dollars to, quote, renovate, unquote, the Bowling Library, which
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: included getting rid of all that stuff. So they spent
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: $ 350, 000 in the process, and they got rid of all
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: these things that these people gave that they invested millions
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: of dollars in or a million dollars in. So that's
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: my feeling. Why did you spend that much money if you–
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Why did you spend all that money before you all
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: of a sudden say, wait, this building, we can't keep
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: this building going? It doesn't make sense. It's the financial
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: decisions that bother me about what they've been doing. How
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: did they, all of us, why did they do that,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: spend that kind of money, that short a period of
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: time before they said, well, we've got to get rid
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: of this building?
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Do you sense that?
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I think anybody who gives, the people who gave it,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: there are laws that govern it. gifts like that, too.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: And I can't quote them for you right now, but
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: they're supposed to have agreements with people on keeping those
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: things for periods of time that they want.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Think how arrogant that is, though, in that short a
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: period of time to rip out that contribution that somebody made.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: You follow me as far as..
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: They made it like a modern library. They got rid
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: of a lot of things that... It went from a
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: traditional-looking building to more like a modern library, and that
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: wasn't what the people wanted there. It gave them money.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Even the furniture that was just, who knows where that
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: disappeared to.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not as familiar with all the detail of that.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: I just know that I follow the money is what
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: I do. But I listen to this over and over again.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: That's true. They got rid of the furniture, the carpeting, paintings,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know, you name it. And what happened to it,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: they don't really know. And even the bricks outside, that
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: was started, too. And that was, you know, an expensive thing, too.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: That was part of that $ 350, 000 that was spent to
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: renovate the library. You know, the taxpayer has a right
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: to know how much he's paying and what he's getting
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: for it, and that's not the case here.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Why are they untouchable?
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Because some good-hearted person years ago, and I can't remember
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: the date, the young son in Mahoney County, Reuben McNeil
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: at Free Library, It's not incorporated as a library. It's
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: incorporated as an educational institution. And the law that governs
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: educational institutions, in this case, this specific part of the
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Ohio Revised Code, which is Ohio law, really gives all
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: the power in the world to the Board of Trustees.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Not only do they have all the decision-making, nobody else,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: the county commissioners are supposed to enter into it. I
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: won't get into it. But the trustees have all the
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: power when it comes to the building, the property, you
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: name it. They have all the power. And the only
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: place you can go to complain about it is to
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: the Ohio Attorney General. And that was put in the law.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: And some people misunderstand other libraries. There are 251 libraries
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: in Ohio, and about 20 of them have the same
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: kind of incorporation as our library. One of them is Girard.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: But none of them are as big as this one.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: And so they have all this independence. So you have
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: to get the state legislature involved. to take away that power.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: And I think given what all the people that asked
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: to keep this building, and I don't believe the information
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: that they gave for reasons for getting rid of it,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: all the people that were asking for it, hundreds of people,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: and you had bipartisan support of that, keeping the library there,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: and these people say, nope, we don't care who you are,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: you're not a principal stakeholder. Who is, I don't know.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Does the library director get $ 250, 000? No, she does.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Not make that kind of money. She makes about a
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: little better than half of that plus benefits. Oh, okay.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: I meant to mention that. I didn't want to get
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: into people's salaries, but that's true. I'm glad you mentioned
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: that because it's about half of that plus benefits, which
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: brings it up to another $ 20, 000 or so.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: All right. So would it be around, what, $ 150, 000 plus benefits?
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: A little less than that.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: No, not 150-plus benefits. With benefits.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: All right. And have you followed what Bob was talking
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: about yesterday, all these additional people that have been hired?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know what they did. You know, they did hire.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: They have all these positions that are, you know, what
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: is an experienced officer? And then you have the chief
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: stakeholder relations officer, and you, oh, it's the, you know,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: and the, I look at the big picture. The big
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: picture is I have records on the library spending back
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: to 2008, and they never went above $ 10 million for
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: employee salaries and benefits, and that's a pretty remarkable experience
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: not to raise above $ 10 million in all those years.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: But all of a sudden, in the last three or
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: four years, it went from $ 10 million to almost just
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: $ 40, 000 short. of $ 15 million in 2025. And so that
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: went from taking on half of the amount of money
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: they get every year from us, from the county, and
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: from the state, to using three-quarters of it. Where is
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: that money being spent? I don't know. There are four
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: people in the library who make $ 100, 000 or more, and
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: that's all. So I don't know what they're doing with
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: that kind of money. I don't know whether it's in
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: base salaries. or whether it's infringed benefits, who knows what
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: it is, or retirement. The library needs to explain why
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: such a tremendous increase in the cost of personnel in
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: such a short period of time. No business could survive that.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's see. This has nothing to do with the library.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I'm going to throw you a curveball. I'll get back
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: to the library. What are your thoughts about this Eastern
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Gateway fiasco the commissioners are trying to pull?
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Well, when I say the library isn't the only one
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: that needs to be looked at, and we didn't just
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: pick on the library. It just so happens that they
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: had a levy. You're right. They need to look at it.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: You know, the new veterans office for the county, that's
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: owned by Eastern Gateway. I looked up who owns that building.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: I just wonder, what are we doing with all this?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: If you look on the county auditor's website, that Eastern
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Gateway owns a lot of property. a lot of property,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: maybe 20 or 30 parcels. I forget exactly how many. And,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: you know, what are we paying in rent for this building?
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: And they have vacant buildings somewhere. I don't know where
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: they are, but the county has vacant buildings. And there
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: needs to be, there's no, there's the problem with the
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: government at this point. There's no oversight of how this
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: money is being spent. They do financial audits, which tell
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: you whether or not the money was spent legally and
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't tell you... Remember back, they had the
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Pete Marwick study done by the county, the chamber. The
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: chamber was even in favor of that. They did a study.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: They did it in limited parts of Mahoney County government.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: The county engineer's office is the principal target, and it
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: was wasting a lot of money, and they fixed that.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: But there needs to be some oversight business. If it
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: isn't making money or if it's spending too much money,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: knows from profit and loss when it's going to start
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: making changes. In the government... It's new taxes. And look,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: they're going to raise the taxes again now, property taxes,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: with this latest valuation. And there are people who can't
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: afford that. So what they need to do is take
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: a look at everything. And not only that Eastern Gateway, whatever.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Fiasco. It's called the Eastern Gateway Fiasco, Tom.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And what are we doing with all the money
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: we send to the airport? That's money that comes from
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: people who go to hotels. You know, it's money that's
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: taxed there. But everything needs to be looked at. I
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: told the county commissioners and the former budget director, you
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: don't have adequate staff at your level to make the
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: kind of decisions you need to make about whether or
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: not these levies are... or correct, or even whether or
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: not the amount of money that people are asking you
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: for is really what is needed. They need, you're penny
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: wise and pound foolish. When you're spending $ 300 or $ 400
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: million a year, and that's what the commissioners do, not
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: just local money, that's all the money that goes federal, state,
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: you need to be paying attention to what's happening to
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: that money. And that's why the library became a thing,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: because when you see things like electric charging stations, hiring
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: a social worker, having a culinary kitchen, having rooms so
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: large that you can have a wedding reception at it.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: And you go on with all these things. I can't
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: even think of them. That's being driven by an organization
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: called the American Library Association. And there's somebody who I
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: think has more say in what goes on in our
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: local library than the taxpayers here. So there is a
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: need for more oversight here. Do you need more? They
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: should have a long time ago on the Dan Rivers show,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Anthony Traficante told Dan Rivers that before any new levy
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: would go on the ballot, there would be a performance
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: audit conducted on that agency. And that has only happened
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: about five times in that ten or years or so.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: They need to do performance audits about every five years
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: or so. Are you spending the money right? You know,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: I mentioned mission creep in the interview with Sam Boney.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: The people at the library were upset about that term.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Mission creep means doing something that's outside of your responsibility.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: And the library does a lot of that. It's more
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: like a child care place at times. You name it.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you look at their, they do publish
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: it on their annual reports and on their website. But
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: the average person doesn't have a clue what's done by
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: the library. And that needs to be done. When you're
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: spending $ 100 million every five years, the taxpayers have a
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: right to know what's being done with that $ 100 million.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: How would you like to be?
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: And they don't know.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Tom, how would you like to live? In the city
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: of Canfield, where I want you to think of, let
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: me do my break, and I want to ask you
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: a question about something. Stand by, all right, Tom? It's
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: going to be a trick question, so be ready.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: Are you ready? Okay.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I know you're going to be really nervous. Ron Verp
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: from the Kingdom of Mahoning, NewsRadio 570, WKBN, it's 422.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: 570 WKBN.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: How would you like to live in the city of
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Canfield where your community has said, okay, where you're getting reevaluated,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: your taxes are going to go up, right, because of
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the reevaluations again. You'll have no say so on that
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: at all. Then they want to hit you with like
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: a 5.9 mil school levy. Did you hear what I said, Tom?
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: 5.9 mil school levy. Then you'll also be facing an
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: MRDD levy. for three points, like for three mills, it's
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: a significant MRDD levy. Can you imagine if both of
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: those levies would pass, what that would do to your
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: property taxes if you lived in a city of Canfield?
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine? That'd be horrible. I mean, it would
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: be shocking how many people would, in my opinion, have
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: to move. They would have to look at that saying,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: we can't afford to live here anymore because of almost
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: a six-mil school levy and an MRDD levy, which is
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: equally as high.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: And you have so many levies and so many taxes
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: and everything else. You buy a refrigerator, you pay $ 100
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: in taxes on it. It's crazy what goes on in
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: sales tax. What's the solution to this? The solution to
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: this for the library, in my opinion, the solution is
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: legislation by the Ohio State Legislature to change the legal
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: structure of the Reuben MacNillan Free Library to that of,
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: like other libraries, where there will be some involvement of
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: someone who's responsible at the ballot box to the taxpayers
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: for the selection of the Board of Trustees. Right now
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: you have 17 trustees. One of them is the auditor
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: of the county, Mr. Meacham, and one of them is
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: the mayor of Youngstown, but they don't have a vote.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: They're just members of the board. They sit on it.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Then you have 15 people who I forget how often
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: they're replaced, but they elect each other. And I think
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: you have like-minds on there right now, and you need
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: to have some type of different thinking. But the solution
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: is change the structure of that library's board. And as
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: far as the county goes and the people in Canfield
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: and that, you need to start doing more audits of
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: what's going on and spend the money for performance audits
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: because you'll save it. You know, they started a doge
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: thing at the national level. We need something of that
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: nature at the local level too. You know, the library,
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: I'm not against libraries. I wish the library worked more
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: strongly and thoroughly with the Youngstown City school systems, which
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: spends like $ 150 million a year for less than 5,000 students,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: and they're having all kinds of trouble. Those kids are
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: coming out of there without being educated to the point
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: that they have the ability to. You know, we can't
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: afford to pay that kind of money and not get
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: results because only 18% of that is paid by the
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: city of Youngstown. We can't afford to pay that and
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: not get results. Those kids should have a right. They
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: should be whatever. If it's discipline, discipline them. Kids have
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: to be disciplined so they study, so they develop successfully
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: in life. And the country needs more educated people. We
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: don't need to bring people in. We've got enough people
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: that are unfortunately not educated because the system isn't taking
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: care of them.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Two answers.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Change the library legislation. and start doing performance studies in government.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Look at all the money we spend in the city
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: of Youngstown schools and look at the results.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, which goes to show you,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: it doesn't have much to do with how much you
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: spend as far as the results are concerned. I mean,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: it has to do with parents and where you value
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: education and homework. It isn't if we spend $ 5, 000 more
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: per student, we're going to get even better results. I mean,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: it's crazy. To say this kind of stuff, there's a
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: mentality like this is just a bottomless pit of how
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: much taxes you can put on somebody's property with reappraisals again,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: but with all these additional levies that are coming on
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: that are substantial levies. I mean, perhaps MRDD is going
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: to have to adjust its take by saying, you know,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: we have a thousand, we're dealing with a thousand employees today. Well,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: maybe you need less employees. Maybe we can't afford what
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: you're trying to do is what I'm saying. Stand by.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Let me break in and I'll come back with more.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Can you bear with me, Tom?
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Sure, I will.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Tom Zambri, one of the smartest guys I know. I've
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: got to pause for the headlines here at 4.30. Then
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: I'll come back with more. On NewsRadio 570, WKBN and
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Ron Verp from the Kingdom of Mahoning. We'll be with
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: you tonight until 6 o'clock. It's a hot, humid Wednesday afternoon.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: We're at 92 degrees. From 570 WKBN, don't touch that dial.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Back with more in a minute. Stay tuned.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: WKBN.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: How would you like to, with Tom Zamri, how would
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: you like to live in the city of Canfield where
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: your community has said, okay, where you're getting re-evaluated, your
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: taxes are going to go up, right, because of the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: re-evaluations again. You'll have no say so on that at all.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Then they want to hit you with like a 5.9
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: mil school levy. Did you hear what I said, Tom?
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: 5.9 mil school levy. Then you'll also be facing an
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: MRDD levy for three points, like for three mils. It's
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: a significant MRDD levy. Can you imagine? If both of
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: those levies would pass, what that would do to your
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: property taxes if you lived in a city of Canfield?
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine?
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: That would be horrible.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, it would be shocking how many people would,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, have to move. They would have to
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: look at that saying, we can't afford to live here
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: anymore because of almost a six-mil school levy and an
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: MRDD levy, which is equally as high. Right.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: You have so many levies and so many taxes and
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: everything else. You buy a refrigerator, you pay $ 100 in
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: taxes on it. It's crazy what goes on in sales tax.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: What's the solution to this? The solution to this for
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: the library, in my opinion, the solution is legislation by
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: the Ohio State Legislature to change the legal structure of
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: the Reuben MacMillan Free Library to that of, like other libraries,
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: where there will be some involvement of someone who's responsible
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: at the ballot box to the taxpayers for the selection
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: of the Board of Trustees. Right now you have 17 trustees.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: One of them is the auditor of the county, Mr. Meacham,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: and one of them is the mayor of Youngstown, but
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: they don't have a vote. They're just members of the board.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: They sit on it. Then you have 15 people who
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: I forget how often they're replaced, but they elect each other.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: And I think you have like minds down there right now,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: and you need to have some type of different thinking.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: But the solution is change the structure of that library's board.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: And as far as the county goes and, like, people
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: in Canfield and that, you need to start doing more
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: audits of what's going on and spend the money for
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: performance audits because you'll save it. You know, they started
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: a doge thing at the national level. We need something
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: of that nature at the local level, too. There are,
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: you know, the library, I'm not against libraries. I wish
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: the library worked more strongly and thoroughly with the Youngstown
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: City school systems, which spends like $ 150 million a year
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: for less than 5,000 students, and they're having all kinds
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: of trouble. Those kids are coming out of there without
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: being educated to the point that they have the ability to.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: You know, we can't afford to pay that kind of
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: money and not get results because only 18% of that
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: is paid by the city of Youngstown. We can't afford
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: to pay that and not get results. Those kids should
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: have a right. They should be whatever. If it's discipline,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: discipline them. Kids have to be disciplined so they study,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: so they develop successfully in life. And the country needs
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: more educated people. We don't need to bring people in.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: We've got enough people that are unfortunately not educated because
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: the system isn't taking care of them.
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: Two answers.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Change the library legislation and start doing performance studies in government.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Look at all the money we spend in the city
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: of Youngstown schools and look at the results. I mean,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know which goes to show you it doesn't
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: have much to do with how much you spend as
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: far as the results are concerned. I mean, it has
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: to do with parents and where you value education and homework.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: It isn't if we spend five thousand more per student,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: we're going to get even better results. I mean, it's
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: crazy to say this kind of stuff. There's a mentality
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: like this is just a bottomless pit of how much
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: taxes you can put on somebody's property with reappraisals again,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: but with all these additional levies that are coming on
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: that are substantial levies. I mean, perhaps MRDD is going
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: to have to adjust its take by saying, you know,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: we have 1,000. We're dealing with 1,000 employees. Well, maybe
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: you need less employees. Maybe we can't afford what you're
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: trying to do is what I'm saying. Stand by. Let
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: me break in, and I'll come back with more. Can
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: you bear with me, Tom?
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Sure, I will.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: All right. Tom Zamri, one of the smartest guys I know.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I've got to pause for the headlines here at 4.30.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Then I'll come back with more. On news radio, 570
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: WKBN and Ron Verp from the Kingdom of Mahoning will
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: be with you tonight until 6 o'clock. It's a hot,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: humid Wednesday afternoon. We're at 92 degrees from 570 WKBN.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Don't touch that dial. Back with more in a minute.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Let's start here. So good morning and welcome.
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: We are now underway. We're following the events of the day.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: What we're just now hearing about.
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: This is new information. Throughout the day.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: Good day.
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: This is where it stands now. Pick up the conversation.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: We'll talk about what's happening.
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: Anytime.
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: The deal we reached with Iran. The devil's in the details.
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: Bringing the price of gasoline down. Maintain the Fed funds rate.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: Tying Pfizer to the Save Act.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: NATO has been a paper tiger. For the very latest.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: We'll see how that all plays out.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: News Radio 570 WKBN.
• 41:41
  Speaker 6: A man believed to be in his 50s was found
• 41:43
  Speaker 6: dead in Portage Lakes after a boat was spotted drifting
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: near the Akron Yacht Club with no one on board.
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: Crews used sonar to locate a body underwater and divers
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: recovered the victim before turning the scene over to the corner.
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: Investigators believe the man was fishing alone and say there
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: was no life jacket on him and they're still working
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: to determine how he ended up in the water but
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: are reminding boaters to always wear a life jacket when
• 42:04
  Speaker 6: fishing alone or after dark. And Ohio Secretary of State
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: Frank LaRose is warning residents about misleading voter registration mailers
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: being sent across the state. He says an out-of-state group
• 42:14
  Speaker 6: is mailing forms that look like they came from local
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: Board of Elections, even though some are going to people
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: who are already registered or have died. LaRose is urging
• 42:22
  Speaker 6: anyone with questions about their voter registration to contact their
• 42:26
  Speaker 6: county Board of Elections directly. before filling out or returning
• 42:29
  Speaker 6: any forms.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I'm Brady Hopkins.
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: Looks like you're dealing with a multi-vehicle crash, I-80 East,
• 42:50
  Speaker 7: that's shut down between Route 62 and the Beaver Valley
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: Expressway in Mercer County. Other than that, traffic seems to
• 42:57
  Speaker 7: be moving along. You're all clear on 680 from the
• 43:00
  Speaker 7: Turnpike into downtown Youngstown and up to speed on 422
• 43:05
  Speaker 7: from downtown Youngstown into Newcastle. I'm Mike Ross from the
• 43:08
  Speaker 7: Total Traffic Center.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: This report is sponsored by Red Pilled America. WKBN. With
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Tom Sammery on News Radio 570 WKBN and Ron Ferb.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: One other thing, Tom, just because I don't want to
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: get under your skin, if that's okay with you today.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: It wouldn't be the first time.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: If you really want to look at where the taxpayers
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: are getting really a good value for the money that
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: they're paying, it would certainly have to be the forever
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: levy that these idiots voted for as far as a
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: sales tax is concerned for the WRTA, which generates at
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: least $ 9 million, in many cases more than that. per
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: year for WRTA. So much money that you don't even
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: have to pay to ride the bus anymore. So much
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: money that I say often, the biggest problem WRTA has
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: on a yearly basis is really trying to figure out
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: how do we spend all of this money? What is
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: your thoughts about that, Tom?
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: I have a continuing tax levy, meaning you have to
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: take very difficult to get rid of a continuing tax rate.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: Once you make it permanent, I mean, it's permanent. They
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: call it continuing, but it's permanent. They spent over $ 20
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: million last year. They get money from all over the place.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: That bus that they had that supposedly went back and
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: forth downtown, whoever owns that bus, it costs all kinds
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: of money. I don't know where it's sitting, but it's
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: not being used. But there's a national, any bus system
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: in the Elksham, I mean, our bus system gets money
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: from the federal government. any bus system that has to
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: make a report to the National Transit Bureau, and those
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: reports are available online. And our bus system here, the
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: average number of people on a regular bus, any time
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: it's in service, is three and a half people. And
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: they've got that big bus. Can you imagine what the
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: fuel costs are for those buses? And it's just insanity.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: And nobody takes a look at it, and you give
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: away that you... Nobody looks at what's happening. And... You know,
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: with the national level, we're in a crisis situation with
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: that national debt of $ 40 trillion. That could destroy our country.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: And at the local level, you're seeing that same type
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: of urgency when it comes to the homeowner who's paying,
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: can't afford to keep paying the kind of taxes they're
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: paying anymore for property taxes because you have so many
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: knives coming at you through all these different levies. So
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: the government, the state government isn't doing any better job
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: then the local government, the county government needs to start
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: taking a look at all that stuff. Somebody should bring
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: in a performance audit and do a performance audit on
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: the Western Reserve Transit Authority, too. I mean, you just
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: can't afford to keep paying that kind of money.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, in all seriousness, I mean, that is their
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: biggest problem. And you say about you can't imagine the
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: fuel cost. Well, that's because they're buying all these new
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: electric buses, which are a gazillion dollars to replace the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: ones that use fuel, because we've got to figure out
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: how to spend even more money. We've got to get
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: rid of this money every year. Can you imagine the pressure, Tom,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: that you're under as an administrator down there to say,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: my God, I've got to get rid of this money
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and more is coming in next year?
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't know where the government, some of
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: the people I know, Katrona introduced a bill, but his
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: bill didn't go anywhere over at a library. The legislators
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: have to start looking at this stuff, and locally we
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: have to start looking at this. I think that that
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: continuing tax for the WRTA should be voted on and
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: get rid of again. And then you say, come in
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: and justify the money you need. And I don't know
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: how they're running buses. I'll tell you, I look around.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: And when I see a bus and it's empty.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Did you ever, like Rhonda Sanis when he's talking in Florida,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: where he talks about zero-based budgeting. In other words, we
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: start at zero every year, and you have to justify
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: what you're getting. We don't start with what you add
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: and say we're going to add 3% or 4%. And
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: let's say you want 8%, you get a 4% increase,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: and you say, boy, we took a cut this year.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Not this number game crap. Started zero. And that's why
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: you see Florida spending less money each year than they
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: did the year before, not adjusted for inflation. That's the
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: direction government should be going. I mean, if you have
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: people that genuinely care about this stuff. But, I mean, WRTA,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: people voted for that continuous sales tax levy, which is
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: $ 9 million or more every year coming in.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: It's up to about $ 12 million, I think, now. Plus
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: all the money they get from the federal government, too.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: They get money from all over the place. Look, you know,
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: the government has to get its act together, have to
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: start doing locally. The commissioners have to start doing what
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Traffic Andy told Dan Rivers years ago. Before a levy
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: goes on, that should be done a year before the
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: levy comes up. And performance audit, and that should be
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: made public. It should be published in the paper. How
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: is this agency spending all this money that you give them?
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: And then people would know how to vote. People don't know.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: They go there, and they're good-hearted people. They like libraries.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: We need libraries. We don't need libraries doing what they
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: are right now. People want to have libraries. They want
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: to have people educated. They want to have schools. They
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: want to have people. They want these kids that are
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: in the out-and-out schools to come out and be successful.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: And why aren't they? Somebody better start taking a look
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: when you're spending that kind of money. And it's government's job.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: Where are all the elected officials? So that's where I
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: would go. Get going with performance audits. And get the
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: state auditor to start coming and taking a look at things, too.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: It's very discouraging, isn't it?
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: Yes. And you need community involvement. And that's why even
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: though I don't, you know, even people don't like what
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: people in Portland are doing, they're involved. You need to
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: be involved. And thank goodness that some people do.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Right, that they're actively involved. Let's see. Maloney County Board
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: of Developmental Disabilities is asking voters, Tom, to approve the
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: first new operating levy in 26 years, but the measure
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: could face a considerable hurdle. The Mahoning County Auditor's Office
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: also reports that residential property values increased an average of 24%
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: during our latest evaluation. That's the one that just happened now.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: This will translate to slight increase in property taxes for
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: many residents without voting on it, Tom, as you well know,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: that they will get that.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: That's nonsense, too, that you could raise. You know, I
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: bought this house that I live in for about $ 90, 000.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: A long time ago, my parents were living here and
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: they needed it. They were renting, so I bought it
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: for them. Now they have it evaluated on the county
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: at $ 175, 000. It's going to probably go over $ 200, 000. And
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: homes on the street, real estate is going crazy, and
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: that's what people who aren't selling their homes are just
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: paying for money they never made. You know, you can't
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: afford it. They have to start paying attention to the
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: property owner. It's terrible. Even businesses. You can't be killing
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: businesses with property taxes either.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: And, boy, they're doing it.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: So I hope the government officials get their act together.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: I hope the county commissioners start doing what Anthony Traffiganti said.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: Before a levy goes on the ballot, a year ahead
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: of it, we're going to do a performance audit. That is,
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: how are you spending the money? What are you doing?
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: And we're going to publish it somehow that the taxpayers
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: see it so they know. And we're not going to
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: say 2.4 million, 2.4 mil levy. We're going to say
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: this is what it's going to cost you. And so
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: that people know what's going on. People have a right
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: to know what they're paying and what they're getting out
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: of the money they're paying. They're not doing it right now.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: They're not getting it in so many ways here. at
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: the local end and the national end, too.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: Mahoning County commissioners a couple Thursdays ago approved placing the
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: levy on the November ballot with the commissioner, Gino DeFabio,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: stating that it should be left up to the voters.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: This guy that runs MRDD said the levy would likely
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: cost the owner of a $ 100, 000 home $ 84 additional per year. Well,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: most homes are beyond $ 100, 000. So if you're $ 200, 000, $ 300, 000,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: it's going to cost you an additional $ 160, 000 to $ 240, 000
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: or more per year on top of the re-evaluations, on
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: top of everything else. Let's see. What are these? They
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: give numbers here. Whitaker said the cost of providing MCBDD
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: services has increased from roughly $ 60 million annually to $ 100
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: million annually.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: That needs an audit.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Think of that, Tom. From $ 60 million a year, MRDD
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: is saying to $ 100 million a year.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: That's an incredible amount of money.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Think of the numbers they're talking. Are you a firm
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: believer they're pricing people out of their homes?
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Yes. You're keeping people from buying homes, too. Kids can't
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: afford to buy them.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is just..
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: With all these property valuations going up, you know, it
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: isn't just places like Poland and the cancel that the
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: prices are going up. You just look at the price
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: increases in Struthers and Camel. You name it, they're going
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: up all over the place. And it's really hurting. It
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: is really hurting people. And the people in government better
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: get their act together. They're taking a hard look at
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: where is this money going? And if you have to
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: wait for that decision to be made on the MRDD
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: and other, do a performance audit and let them put
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: the levy on the next ballot.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're smart enough to do it, though.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: And I know this sounds demeaning, and I don't mean
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: it to sound that way, okay? So I'm trying to
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: think of a nice way to say this. These people
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: that are elected to these positions... Do they really have
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: enough of a financial background to figure this stuff out?
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, Gino himself says, well, he was a truck
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: driver before he became commissioner. I mean, you're running a
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: huge entity. Do you have enough knowledge to figure this
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: stuff out? would be my first question. Carol Remedia Rigetti
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: Newton-John has been in government all of her life. It's
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: got to have some phenomenal retirement from all the government
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: money she's collecting. Does she have enough to understand from
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: even a private sector standpoint what this is doing? I
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: really don't think they do.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: Well, I would say that they should add the kind
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: of staff you need to get people who know how
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: to make these analyses of what's going on. And the
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: other thing is you have to have what's called a
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: work measurement system. What are you doing? What are the
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: end products that you're completing in terms of service to
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: the public? What are the services that are provided by
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: the MRDD? What are the services that are provided? What
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: are you counting? Are you counting the people like in
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: the library that come through the door? How many books
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: go out? What are you counting as to how you
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: justify the amount of money you need to run your operation,
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: both in terms of people and in supplies and everything else.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: It's just the government is failing here terribly. It needs
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: to get it together at the local level, at the
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: state level, and then they're trying to, I think, at
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: the federal level. You look at the fraud. Oh, my God,
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: I wonder how much if there's any here. You look
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: at some of this fraud. It's just unbelievable. And the
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: average person should start just paying... Don't get mad at
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: the people in Poland. They're paying attention to what's happening
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: to what they're paying for.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: I admire them. I give them a lot of credit.
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: The people in Poland are saying, wait a minute, this
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: is our community. This is our library. And we love
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: this building, and we want to fix the building we
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: have here. But it's like, sit down, shut up, pay
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: your taxes, we'll decide what we're going to do.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: Right. My message to the principal stakeholder at the library is,
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: that the principal stakeholder is the taxpayer. People who are
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: paying the bill.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Well, do you think it ever gets solved, Tom? I mean,
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: how long have I been talking to you?
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: People get upset like they are in Poland, and more
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: people need to, and tell the county, start taking a
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: look at how you're spending all the money. Start looking,
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: and the same thing goes for the state. Start looking
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: at how you're spending money. The library fund gives $ 500
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: million to, to 250 libraries every year. And that's in
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: the state of Ohio. Ohio gives more money to libraries,
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: 10 times more than the average of all the states
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: in the country. So what's going on? And DeWine, a Republican,
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: he didn't have any problem with that. He didn't want
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: to see it cut. We want them to get back
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: to being a library, not everything else. We don't need
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: sensory rooms. We don't need Social workers, we don't need
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: electric charging stations. We don't need 125-person meeting rooms. You
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: need the people. Those kids over here in the city
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: of Youngstown, they need somebody working more strenuously with the
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: city board of education to upgrade the education of those
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: kids so they come out of there able to be
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: successful and productive people in life. And that's what you
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: have to do. So get active, people. You need the
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: average guy to get active. Anybody who's listening to you,
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: that's what I say.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: In my 41 years sitting at this radio station, you're
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: one of the most intelligent people I've ever that I've
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: spoken to in that period of time. I mean, you
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: would be on the top 10 list.
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: I'll bring the $ 10 over for that.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Listen, I didn't say you were number one, but you
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: would be on the top ten list. I want you
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: to know, at 84, you still got some potential to
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: get to the number one spot. But you're in the
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: top ten as far as some of the most intelligent
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: people I've ever spoken to. And what I've learned from
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: you over the years has just been absolutely fascinating. I
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: remember when I talked to you and you would be
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: my age now and I thought you were an old
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: guy then. Now I realize that you were young because
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: now I'm that age and you're older, you know.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: So somehow we both became old guys, Tom. I don't
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: know how it happened, but I love you. You know that.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: I genuinely do. You're a great guy.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: You guys, you and Dan did a good job of
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: bringing people to learn a lot of things in this
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: community and I'm Sorry to see him gone, and I
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: know that you would like to get some time to yourself,
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: but thank you for what you've done, you and Dan,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: for what you do for the Youngstown community and Mone Valley.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Tom. I appreciate all you do. Thank you,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: my friend. That man is a brilliant individual. I'm just
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: going to tell you right now. He's one of the
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: smartest guys I've spoken to over my tenure here at
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: this radio station. from an analytical point of view. I've
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: never seen a guy being able to look at this,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: that pursues this stuff, looks at this stuff and analyzes
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: this stuff with such clarity. And over my many years,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: I always felt it was a blessing to be able
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: to speak with him. It was a true blessing for
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: me and continues to be. And I hope he lives
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: a long, long life because he is one of a kind.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: in this community. There are certain people that I speak
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: with that they are totally unique individuals and they are
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: one of a kind that have very unique backgrounds that
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: can analyze this stuff because of their backgrounds, whether that's
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: Tom Zamri, whether that's G2 or Dr. Joe and these people.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: And I think to myself over the years, many of
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: these people have really risked a lot to speak up
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: and potentially lose their medical license or potentially lose some uh, other, uh,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: positions that they might hold, but, uh, they do the
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: right thing. And I find that very admirable back with
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: your calls. We're here till six. Thank you for your patience.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back.
• 59:44
  Speaker 5: Now, Ron verb on news radio, five 70 WKBN with
• 59:50
  Speaker 5: Tom Samory on news radio, five 70 WKBN and Ron verb.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: If, uh, One other thing, Tom, just because I want
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: to get under your skin, if that's okay with you today.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: Sorry.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: It wouldn't be the first time.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: If you really want to look at where the taxpayers
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: are getting really a good value for the money that
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: they're paying, it would certainly have to be the forever
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: levy that these idiots voted for as far as a
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: sales tax is concerned for the WRTA, which generates at
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: least $ 9 million, in many cases more than that. per
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: year for WRTA. So much money that you don't even
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: have to pay to ride the bus anymore. So much
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: money that I say often the biggest problem WRTA has
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: on a yearly basis is really trying to figure out
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: how do we spend all of this money. What is
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: your thoughts about that, Tom? On this hot, humid day?
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: They have a continuing tax levy. Meaning, you know, it's
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: very difficult to get rid of continuing to actually want
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: to make it permanent i mean it's permanent they call
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: it continuing but it's permanent and uh... they spent over
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: twenty million dollars last year they get money from all
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: over the place that bus that they has that uh...
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: supposedly went back and forth downtown whoever owns that bus
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: that costs all kinds of money i don't know where
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: it's sitting but it's not being used but the there's
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: a national any bus system in the elksham and our
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: bus system gets money from the federal government anybody system
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: does have to make a report to national transit bureau
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: and it goes reports are available online and the in
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: our bus system here the average number of people on
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: a regular bus anytime it's in service history and i
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: have people uh... and they get that big bus can
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: you imagine what the fuel costs are for those buses
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: and it's just insanity it's it's and nobody takes a
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: look at it and you can you give away that
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: you nobody look at what's happening and uh... And, you know,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: with the national level, we're in a crisis situation with
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: that national debt of $ 40 trillion. That could destroy our country.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: And at the local level, you're seeing that same type
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: of urgency when it comes to the homeowner who's paying,
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: can't afford to keep paying the kind of taxes they're
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: paying anymore for property taxes because you have so many
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: knives coming at you through all these different levies. So
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: the government, the state government isn't doing any better job
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: then the local government, the county government needs to start
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: taking a look at all that stuff. Somebody should bring
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: in a performance audit and do a performance audit on
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: the Western Reserve Transit Authority, too. I mean, you just
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: can't afford to keep paying that kind of money.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, in all seriousness, I mean, that is their
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: biggest problem. And you say about you can't imagine the
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: fuel cost. Well, that's because they're buying all these new
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: electric buses, which are a gazillion dollars, to replace the
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: ones that use fuel because we've got to figure out
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: how to spend even more money. We've got to get
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: rid of this money every year. Can you imagine the pressure, Tom,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: that you're under as an administrator down there to say,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: my God, I've got to get rid of this money
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: and more is coming.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 5: In next year?
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't know where the government, some of
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: the people I know, Katrona introduced a bill, but his
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: bill didn't go anywhere over at a library. The legislators
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: have to start looking at this stuff, and locally we
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: have to start looking at this. I think that that
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: continuing tax for the WRTA should be voted on and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: get rid of again. And then you say, come in
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: and justify the money you need. And I don't know
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: how they're running buses. I'll tell you, I look around.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: And when I see a bus and it's empty.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: Did you ever, like Rhonda Santus when he's talking in
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Florida where he talks about zero-based budgeting. In other words,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: we start at zero every year and you have to
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: justify what you're getting. We don't start with what you
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: had and say we're going to add 3% or 4%.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: And let's say you want 8%, you get a 4%
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: increase and you say, boy, we took a cut this year.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Not this number game crap. Started zero. And that's why
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: you see Florida spending less money each year than they
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: did the year before, not adjusted for inflation. That's the
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: direction government should be going. I mean, if you have
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: people that genuinely care about this stuff. But, I mean, WRTA,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: people voted for that continuous sales tax levy, which is
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: $ 9 million or more every year coming in.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: It's up to about $ 12 million, I think, now. Plus
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: all the money they get from the federal government, too.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: They get money from all over the place. Look, you know,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: the government has to get its act together, have to
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: start doing locally. The commissioners have to start doing what
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: Traffic Andy told Dan Rivers years ago. Before a levy
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: goes on, it should be done a year before the
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: levy comes up. And performance audit, and that should be
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: made public. It should be published in the paper. How
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: is this agency spending all this money that you give them?
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: and then people would know how to vote. People don't know.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: They go there, and they're good-hearted people. They like libraries.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: We need libraries, but we don't need libraries doing what
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: they are right now. People want to have libraries. They
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: want to have people educated. They want to have schools.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: They want to have people. They want these kids that
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: are in the outside schools to come out and be successful.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: Why aren't they? Somebody better start taking a look when
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: you're spending that kind of money. It's government's job. Where
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: are all the elected officials? So that's where I would go.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: Get going with performance audits. And get the state auditor
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: to start coming and taking a look at things, too.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: It's very discouraging, isn't it?
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: Yes. And you need community involvement. And that's why even
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: though people don't like what people in Portland are doing,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: they're involved. You need to be involved. And thank goodness
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: that some people do.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: Right, that they're actively involved. Let's see. Maloney County Board
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: of Developmental Disabilities is asking voters, Tom, to approve... The
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: first new operating levy in 26 years, but the measure
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: could face a considerable hurdle. The Mahoney County Auditor's Office
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: also reports that residential property values increased an average of 24%
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: during our latest evaluation. That's the one that just happened now.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: This will translate to slight increase in property taxes for
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: many residents without voting on it, Tom, as you well know,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: that they will get that.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: That's nonsense, too, that you could raise. I bought this
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: house that I live in for about $ 90, 000. A long
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: time ago, my parents were living here and they needed it.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: They were renting, so I bought it for them. Now
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: they have it valued on the county at $ 175, 000. It's
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: going to probably go over $ 200, 000. And homes on the street,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: real estate is going crazy. People who aren't selling their
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: homes are just paying for money they never made. They
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: can't afford it. They have to start paying attention to
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: the property owner. It's terrible. Even businesses. You can't be
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: killing businesses with property taxes either.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: And, boy, they're doing it.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: So I hope the government officials get their act together.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: I hope the county commissioners start doing what Anthony Traffiganti said.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: Before a levy goes on the ballot, a year ahead
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: of it, we're going to do a performance audit. That is,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: how are you spending the money? What are you doing?
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: And we're going to publish it somehow that the taxpayers
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: see it so they know And we're not going to
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: say 2.4 million, 2.4 mil levy. We're going to say
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: this is what it's going to cost you. And so
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: the people know what's going on. People have a right
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: to know what they're paying and what they're getting out
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: of the money they're paying. They're not doing it right now.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: They're not getting it in so many ways here at
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: the local end and the national end, too.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Mahoning County Commissioners a couple Thursdays ago approved placing the
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: levy on the November ballot. With the commissioner, Gino DeFabio,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: stating that it should be left up to the voters.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: This guy that runs MRDD said the levy would likely
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: cost the owner of a $ 100, 000 home $ 84 additional dollars
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: per year. Well, most homes are beyond $ 100, 000. So if
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: you're $ 200, 000, $ 300, 000, it's going to cost you an additional
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: $ 160, 000 to $ 240, 000 or more per year on top of
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: the re-evaluations, on top of everything else. Let's see. They
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: give numbers here. Whitaker said the cost of providing MCBDD
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: services has increased from roughly $ 60 million annually to $ 100
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: million annually.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: That needs an audit.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: Think of that, Tom. From $ 60 million a year, MRDD
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: is saying to $ 100 million a year.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: That's an incredible amount of money.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: Think of the numbers they're talking. Are you a firm
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: believer they're pricing people out of their homes?
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: You're keeping people from buying homes, too. Kids can't afford
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: to buy them.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is just..
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: With all these property valuations going up, you know, it
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: isn't just places like Poland and the cancel that the
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: prices are going up. You just look at the price
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: increases in Struthers and Camel. You name it, they're going
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: up all over the place. And it's really hurting. It
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: is really hurting people. And then people at the head,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: people in government better get to get their act together
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: and start taking a hard look at where, where is
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: this money going? And, and if you have to wait
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: for that decision to be made on the MRDD and other,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: do a, do a performance audit and let them do,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: put the levy on the next ballot.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're smart enough to do it though.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: And I don't, I know this sounds demeaning and I don't,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: I don't mean it to sound that way. Okay. So
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of a nice way to say this. Um,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: These people that are elected to these positions, do they
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: really have enough of a financial background to figure this
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: stuff out? I mean, Gino himself says, well, he was
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: a truck driver before he became commissioner. I mean, you're
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: running a huge entity. Do you have enough knowledge to
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: figure this stuff out? Would be my first question. Carol
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: Remedia Rigetti Newton-John has been in government all of her life.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: It's got to have some phenomenal retirement from all the
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: government money she's collecting. Does she have enough to understand
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: from even a private sector standpoint what this is doing?
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: I don't think these I really don't think they do.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: Well, I would say that they should add the kind
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: of staff you need to get people who know how
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: to make these analyses of what's going on. And the
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: other thing is you have to have what's called a
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: work measurement system. What are you doing? What are the
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: end products that you're completing in terms of service to
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: the public? What are the services that are provided by
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: the MRDD? What are the services that are provided? What
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: are you counting? Are you counting the people? Like in
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: the library, they come through the door. How many books
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: go out? What are you counting as to how you
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: justify the amount of money you need to run your operation,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: both in terms of people and in supplies and everything else?
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: It's just the government is failing here terribly. It needs
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: to get it together at the local level, at the
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: state level, and then they're trying to, I think, at
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: the federal level. You look at the fraud. Oh, my God.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: I wonder how much if there's any here. You look
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: at some of this fraud. It's just unbelievable. And the
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: average person should start just paying. Don't get mad at
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: the people in Poland. They're paying attention to what's happening
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: to what they're paying for.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: I admire them. I give them a lot of credit.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: The people in Poland are saying, wait a minute, this
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: is our community. This is our library. And we love
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: this building, and we want to fix the building we
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: have here. But it's like, sit down, shut up, pay
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: your taxes. We'll decide what we're going to do.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: Right. My message to the principal stakeholder at the library
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: is that the principal stakeholder is the taxpayer. People are
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: paying the bill.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: Well, do you think it ever gets solved, Tom? I mean,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: how long have I been talking to you?
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: People get upset like they are in Poland, and more
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: people need to. And tell the county, start taking a
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: look at how you're spending all the money. Start looking,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: and the same thing goes for the state. Start looking
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: at how you're spending money. The library fund gives $ 500
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: million to 250 libraries every year. And that's in the
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: state of Ohio. And Ohio gives more money to libraries,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: 10 times more than the average of all the states
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: in that country. So what's going on? And DeWine, a Republican,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: he didn't have any problem with that. He didn't want
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: to see it cut. We want them to get back
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: to being a library, not everything else. We don't need
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: sensory rooms. We don't need social workers. We don't need
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: electric charging stations. We don't need 125-person meeting rooms. You
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: need the people. There's kids over here in the city
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: of Youngstown. They need somebody working more strenuously with the
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: city board of education to upgrade the education of those
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: kids so they come out of there able to be
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: successful and productive people in life. And that's what you
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: have to do. So get active, people. You need the
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: average guy to get active. For anybody who's listening to you, that's.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: What I say. In my 41 years sitting at this
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: radio station, you're one of the most intelligent people that
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: I've spoken to in that period of time. I mean,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: you would be on the top ten list.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: I'll bring the $ 10 over for that.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: I didn't say you were number one, but you would
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: be on the top ten list. I want you to know,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: at 84, you still got some potential to get to
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: the number one spot. But you're in the top ten
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: as far as some of the most intelligent people I've
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: ever spoken to. And what I've learned from you over
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: the years has just been absolutely fascinating. I remember when
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: I talked to you and you would be my age
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: now and I thought you were an old guy then.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: Now I realize that you were young because now I'm
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: that age and you're older.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: So somehow we both became old guys, Tom. I don't
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: know how it happened, but I love you. You know that.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: I genuinely do. You're a great guy.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: You guys, you and Dan did a good job of
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: bringing people to learn a lot of things in this
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: community and I'm Sorry to see him gone, and I
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 2: know that you would like to get some time to yourself.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 2: But thank you for what you've done, you and Dan,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: for what you do for the Youngstown community and the
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: Mone Valley.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Tom. I appreciate all you do. Thank you,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: my friend. That man is a brilliant individual. I'm just
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: going to tell you right now. And he's one of
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: the smartest guys I've spoken to over Mike. tenure here
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: at this radio station from an analytical point of view.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: I've never seen a guy being able to look at this,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: that pursues this stuff, looks at this stuff and analyzes
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: this stuff with such clarity. And over my many years,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: I always felt it was a blessing to be able
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: to speak with him. It was a true blessing for
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: me and continues to be. And I hope he lives
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: a long, long life because he is one of a
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: kind in this community. There are certain people that I
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: speak with that they are totally unique individuals and they
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: are one of a kind that have very unique backgrounds
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: that can analyze this stuff because of their backgrounds, whether
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: that's Tom Zamri, whether that's G2 or Dr. Joe and
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: his people. And I think to myself over the years,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: many of these people have really risked a lot to
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: speak up and potentially lose their medical license or potentially
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: lose some other positions that they might hold. But they
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: do the right thing. And I find that very admirable.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: Back with your calls. We're here till six. Thank you
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: for your patience. I'll be right back.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: I Heart Radio.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: 100 years ago in 19... Youngstown's news, weather, and talk station,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: 570 WKBN.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 4: All right, from.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: News Radio 570 WKBN and Ron Verb, it's 4.55 in
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: the afternoon. You're on air.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 3: Hello.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: Ron, good afternoon, sir.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you called.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: Well, Mr. Zamory is outstanding. I mean, he's one of
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 3: those people, one of the few people that actually is
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 3: involved and goes and does investigations and holds government accountable.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: He's like you.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 3: There's not enough of them.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: He's like you, only better. Oh, yeah. Because he has
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: done this for years on all these government entities, and
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: he just told you, here's how you can find out
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: what the library has, and you've got to go through
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: this process. And he takes the time to do that,
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: just like you do with all these school systems. But
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: you guys become like public enemies because you want to
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: inform the public on how they're being taken advantage of
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: and screwed, as opposed to saying, well, maybe we should
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: listen to these guys and actually respect the taxpayer.
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I would tell everybody that lives in Canfield,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 3: call up or send an email. Go to the Canfield
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 3: Local Schools website. Treasurer's email should be on there if
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 3: you search around a little bit. and send a request
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: and request the employee contracts, request copies of the health
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 3: insurance that shows the benefits they have and what the
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 3: costs and stuff are, the rate sheets, what did it
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: cost for individual, family. Because these people, when you get
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 3: an education, it's the biggest graft going. I mean, they
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 3: work 180 days a year, and they all complain they
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 3: don't make enough money. But if you start looking at
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 3: the average teacher salary, even, you know, I think starting
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 3: teachers now are pushing 40. At least that's what they're
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 3: making at South Range. I'm assuming most of the other
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 3: schools are probably close to that now. Which doesn't sound
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 3: like a whole heck of a lot until you figure
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 3: it's only a seven-and-a-half-hour day. And you take that and
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: divide it by, I think they work 180 or 184
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 3: days a year. The rest of us are, what, I
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 3: think 220? It's a year or even 260. You're working
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 3: a lot more days than what they're working. So if
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 3: you figure out their hourly rate, it's not bad. They're
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 3: making what nurses and engineers and other professional people are
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 3: making hourly. It's just, you know, if they want more money,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 3: then by all means, extend the school year and go
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 3: all year long. We've got to figure out... a way
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 3: to fund it then, but that's how you make more money.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 3: You actually work for a living. You don't take three
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 3: months off during the summer and expect to make what
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 3: everybody else makes. You can't just make what a nurse makes,
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 3: and she's working 52 weeks a year, and you're working
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: two-thirds of that.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: You get it. I mean, there's a lot I want
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: to talk to you about here. But you get it
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: when I say I feel sorry for the people in
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: the city of Canfield facing an MRDD levy and almost
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: a six-mil school levy. I mean, if one or both
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: of those pass, in addition to the re-evaluations, you will
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: price people out of the city of Canfield. There's no
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: question in my mind. It will be eye-opening shocking.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 3: Well, no, if you're in the city of Canfield, don't
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 3: I believe they have an income tax?
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 3: So you're paying an income tax on top of the
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 3: outrageous property taxes. And it just never ends. I wanted
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 3: to tell Mr. Zamri, I am actually looking, and I've
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 3: talked to another couple of public officials who are on
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: board with this. I'd like to actually get it started
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 3: with the county. And I've been telling you this. I
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 3: told you to tell Dan this all the time. We
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 3: need to get rid of the current type of county
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: government we have and go to a charter form of government.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 3: Because right now you only have three people making decisions.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: And I don't know how qualified. I mean, I don't
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: know that they're competent enough to run a huge organization
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: like this. And stand by, all right? Just stand by.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: Back with Rich, a pharmacist, and more. Ron Verb from
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Mahoney here tonight till 6. Thanks for
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: tuning in. I'll be back.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 5: And Talk Station 570 WKBN.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: All right, from News Radio 570 WKBN and Ron Verb.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: It's 4.55 in the afternoon. You're on the air. Hello.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: Ron, good afternoon, sir.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you called.
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 3: Well, Mr. Zamri is outstanding. I mean, he's one of
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: those people, one of the few people that actually is
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 3: involved and goes and does investigations and holds government accountable.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: He's like you. There's not enough of them. He's like you,
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: only better. Because he has done this for years on
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: all these government entities, and he just told you, here's
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: how you can find out what the library has, and
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: you've got to go through this process. And he takes
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: the time to do that, just like you do with
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: all these school systems. But you guys become like public
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: enemies because you want to inform the public on how
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: they're being taken advantage of and screwed, as opposed to saying, well,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: maybe we should listen to these guys and actually respect
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: the taxpayer.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I would tell everybody that lives in Canfield,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 3: call up or send an email. Go to the Canfield
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 3: Local Schools website. Treasurer's email should be on there if
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 3: you search around a little bit. And send a request
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 3: and request the employee contracts, request copies of the health
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 3: insurance that shows the benefits they have and what the
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 3: costs and stuff are, the rate sheets, what did it
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 3: cost for individual, family. Because these people, when you get
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 3: an education, it's the biggest graft going. I mean, they
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 3: work 180 days a year. Now, they all complain they
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 3: don't make enough money. But if you start looking at
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 3: the average teacher salary, even, you know, I think starting
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 3: teachers now are pushing 40. At least that's what they're
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 3: making at South Range. I'm assuming most of the other
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 3: schools are probably close to that now, which doesn't sound
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 3: like a whole heck of a lot until you figure
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: it's only a seven-and-a-half-hour day. And you take that and
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 3: divide it by, I think they work 180 or 184
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 3: days a year. The rest of us are, what, I
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 3: think 220? or even 260, you're working a lot more
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 3: days than what they're working. So if you figure out
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: their hourly rate, it's not bad. They're making what nurses
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 3: and engineers and other professional people are making hourly. It's just,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 3: you know, if they want more money, then by all means,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 3: extend the school year and go all year long. We've
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 3: got to figure out a way to fund it then, but,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 3: you know, that's how you make more money. You actually
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 3: work for a living. You don't take three months off
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 3: during the summer and expect to make what everybody else makes.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 3: You can't expect to make what a nurse makes when
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 3: she's working 52 weeks a year and you're working two-thirds
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: You get it. I mean, there's a lot I want
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: to talk to you about here. But you get it
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: when I say I feel sorry for the people in
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: the city of Canfield facing an MRDD levy at almost
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: a six-mil school levy. I mean, if one or both
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: of those pass in addition to the re-evaluations, you will
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: price people out of the city of Canfield. There's no
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: question in my mind. It will be eye-opening shocking.
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 3: Well, no, if you're in the city of Canfield, I
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 3: believe they have an income tax.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 3: So you're paying an income tax on top of the
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 3: outrageous property taxes. And it just never ends. I wanted
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 3: to tell Mr. Zamri, I am actually looking, and I've
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 3: talked to another couple public officials who are on board
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 3: with this. I'd like to actually get it started. With
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 3: the county, we need, and I've been telling you this,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 3: I used to tell Dan this all the time, we
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 3: need to get rid of the current type of county
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 3: government we have and go to a charter form of government.
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 3: Right now, you only have three people making decisions.
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: And I don't know how qualified. I mean, I don't
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: know that they're competent enough to run a huge organization
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: like this. And stand by, all right? Just stand by.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: Back with Richard Pharmacist and more. Ron Verb from the
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: Kingdom of Mahoney here tonight till 6. Thanks for tuning in.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: I'll be back.