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YOUNGSTOWN - The office of controversial Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Michael Ciccone failed to pay more than 20 monthly electric and gas bills at area county courts - again raising questions about his ability to do even the most basic functions of his job.
In total, there were 18 unpaid bills from FirstEnergy for electricity at all four area county courts with company representatives showing up Monday at the Sebring court with a disconnection notice because Ciccone's office failed to pay four straight monthly bills.
Also, county Auditor Ralph Meacham said he was given at least three late Columbia Gas of Ohio bills for the Sebring court by the clerk of court's office Tuesday, including a termination of services notice, dated Monday, because those bills weren't paid in at least three months.
Meacham said: "It's business as usual for our downtown clerk of courts. There's no other department where this is happening. We have several different departments and everyone is doing their job except for this clerk of courts."
It is the clerk of courts' responsibility to pay monthly utility bills for the four area courts in Sebring, Austintown, Boardman and Canfield, Meacham said. The bills go to the area courts and are then forwarded to Ciccone's office, where they've been sitting unpaid for months.
The clerk of courts failed to pay other utility bills in December on time, Meacham said.
Meacham said Scott Hunter, the area court's administrative and presiding judge, contacted his office to say the Sebring court had received a hand-delivered notice from FirstEnergy employees that unless the delinquent bills were paid by Tuesday, the electricity would be shut off. Meacham said Brent Hanni, Ciccone's chief of staff, provided 18 unpaid FirstEnergy bills to his office.
All of the late bills were paid Tuesday, Meacham said.
"If anyone was paying attention at the clerk of courts they had to know they were delinquent," Meacham said. "It took one of the judges to get a notice that the power was going to be shut off. That triggered the 'eureka' information in the clerk's office."
Hanni served as the clerk of courts' fiscal officer since December and was promoted to chief of staff about two months ago after Katherine E. Rudzik left. Hanni is Ciccone's third chief of staff in less than a year.
Ciccone and Hanni didn't respond Tuesday to requests from The Vindicator to comment on the latest problems at their office.
Hanni brought at least three notices Tuesday from Columbia Gas, including a termination notice, into the auditor's office for payments not made for gas bills for the Sebring court, Meacham said. Those are being paid, he said.
Hunter said Joe Schiavoni, the judge in Sebring court, told him about the warning from FirstEnergy that the electricity would be shut off.
Hunter said: "I've served for 27 years as a county court judge. I'm at a complete loss as to how this situation even occurred. This is walking and chewing gum. You pay the utilities."
There's been a slew of problems at the clerk of courts since Ciccone took office in January 2025, including the failure to file routine monthly reconciliation reports for more than a year, forcing county commissioners to agree to pay an accounting firm to do the job. When the firm discovered how bad the problem was, the commissioners increased the fee from $25,000 to $75,000.
Ciccone's office twice failed to handle its finances resulting in bounced checks, Meacham said.
In May, Ciccone's office put $1 million into the wrong fund and it wasn't discovered until numerous checks written on that account bounced, Meacham said.
Two months later, Ciccone's office again put money into the wrong account and checks written for appraisers to handle sheriff's sales bounced, Meacham said.
Leaders in the county Republican Party, including Meacham, called on Ciccone, a fellow Republican, to resign Oct. 18, a day after Jennifer Ciccone, fired Oct. 17 as his chief deputy and chief of staff, posted several incriminating and embarrassing text messages from and photos of her former boss and once close friend on Facebook. That included the use of a racial epithet a number of times and slurs about elected officials.
Thais Scott of Girard, a former clerk of courts' administrator who is black, filed a lawsuit July 21 against Ciccone and his office contending he fired her after she reported to the human resources department that he called her a racial slur. Scott is suing Ciccone for racial discrimination, retaliation and having a hostile work environment. An attorney representing Ciccone said he fired Scott for legitimate reasons and denies the allegations.
The county's two political parties announced Dec. 19 it would seek to remove Ciccone through legal action that started in January. There has been little movement on that effort.
Also, the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association censured Ciccone in November, and then removed him from all committees and asked him to resign from the organization a month later. Ciccone has refused to resign.
The commissioners suspended Ciccone's access privileges in December to the courthouse entrances, except the main one, for what they said were violations of security rules and protocols.
Hunter, also a Republican, said Tuesday: "It is deeply troubling what is going on. It's hard for me to fathom that the electric bill wasn't getting paid. It's deeply disappointing and very concerning. It does fit a pattern of a lack of confidence in what's going on in the clerk's office."
Schiavoni, a Democrat, said of the unpaid bills leading to a shutoff notice: "I'm concerned about it. I'm concerned that if the most basic function of not paying utility bills isn't happening, what else is going on down there? That office is responsible for attorneys filing documents and automobile titles. A lot of money is coming in and out. It's concerning. The most basic function in the world is to pay your bills. Taxpayers trust that their money is providing adequate services and if the clerk of courts doesn't pay the bills it's dereliction of duty and it almost was. I understand when you're new at the job, you can have issues, but he's been in office for about two years."