YOUNGSTOWN — State Rep. Lauren McNally has introduced a bill that she hopes will make the Mill Creek MetroParks Board more accountable to the public by requiring that four of the five members be elected officials.

One each would come from the city council of the largest city, board of trustees of the largest township, council of the largest village and a member of the board of county commissioners. The fifth member would not have to have any elected position.

Under current population totals, the commissioners would come from Youngstown City Council, Boardman Township and Sebring Village, in addition to a Mahoning County commissioner.

McNally, D-Youngstown, created the legislation with the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission and filed it with the clerk of the House of Representatives. It has not yet been assigned to a House committee or had any hearings. She started working on the bill in early summer.

The board has five commissioners appointed by Mahoning County Probate Judge Robert Rusu Jr. The positions are unpaid, volunteer posts, and each member serves a three-year term.

McNally said the legislation, as written, would apply only to the Mill Creek MetroParks, but it can be modified in the lengthy legislative process and could apply to more park districts in Ohio.

She said the attorneys with the LSC recommended that it be written with a “narrow scope” that would only affect the Mill Creek MetroParks “as a starting point. When it goes to committee, and I get testimony for the first time, that is always the starting point. That is where the discussion happens with amendments, expansions, and things change. That is where the general public has the opportunity to come in and speak in favor of it, against it.”

McNally said she decided to sponsor the legislation after receiving complaints from people on a wide variety of issues associated with the MetroParks. She said complaints to her regarding the deer reduction program, which the MetroParks Board approved in April, was “the straw that broke the camel’s back for me and my office. Since I took office, I have had to dedicate a lot of office resources to dealing with complaints about Mill Creek Park, and the deer issue is sort of like the last one. There is no way I should be getting this many phone calls about these many issues with Mill Creek Park.”

ACCOUNTABILITY

McNally said “the point” of the legislation is “to add public oversight, accountability onto the board by incorporating elected officials to the board. Because now as it sits, there is no real recourse or accountability because the law currently now states that even if the probate judge doesn’t like what the current commissioners are doing, he can’t remove them.”

McNally said under the current system, park board commissioners, “don’t have to be transparent because there is no recourse if they don’t. They don’t have to include the public in giving the public a voice or an opinion or allowing them to speak at meetings or anything like that because there is no recourse if they don’t.”

McNally said the public deserves greater accountability out of park board commissioners “because we are paying for (the metroparks) with taxpayer dollars, and nowhere should we be taxpayer-funded with zero accountability and transparency, especially in the state of Ohio.”

She referenced the scandal involving former Ohio speaker of the House Larry Householder, who was sent to federal prison for 20 years in June for leading a racketeering conspiracy to receive nearly $61 million in bribes to pass and uphold a billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout secretly funded by Akron-based utility company FirstEnergy Corp.

McNally said she wants the public to have more confidence in the park board commissioners so that they will not resort to voting against the next renewal of the park board’s levy.

“Could you imagine if the people became so frustrated because they didn’t have a say anymore and they were not being heard and they had no recourse to being heard that they just quit funding the park? That would be horrible. That would be devastating.”

METROPARKS RESPONSE

Lee Frey, MetroParks chairman, when asked about the legislation, said “Representative McNally has decided to introduce punitive legislation designed to change the Board of Commissioners of Mill Creek Park. Her mantra is no taxation without representation, but this legislation fails to address any other of the metro parks in the state of Ohio. So, I fail to see her reasoning.

“The MetroParks were legislated to be an independent body separate from political patronage. Representative McNally’s goal seems to be to politicize the metro park. We are now going to have, according to McNally, people representing two entities. Are they going to vote for where they are elected or where they are appointed?

” I would hope the state legislators would recognize this legislation for what it is. It is sad that McNally chose this path instead of coming to the park to discuss issues she has with the park.”

‘I DON’T THINK YOU HAVE A VOICE’

In June, Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian spoke at a meeting of the Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park organization, urging the people in attendance to get the attention of state legislators to change the laws regarding appointment of park board commissioners because “I don’t think you have a voice.”

Limbian said at the time he did not think Rusu “recognizes how serious all of you are and how serious this problem is. I think if he did there might be a different response as to how this is being handled.”

He then went on to say he thought the deer group members needed to “let (Rusu) know, and I think he would want to hear from you that you’re very displeased with the rubber-stamp of the board and how their executive director is basically thumbing his nose at you.”

In his experience, Limbian said members of volunteer boards he has been part of “would generally rubber stamp whatever the executive director … wanted because he or she knew what they wanted to do.”

McNally said she does not know whether her bill has a chance to become law. She hopes Sen. Michael Rulli, R-33rd of Salem, will support it because that would boost its chances.

McNally says she believes the people who are appointed to park boards in the state are “good and have good intentions and do really well and are very successful.”But, being a member of city council or board of trustees or village council “is a whole different level of pressure. Right now, the park board doesn’t have to do anything. They don’t have to let people speak at their meetings. They don’t have to tell people what their plans are for projects in the park.”

CREATING A COMITTEE

When Judge Rusu was asked about McNally’s legislation, he talked about creating a selection committee in 2016 to assist him in making park board appointments. The positions are not paid, he noted.

He created the committee after controversy over issues such as the killing of geese in the park system. The members of the selection committee represent about 10 groups, such as birders and the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society, he said.

Rusu, who became probate judge in 2014, said the committee’s role is to review applications for the positions and recommend individuals for appointment.

The first time it was used, the committee recommended five people. Rusu selected two, Tom Shipka, who has since left the board, and Frey, a retired Canfield teacher and former Canfield council member, mayor and Canfield Board of Education member, who is serving his second three-year term on the MetroParks Board.

Rusu said he tries to appoint people interested in “all parts of the park,” not people who have “specific interests in the park.” Park board commissioner Paul Olivier, for instance, is vice president of the Mahoning Valley Enterprise of Akron Children’s Hospital. Board commissioner Germaine Bennett is a retired former assistant superintendent for human resources and labor relations for the Youngstown City Schools.

Rusu said if McNally’s bill becomes law, he will carry it out.

“I took an oath to follow all the laws of Ohio, and if this is one of the laws I have to follow, I will do it without hesitation,” he said.