Struthers City Councilman Ron Carcelli

STRUTHERS — With the general election two weeks away, Democrat Ron Carcelli is expected to resign today as Struthers 2nd Ward councilman and plans to withdraw as a candidate.

Carcelli, first elected to the council seat in 2017, was well on his way to being elected Nov. 4 to his fifth two-year term. Once Carcelli’s withdrawal is received by the Mahoning County Board of Elections, only Robert E. Deagan will be eligible for the seat as he filed as a write-in candidate after failing to qualify in the primary as a Republican.

Carcelli couldn’t be reached Tuesday to comment. His son, Ron Carcelli Jr., refused to comment Tuesday on the resignation.

But council President Mike Patrick said Councilman Dallas Bigley will bring Carcelli’s resignation letter to today’s council meeting.

Carcelli’s letter will cite health issues as the reason for his resignation.

Council also plans today to discuss an Oct. 14 police report filed against Carcelli that accuses him of theft in office, a fifth-degree felony, for allegedly taking city-owned trash can liners.

The police report, filed by city Park Superintendent Bryan Montgomery, states Carcelli came to the back of the social hall at Mauthe Park, 156 Smithfield St., and asked for trash can liners. Montgomery told a police officer that he gave Carcelli two rolls of 55-gallon trash can liners, each containing 18 bags.

Montgomery told a police officer “he was unaware Carcelli was not permitted at the hall without just cause, per the Struthers city administration” and he “thought due to Carcelli being a city councilman it was OK for him to give Carcelli the can liners.”

Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller cited ongoing issues with Carcelli’s conduct.

Cercone Miller said she took Montgomery’s complaint about Carcelli to Law Director John N. Zomoida Jr., who told her that council should discuss it first.

Cercone Miller said The Vindicator asking questions Monday about the police report likely helped Carcelli make his resignation decision.

But she said she is waiting to get a formal resignation letter and an official withdrawal from the election from Carcelli before saying too much. “I don’t trust anything that is said by him. I still plan to speak about the (trash can liners) issue, but not as harsh. We do have a police report,” she said.

Asked if she wants to pursue the matter, Cercone Miller said, “If he’s ill it puts me between a rock and hard place. But he put himself in this position. I’m elated if he is leaving, not just because of what he’s done with the city staff, but because of what he’s said about my husband and my children.”

Council President Mike Patrick said Carcelli has “lived his whole life being unprofessional in his position,” and is a “pain in the ass.”

Patrick said he is pleased to see Carcelli plans to resign.

In a Nov. 3, 2021, letter to city council, Cercone Miller wrote: “I have asked city council on multiple occasions to address 2nd Ward Councilman Ron Carcelli and his actions and behavior when it comes to city employees. He is not part of the administrative body and has no authority to demand that employees attend to his requests, and this has been explained to him on multiple occasions.”

The letter states that a day prior, Carcelli called the safety-service director and street foreman about blocking off a street for a tree to be cut.

Cercone Miller wrote: “I am once again asking city council to reprimand and handle this issue as it is ongoing.”

But council didn’t do anything.

Before Carcelli was elected to city council, he spent eight years as a member of the Struthers school board, being elected to four-year terms in 2009 and 2013. He lost the 2015 Democratic primary for mayor.

Before that, Carcelli served as the city’s street foreman, quitting in 2002 after being indicted on felony charges of theft in office, bribery and theft related to him allegedly receiving $5,000 in bribes, and the city was improperly billed for about $8,000 for asphalt that wasn’t used for a street project.

Carcelli took a plea deal in 2005 to a misdemeanor count of unlawful interest in a public contract. He was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution to the city and a $1,000 fine. He also received one year of probation.

A Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge sealed Carcelli’s record in 2012.

While Carcelli is a longtime Democrat, he was removed in early 2024 from the party’s central committee for actively campaigning in the November 2023 election for a Republican.

Once Carcelli withdraws as a candidate, Deagan would need just one vote as a write-in to win the election representing the 2nd Ward as he was the only person to file with such a designation.

Deagan said he plans to vote for himself, to serve the term and was surprised by Carcelli’s resignation.

Deagan initially filed as a Republican for the position, but the board of elections on Feb. 10 refused to certify his candidacy because he failed to put what ward race he was seeking on his nominating petitions. Instead, he just wrote “councilman.”

Deagan was allowed to file for the general election as a write-in candidate because he was disqualified from the primary election and not the general election.

No one else filed for the ward seat.