AUSTINTOWN — Two seats are up for grabs on the township’s Board of Trustees, and five people want to claim their stake.

Incumbents Rob Santos and Monica Deavers have both served four-year terms. They face challenges from former trustee Jim Davis, auto mechanic Carl Clay and former Youngstown city councilman Michael Rapovy.

Emily Ciccone dropped out of the race after being arrested on domestic violence charges that were later dropped. Her estranged husband, Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Michael Ciccone, is now facing calls for his resignation from office from both Democrats and his own Republican party.

In early October, Santos, Deavers, Davis and Clay spoke to about 75 Austintown residents who attended a forum at Austintown Fitch High School. Since then, The Vindicator’s editorial board has had one-on-one conversations with Santos, Deavers and Rapovy.

MICHAEL RAPOVY

A city councilman in Youngstown from 2000 to 2008, Rapvoy and his wife moved to the township in 2016. He largely grew up in the area, with family in the Wickliffe neighborhood, and his first job was at Austintown Ponderosa.

Rapovy wants more transparency from the board.

“What really fired it up was when they wanted to bring that methadone clinic into Austintown Plaza, and nobody heard about it until suddenly it broke on social media,” he said. “Then it was a lot of excuses — ‘we didn’t want a lawsuit’ … and next thing you know, that project is dead. If you want to bring something in, let’s talk about it publicly; let’s not sneak it in the back door.”

He said he also does not like that the township has cut down board meetings from two per month to one, with a publicly accessible staff meeting two weeks later. He said he wants to see the budget, but disagrees with being told to come to township hall to discuss it with a trustee or other official.

“Let me see the budget. I have a job, I don’t have time to come in and spend two or three days talking it over. Put it online so the public can review it,” he said. “So, if everything is kosher, the public will know it.”

Rapovy also said he wants the township to try for limited home rule status, similar to Boardman, so that it will have more authority to manage problems like zoning. He also wants to see the streets fully repaired, even if the cost of that means fewer streets get paved each year.

“Let’s just say the budget is enough to repave 15 streets, but if we really repair them, we can only do five,” he said. “I’d like to do quality first because when you do quality first, it lasts longer.”

ROBERT SANTOS

Santos is a medically retired Marine veteran who wanted to be an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper. He first tried his hand at politics in a failed bid for Congress, losing the Republican primary in 2020. But since his election to trustee in 2021, he has made his presence known.

“We’ve accomplished a lot, and we have a lot more to accomplish. That’s why I’m running for a second term,” he said.

Santos prides himself on building relationships, tenacity and his penchant for being the squeaky wheel. He has spent his first term talking to, working with, visiting and bothering anyone and everyone who can help the township solve a problem.

“One of the things I saw was lacking in Austintown was that the connection we had with our legislators, both state and federal, was really non-existent,” he said.

The registered Republican speaks regularly with State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, as well as his Republican colleagues in the Ohio Senate and both houses of the U.S. Congress. Santos also is president of the Mahoning Township Association.

Earlier this year, he led a delegation of community leaders from Mahoning and Trumbull counties to Columbus to persuade the House and Senate not to claw back the local government’s 35% share of the 10% excise tax the state collects from the sale of recreational marijuana, per the language voters approved with Issue 2 in 2023. They were successful.

He also took his fellow trustees down to Washington, D.C., to lobby for a $5 million grant that would have allowed the township to complete a large repair of sanitary lines in and around Austintown Township Park. While unsuccessful, he and Deavers say they learned a great deal about the process that will help them with securing similar grants in the future.

On the day Santos spoke with The VIndicator editorial board, the township announced it had received a $500,000 Ohio Jobs OSIP grant to support the industrial and commercial project for GSP Land Holdings project on Silica Road, for which trustees approved a 10-year tax abatement in September.

Addressing this year’s police levy — a five-year renewable levy, as opposed to last year’s proposed continuing levy — Santos said he understands that property tax rates are an issue and levies are not popular, but stressed that trustees have made every possible cut to the police budget without compromising the level of service.

CARL CLAY

Clay has taken criticism from others in the race for what they say is a lack of understanding about how local government works, but he said he plans to make up for a lack of experience with “hustle.”

“This is my first time, So, I lack the experience my three other candidates have. I’m a small businessman. I look at business, balance budgets, cut costs and look for the No. 1 bottom line — what’s going to make the township a profitable place to live?” he said. “I’m not looking at it as a government job. I’m looking at it as how can I help the township trustees reorganize, eliminate costs, bring a comprehensive job analysis and show us where the township is losing its money the most.”

Clay also said he swears not to place any new levies on the ballot without first gaining approval from voters.

“I believe our current trustees have made an error in judgment by attempting to pass a continuous tax levy without proper voter notification,” he said, referring to last year’s failed police levy. “Furthermore, the recent borrowing of $500,000 from the general fund to the police department raises serious concerns about financial responsibility.”

He said he wants to hold the whole township accountable.

“I’m actively seeking advice on how to prevent unauthorized transfer of funds from departments the voters have supported through the approval of levy requests,” he said.

Clay said he thinks Austintown needs to do a better job of seeking outside funds.

“Besides levies, there’s alternate fundings. There’s grants. One of the other things that may happen is we have to invoice every resident for the township’s resources. Every resident will get a bill for all four departments plus administrative costs,” he said. “That will be just like property tax but less — it would be for fair market value.”

Clay said the police and fire departments should take precedence over all other township costs.

“We need to take a hard look at the administrative cost in Austintown so we can make the budgets for our first responders the main priority, and make all the services available to everyone,” he said.

JIM DAVIS

Davis said the reason he is running is clear: The township is facing difficult times, and he has the knowledge and the experience to get Austintown through it.

“I know this township inside and out,” he said. “I’ve sat in meetings with the FOP when I was on the union side, and I’ve sat in those meetings where I was the trustee. I know better than anybody how to come to fair and amicable contract agreements between the unions and the township without hiring outside attorneys. I know how to come up with ideas and allow them to execute those ideas.”

Davis was elected in 2008 and was one of two incumbents defeated in 2021 by Santos and Deavers, along with Ken Carano.

During the forum, Davis seemed to take a jab at Clay, while offering some support to the incumbents.

“This is not a time for on-the-job training. We can’t have people step into this role that don’t understand how government works,” he said. “Kudos to these trustees (Deavers and Santos), and kudos to myself, but the township has passed township budgets. The state comes in and audits the township. This isn’t about mismanagement of funds, or funds being spent recklessly. The problem is that tough decisions need to be made. It’s not that these two have spent money frivolously. They have not. We need to take a hard look and say, OK, if the park is into the general fund for $90,000, but we’re talking about laying off cops, absolutely not. We can’t lay off law enforcement. We can’t take firefighters off the streets.”

Davis said he will support the police levy and encouraged residents to do the same, but said he understands their frustration.

“I’ve heard you loud and clear. A police levy was voted down. The police levy this November is imperative for the continuation of police protection and keeping our community safe,” he said. “My pledge to you is to tell you that whether this levy passes or fails, there will not be another levy on the ballot other than a renewal during my four-year term in office. You cannot afford to pay, that’s why you voted no. I get it.”

MONICA DEAVERS

Deavers said she gets it too, and as a resident and business owner, she doesn’t like the increase in property taxes any more than other residents, and perhaps even less than some of them.

She said the trustees have had no trouble making difficult decisions. Both she and Santos mentioned cutting the department’s K9 program.

“We didn’t buy any new police cars, so now we have officers with cars that are over 125,000 miles,” she said.

The department, through retirements and departures, is down to 31 officers, at least seven fewer than its optimal staffing level. Deavers elaborated on the audits Davis mentioned.

“We’ve been audited three times in my four years,” she said. “It’s usually every other year, but we received $775,00 of federal grant money (much of that was a COPS Grant from the Department of Justice to support the salaries and equipment for three officers) so they make you go through it again. We got all A+. They can go on the state.”