YOUNGSTOWN — The county’s public library system has responded to scrutiny from another public official.

A letter sent Thursday to the Board of Trustees of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County from embattled Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Michael P. Ciccone accuses the library of failure to report donations and disclose other financial information per Ohio law.

The document also was CC’d to library executive staff, Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro, Mahoning County Commissioners Anthony Traficanti, Carol Rimedio-Righetti and Geno DiFabio, State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, and State Rep. Tex Fisher, R-Canfield.

A corresponding news release was sent out to local media at 4:27 p.m., just about 90 minutes before the opening of PLYMC’s largest annual fundraiser, Ladies in Little Black Dresses.

The letter states that PLYMC is required to file annual reports per Section 1713.29 of the Ohio Revised Code…on or before the third Monday in January of each year.

“The same statute further requires the annual filing of a report identifying the names of donors, the kind, amount, or value of gifts from each donor, and a brief statement of the conditions and purposes of those gifts,” the letter states.

Ciccone cites Mahoning County Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas records, which allegedly show that the library has not filed the documents since Feb. 4, 2020. All report years from 2021-2026 are delinquent, the letter states.

In a social media post, Ciccone also attacked PLYMC CEO and Executive Director Aimee Fifarek and other library officials for the failure.

“Fifarek and friends recently voted to close the beautiful Poland Library due to financial concerns,” he wrote.

Fifarek does not vote on any such decisions; that authority rests with the library’s board of trustees.

“The individuals who requested the documents indicated that the PLYMC did not respond to their public records requests and that two of my predecessors did nothing to cure this deficiency,” Ciccone wrote.

He gave PLYMC until June 12 — a week from when he sent the letter — to provide the documentation or a legally valid reason why it was not submitted or could not be provided within that time.

A news release issued Monday by PLYMC states that all of the documents were made available to Ciccone’s office as of about 3 p.m. Monday.

“Following review of the notice, Library leadership determined the matter appeared to involve an administrative oversight related to historical filings,” the release states. “The library will conduct an internal administrative review of its filing procedures to strengthen compliance processes and help ensure all required reports are submitted in a timely manner.”

Chief Stakeholder Relations Officer Zak Kozberg said the forms were delivered in person to the courthouse and also sent via email to all those CC’d on Ciccone’s original letter.

“PLYMC has complied with Mr. Ciccone’s request for these documents. It took our team less than two business days to comply. Physical and digital copies were delivered today. Mistakes were made, and PLYMC is owning up and ensuring they don’t happen again.”

Kozberg said the library was able to turn the record request around in 48 hours because the information was readily available.

“All anyone had to do is call. It’s not even a mistake, it’s just an oversight,” he said, adding that all public records are maintained per state auditing standards and PLYMC bylaws. The information discussed in Ciccone’s letter is presented to the board of trustees annually and submitted to Faber’s office biennially. Kozberg noted that fiscal audits were completed, containing all that information for fiscal years 2021-22, 2022-23, and that the audit for 2024-25 is just about to begin.

He said the library has very strict and specific standards about how it handles public records requests and what records it keeps for what periods of time. He said the best way to ensure an information request is met in a timely fashion is to make it as specific as possible.

Ciccone’s terse letter concluded with an admonition:

“The people of Mahoning County are entitled to transparency from public and charitable institutions that operate in the public trust. The Library’s important role in the county does not exempt it from statutory accountability. To the contrary, its public importance makes compliance with Ohio law all the more necessary.”

While he noted that his office cannot impose sanctions, he stated that the library’s failure to provide the reports will remain part of the official records in his office.

His Facebook post struck a more combative tone:

“I will be damned if this hubris of an unelected quasi-governmental body that levies taxes on the People of Mahoning County continues as long as I am clerk of courts.”

County Republican and Democratic leaders have accused Ciccone of mismanaging the clerk’s office and abusing his authority. He also has faced criticism from the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association, which censured him and called on him to resign, and from county commissioners, who restricted his courthouse access over security concerns. Ciccone has repeatedly said he will not resign.

He is not the first public official to take aim at PLYMC in the wake of the Poland branch decision on April 29.

Cutrona’s effort to give Mahoning County Commissioners authority over some of the library’s decisions ran into resistance during a Senate committee hearing in late May, where lawmakers from both parties questioned why the legislation was so narrowly tailored as to apply only to Mahoning County. In his defense of the bill, Cutrona specifically mentioned the Poland library decision.

Introduced eight days before the board’s vote on Poland, SB 426 would require commissioner approval before a library branch in a county of Mahoning’s size could be closed, decommissioned or made inactive. A violation could expose the library system to lawsuits and the loss of Public Library Fund money that accounts for roughly half of its operating budget.