The pretrial hearing of ex-Youngstown Finance Director David Bozanich, downtown property developer Dominic Marchionda and 10 of the latter’s affiliated companies, has consumed much of my time lately.

But in reality, I’ve been following the issues for more than a decade — and that became evident during the first day of the hearing last week.

Ralph E. Cascarilla, Bozanich’s attorney, asked T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director, about a 2009 city council finance committee meeting. During his line of questioning, he asked her if I specifically attended the meeting. She said yes. She was then asked who I was and she explained.

This all took place while I was sitting in the courtroom no more than 15 feet from Woodberry.

I was a bit surprised to hear my name. It wasn’t the first time my name was mentioned in a court proceeding I covered, but this one came out of the blue.

Cascarilla was trying to establish that city council voting to accept Marchionda’s $1 million payment for the North Side fire station on Madison Avenue, which closed last month, was done in public and I attended the meeting as a representative of the public.

I must have acted a lot more surprised than I was. During a break, Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who is overseeing the case, asked me if it caught me off-guard. I said a little. She said the look on my face told a different story.

As the hearing progressed, Richard Poland, who works for the Ohio Auditor’s Office and conducted audits of Youngstown, took the stand.

One of those audits issued a finding for adjustment related to Marchionda in December 2009 paying $1 million for the fire station and getting a $1.2 million grant from the city’s water fund to develop his Flats at Wick student-housing complex.

An Aug. 30, 2018, indictment contends Bozanich gave the $1.2 million to Marchionda if he would turn around and give $1 million back so Bozanich could have the city’s general fund end that year with a surplus. Bozanich allegedly got $20,000 from Philip Beshara, once a well-connected businessman, for helping Marchionda.

Bozanich is accused of allowing Marchionda to keep the remaining $200,000 with the developer using $70,000 of it for private purposes.

The city originally had agreed to sell the station for $10 to Marchionda. But six weeks later, city council, acting on Bozanich’s advice, authorized the sale for $1 million and the city signed a 10-year lease for $10 annually for the station.

During Poland’s testimony, he read from a document he wrote while conducting that audit that raised concerns about the transaction. He said he heard about the deal from someone, but upon further questioning Poland acknowledged he read it in the newspaper.

It was determined that what he was talking about was an article I wrote at the time of the deal.

Chris Rudy, a retired fraud investigator for the state auditor, testified that he was told in 2015 about Marchionda’s dealings with the city by a confidential informant.

While I don’t take credit for the investigation — and everyone is innocent until proven guilty — there is no doubt that without the article I wrote about the deal, law enforcement wouldn’t have taken a closer look at the alleged illegal goings-on at Youngstown city hall or at least it would have taken longer for an examination to occur.

It’s easy to criticize the media — and some of it is merited — but also know that local journalists are doing the best they can to keep the public aware of what government is doing.

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com