First Published: July 24, 2007
Unanswered questions, demanding letters, unpaid debt and a lawyer for each witness.
It is all part of the taxpayers' lawsuit against Mahoning County leaders for the purchase of that controversial building: Oakhill Renaissance Place.
Opponents of that purchase took the stand for the taxpayers' case claiming that the move was illegal. Former county Treasurer John Reardon and current Treasurer Lisa Antonini admitted that they never spoke to supporters of the project, or did their own research.
They said they relied mainly on what they called hard evidence fed to them by the Cafaro brothers, who wanted to block the purchase of Oakhill. Auditor Mike Sciortino said he never got the answers he needed to hand over the $75,000 payment for the property, blaming the situation on poor communication.
To this day that payment has not been made, however, the county has moved ahead with plans to use Oakhill as an office building. Meanwhile, Administrator George Tablack and the Building Commission have been dropped from the suit.
More testimony is expected tomorrow.
