Friday, May 26, 2000
5 named to board of MRDD
By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Warren County's mental retardation board is back in business.
County commissioners on Thursday appointed five people to the board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities — a board that had been left empty after a scandal over agency spending.
“We knew that the MRDD agency needed a new board that would instill public confidence,” said Commissioner Larry Crisenbery. “The next six months of reorganization will be crucial in that respect.”
The new board includes some familiar faces, such as County Administrator Bob Price, a Springboro resident, and retired Judge Warren C. Young of Lebanon.
“I agreed to try it for a while and do what I can to help out,” said Judge Young, 90, a veteran of many boards.
Commissioners also decided to reappoint Sonya Staffan of Lebanon, one of those forced off the board this spring. Mrs. Staffan, a MRDD volunteer with a young child in the program, had only recently become a board member and had no role in the controversy, Commission President Pat
South said.
The new board will likely hold its first meeting in June, said Deputy MRDD Superintendent Paul Davis; some bills have gone unpaid since the former board's last meeting more than a month ago.
Commissioners forced that board to resign; the two groups had locked horns since January.
Former MRDD Superintendent Charlotte Marinacci had provoked an outcry from county residents and commissioners when she was accused of buying two houses for MRDD at tens of thousands of dollars above their value.
After Mrs. Marinacci quit, blame for the purchases spread to include the MRDD board, which also was criticized on other financial issues.
Warren County Schools Superintendent John Lazares and Mr. Davis, a retired Hamilton County MRDD administrator, have been running the agency on an interim basis since March.
Commissioners' other two appointments:
ćAndrew Tsitouris of Maineville, owner of a computer technology company and a former execu tive with Blue Cross &Blue Shield.
ćAnn Jaster of Lebanon, a former special-education teacher who has an adult daughter in the MRDD program.
The two remaining board seats are to be filled by Probate Judge Mike Powell, possibly today.
Also Thursday, commissioners rejected a request for a rezoning to put apartments and duplexes on land along Butler-Warren Road in western Turtlecreek Township. The area does not have sewer service, and the county's strategic plan calls for it to remain rural.
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