The mayor of Youngstown and a former Mahoning County auditor are scheduled to be sentenced today on the corruption charges to which they pleaded guilty to a month ago.
Mayor John McNally pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges. All were related to his time in the mid-2000s as a Mahoning County commissioner and his attempt to block the county from moving offices from a building owned by a powerful developer.
He admitted sharing a confidential county letter with a law firm representing the developer. But right after he entered it, McNally described his plea as simply a matter of expediency.
“I still believe it was a perfectly legitimate function on my behalf to question the purchase. That building that we purchased still remains pretty much half empty,” McNally said.
McNally, who has since testified in the trial of one of his co-defendants, has refused to resign despite calls – including one from the county Democratic Party chairman – that he do so.
