Sammy Catania resigns at TWDC Board President to seek TWDC staff position
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, August 2008) Sammy Catania announced that he is resigning as President of the Board of Directors of Tremont West Development Corporation (TWDC) in order to apply for the position of Development Director/Strategic Investment Initiative Program Director with the organization.

During his tenure as President, Catania worked successfully to restore TWDC’s standing committees. The organization now has a number of strong committees working toward their goals.

In line to succeed Catania as Board President is Tom Cook, the First-Vice President of the Board of Trustees. Catania also served as chair of the Housing Committee. He recommended Housing Committee member Tim Jenkins as his replacement as chair of the committee.

NEWS ANALYSIS

At a July joint meeting of the Housing, Safety and Economic Development and Long Range Planning committees, Chris Garland mentioned that he had posted the position for Development Director on careerbuilder.com and published it in the Cleveland Neighborhood Development Corporation newsletter. Garland said Board member Tom Cook and a representative of Neighborhood Progress Inc. would be among those serving on a screening committee, which will narrow down applicants to a short list so he can interview the finalists.

Catania said he has been applying for positions as development directors for some time now. When the TWDC position came up in his job search, he decided to resign from the board and apply for the position. Catania, a developer, who has worked on properties in the Tremont neighborhood, does not believe his business interests will present a conflict with the position he seeks. He believes he can work around any potential conflicts.

TWDC member Henry Senyak sees another potential conflict of interest facing job candidate Catania in that Catania helpd to select Garland as Executive Director, and now Garland could be potentially interviewing him for a position with TWDC.  "This just does not pass the smell test, most municipality's or corporations have policies in place that prohibit someone resigning from a board position and accepting employment for a period of one-year,” said Senyak.

“It is my opinion that Chris Garland remove himself from the hiring process in regards to this position,” said Senyak.  “Mr. Catania was involved with the search committee to hire Chris Garland as the Executive Director. This should be brought in front of the full Board with input from the membership. There must be no perception of a conflict of interest in regards to filling this position, it would further erode the publics trust and opinion of Tremont West.”

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