By Carol Colaizzi and Debbie Wachter Morris
The Affordable Housing scandal has spread to Shenango Township.
On Tuesday, a New Castle resident was indicted for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury last year.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh confirmed that charge is linked to the probe of Affordable Housing of Lawrence County. Charges already have been filed against several people in that case.
Although the case against Michael Trover, 41, of 609 E. Long Ave., is tied to the Affordable Housing probe, it is not directly connected. The Affordable Housing case involves allegations that public money was used by the nonprofit organization to buy houses at inflated prices. Trover is accused of lying about payments he allegedly made in exchange for government-funded housing renovation contracts.
According to prosecutors, in late April 2008, Trover was asked if — in order to get work in Shenango Township — he had paid an individual known to the grand jury as RR, or anyone else.
He also was asked, “... for any of this work that you did for Lawrence County, the housing authority, again, did you have to pay” RR “after you got paid or at any point because he had awarded you the contract?”
A third question recounted in the indictment reads: “And, again, did you have to pay (an individual known to the grand jury as RR) or anyone else to get that work?”
In all three cases, Trover responded, “I did not.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Robert Cessar, who signed and announced the indictment, noted in it that Trover had been under oath and “knowingly did make the following false material declarations ...”
INVESTIGATION ‘ONGOING’
His office’s spokeswoman, Margaret Philbin, would not describe the work referred to in those questions, nor would she comment on whether or not anyone involved in the Affordable Housing probe had provided information to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
“I can’t say anything beyond what’s in the indictment.”
And, although she classified the investigation as ongoing, Philbin said she could not talk about the possibility of charges being filed against additional people.
According to court documents, the maximum penalties for false declaration before a grand jury — the official name of the charge against Trover — are any or all of the following: imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, and supervised release of up to three years.
Holly Girdwood, the Lawrence County Housing Authority’s comptroller, could not immediately provide information about Trover yesterday and attempts to reach her before press time today were unsuccessful.
WHO IS RR?
While the indictment was not specific about RR — and Philbin said she could not expand on the case beyond the official paperwork — Robert Ratkovich, a former New Castle city councilman, has links to Trover, Affordable Housing and the Lawrence County Housing Authority.
In fact, a federal grand jury indicted Ratkovich as part of an investigation into Affordable Housing. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Pittsburgh alleged Ratkovich, of 512 Norwood Ave., had engaged in mortgage fraud.
In July, Ratkovich was charged with mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. On July 28, he pleaded guilty to one count of bank and mail fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy.
As part of his plea agreement for a reduced sentence, Ratkovich signed a six-page document that requires his extensive cooperation.
He must provide any information to the government regarding his knowledge of wrongdoing. Ratkovich also agreed to turn over any pertinent documents in his possession and to be available to testify at trials, hearings and other proceedings.
His sentencing had been scheduled for last month, but a U.S. district judge moved it to April 28.
Ratkovich had been the housing authority’s modernization coordinator before becoming the maintenance superintendent in April 2005. He resigned from that post in May.
After the housing authority created Affordable Housing in 2003 — funding it with nearly a quarter of a million dollars in federal money — Ratkovich served as a consultant to that spin-off organization.
In addition, Ratkovich was an inspector in Shenango Township in 2006 when that community’s housing rehabilitation program drew the attention of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
At that time, at least three township residents had complained to officials about the quality of the work done by the program’s contractors.
SHENANGO PROGRAM
Trover is the president of Trover Construction, one of the contractors involved in Shenango’s housing rehabilitation program while it was under the township’s administration.
The operation of the program was transferred to the Lawrence County Community Action Partnership at the beginning of this year.
The move was made because the monitoring of the funding was in question, according to Ed Geiger, a spokesman for the state department of community and economic development.
The block grant funds used for the program were held back since about 2006 because of an investigation the department had requested from the state inspector general’s office.
“We had monitoring concerns with the township,” Geiger explained Wednesday. “They were significant enough that we encouraged Shenango to partner with the county.”
Geiger told The News he would provide additional information about the reasons for the transition after he went back and reviewed the files, but efforts to reach him yesterday were unsuccessful.
Brian Tanner, the most recent administrator of the program while it was under the township’s supervision, said he was surprised about the charge against Trover.
“I had no knowledge of anything like that happening here.”
Efforts to reach Larry Herman, chairman of the Shenango Township supervisors, were unsuccessful.
PROGRAM MOVED
Under Shenango’s direction, the annual grant provided up to $12,000 worth of home improvements for each income-eligible owner-occupied house, Tanner said.
Trover Construction was sometimes chosen from a list of contractors and ultimately awarded contracts for the housing rehabilitation work.
Tanner explained yesterday that homeowners would choose three contractors from a list of about a dozen and sometimes submitted the names of other contractors who were eligible — meaning they carried the required insurance.
To get on the list, Tanner continued, the contractors filled out applications and were added, provided they met the insurance requirements.
When contractors were chosen for a project, they were given bid sheets to fill out that specified the work to be done. Then sealed bids were accepted from the three and all were opened at once, Tanner explained, with the contracts being awarded to the lowest bidders.
Trover Construction is based at 609 E. Long Ave., which is listed as Trover’s address in the indictment.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State’s Corporations Bureau, the “entity creation date” was Dec. 4, 2006.
Information published in The News in March 2006 indicated Trover had been working as a contractor for Shenango’s program in 2005.
Shenango started its housing rehabilitation program about 20 years ago. Initially, Anthony Cugini was the program administrator, and his nephew, Robert Ratkovich, did work for him and would fill in for him.
When Cugini died in April 2000, Tanner, who also is Shenango Township’s secretary-treasurer, took over the administration of the program. Ratkovich became the program’s inspector.
The program was discontinued around 2006 when the state investigation started. It was dormant until Community Action Partnership took it over on the county’s behalf this year.
Debby Hennon, the agency’s director of emergency and communication services, said yesterday that the agency uses its own list of eligible contractors — those who have the proper insurance.
She added that Trover Construction is not on that list and, to her knowledge, never has been.
