Mayor Sammarone Just Doesn't Get It

[iwasthere]

Some of the proposed changes from the consultant were also given by the Charter Review Commission but city council chose to ignore them.

when brought up about the city charter proposals to jrs at the sept 7th wcc meeting his response was that he waited for this study to be done. apparently he and the other 6 council reps did not trust or think the 11 members ch rev were intellient enough to make suggestions to the city. so the city leaders decided to spend 250,000 dollars for answers that the ch rev gave for FREE.

[jay]

Some of the proposed changes from the consultant were also given by the Charter Review Commission but city council chose to ignore them.

[Towntalk]

WKBN 27 News


Drastic changes are needed to get the city of Youngstown back on financial and economic track. That's the order from a new study outlined in greater detail Thursday to city council.

David Eichenthal of the PFM Group (a management consulting company), said that over a 5-year-period, the city would be $28 million in the red.

"If the city does nothing differently, it faces a $5.5 million gap in its budget for 2013," said Eichenthal. "Obviously, there are tough choices the that mayor is going to make and that the council is going to make. The key is, they need to begin making those choices now, rather than later."

Youngstown's income tax rate of 2.75 percent is the third-highest municipal rate in Ohio, behind Parma and Euclid. The city's income tax is its greatest single revenue source, generating more than 58 percent of the city's revenues.

Youngstown also has the second-highest number of employees per 1,000 residents among seven cities of similar size and demographics. Youngstown has 11 employees for every 1,000 residents. Only Canton has more, with 13 employees per 1,000 residents.

There are 100 recommendations to save money and make city government more efficient, but it requires re-tooling.

"Well, the first thing is, we're going to get together with city council and work on a budget document that balances our budget for 2013. That's the priority," said DeMaine Kitchen, Chief of Staff, City of Youngstown.

Some of the major suggestions include creating a chief administrative officer to handle the city's day-to-day operations, along with centralizing and consolidating aspects of city departments, including purchasing. 

Another controversial topic is court restructuring, including the elimination of two of the three municipal court judges. Currently, Youngstown judges have a much lighter workload than judges in bigger cities across Ohio.

No one could point to specific cost savings or how many jobs could be eliminated in consolidation, but Kitchen says attrition , buyouts and retirements would play a role.

The study also touched on 20 Federal Place, and the Covelli Centre, indicating that the city could benefit by selling or leasing the facilities.

A recently obtained lower interest rate on money borrowed to build the Covelli Centre will save the city more than $400,000 this year.

       

[Towntalk]

Changes are a comming for Youngstown city government ... stay tuned as Council digests the 100 sum changes.

[jay]

As listed already, the mayor doesn't understand the public's frustration with city government.  When you come down to it, these are all problems that could or should have been corrected by city council.

[iwasthere]

tt what a grt idea.

[Towntalk]

Ever hear of IPODS? Secret recording goes on all the time and more than one politician has beed caught with his foot firmly planted in his mouth. Check out Facebook.

[iwasthere]

i also watch the st leg on the oh channel where they have a public discourse on public issues. you have a life and i have a life depends on how we play it out.  the lunch idea is one way to have public discourse but this method does not put them on public rec. so often in the past civic leaders would say i did not say this or that when they have private meetings with thier consitutents, if it was on public rec?

[Towntalk]

  That's your privilege my friend and a tip of the derby to the County Commissioners.  As to the way other communities conduct their business is irrelevant to this thread since we're talking here about Youngstown and the Mayor.

Do you attend state legislature sessions or Congressional sessions? While I'm not there in person I do watch them on TV - C-SPAN and Ohio PBS ... I know, I need to get a life ... but that being said after following them lo these 20 some years I do have a grasp of how they work, and all opinions to the contrary are irrelevant ... inmaterial and that's it.

I know that there are folks that want absolutely everything spelled out for them right down to the very last period, and I might just agree with them, and perhaps they might sit down with their councilperson and explain why they absolutely need this information in a polite manner without being argumentative and perlaps something could be accomplished.

Here's an idea ... invite a group of your friends to invite your councilman to have lunch with you to talk over matters that concern you with the group picking up the tab, and in a polite manner ask him. Hear his side of the story, then see what happens.

[iwasthere]

tt i disagree with you on your response. i attend the mah cty com on a frequent basis. all mah dept hds are there to explain why they need the money for their proposal or explain why their dept is having this expo or ed day ect......the cty com never vote on the entire agenda on a carte blanche style. i attended the campbell city council meeting, thy operated like mah cty com.

[Towntalk]

Jay:

Like it or not, 90% of business, whether in City Council; the County Commissioners; the state legislature; or Congress is conducted in this manner. There is no way that any of these bodies could function efficiently if every single piece of business was conducted in the fashion that you, I, or the man behind the tree would find acceptable.

Now that being said, the Vindicator is the paper of record for Mahoning County and runs a section devoted to "legal notices" usually near the classified section or in the classified section itself and it is up to the city and county to place agendas there. The news sections are not the place for such information unless such information is relevant to a specific article.

As to the city's web site, I agree with you that the clerk of council should publish the agenda there, and there is no reason why they can't, it's done on the state and federal level, and these bodies have more to publish than the city, so locally it is simply laziness that this isn't done.

By going to the state and federal web sites you can not only find minutes and committee reports in full but also all the legislation coming before these bodies, so, since the city has less data to present, time is not a factor.

[jay]

At last night's city council meeting, Mayor Sammarone commented as to why only about 5 people come to most council meetings.  There were about 80 people at last night's meeting.

Does the mayor realize that all of the people came out last night because he (the mayor) was proposing legislation that the people did not want?

Does the mayor realize that council recently rejected almost all of the Charter Review changes proposed by the citizens of Youngstown?

Does the mayor realize that the people find council proceedings confusing and uninformative?  The mayor, when he was president of council, never corrected the problem.  As a result, the council meetings are an endless barrage of the phrases "received and filed" and "suspend and consent."