Race Card

[stewie]

It is completely a union / non Union issue and nothing more. That is all it is. It has nothing to do with the City's enforcement of wages.

[joly1584]

This story from the Business Journal covers the same issue.  It seems more like a round about way to say the unions aren't happy with who is being hired to do some of the jobs.  Instead of coming straight out and saying it they are claiming these contractors aren't paying proper wages and income taxes.  It also points out to poor records keeping by the people in the city in charge of keeping track of these workers, which has nothing to do with the income tax collections being outsourced.  If the people in the city were doing their jobs properly in monitoring the construction contractors, it should not matter who is collecting the taxes.

http://businessjournaldaily.com/politics/unions-want-officeholders-obey-wage-records-laws-2015-1-22

[jay]

It appeared as though both Sammarone and Gillam were addressing someone who was in the public seating area of the room.  This was highly unusual.

[Towntalk]

Annie Gillam made a simple comment and it was not followed up by any related comment.
http://www.youngstownhappenings.com/videos/embed/city-council-2015-01-21/
Rollo managed to post a video of the Council meeting in question.

[jay]

This is what happens when the city farms out tax collection to an outside entity.  I'm sure that other employers are now well aware of how to avoid paying their fair share of the city income tax because a city administrator feels it is not cost effective to try to find these tax cheats.

[Towntalk]

http://www.vindy.com/news/2015/jan/22/youngstown-council-postpones--votes/

[jay]

I just learned that the race card was played at the Youngstown City Council meeting this evening after a union representative explained that the city is not collecting a large amount of tax revenues from employees working on various construction projects.