Reduce The Number Of Councilmen For Youngstown

[Peggy Gurney]

GOOD!  Where do I sign? 

[jay]

This charter change is in the final draft stage.  The petitions may be ready soon.

[AllanY2525]

This has to happen - too many council seats for a city that has shrunk to
the size that Youngstown is now.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Keep pushing Jay, the obsolete councilpeople are just sucking up our energy and we have to pay for it.  Do they all really produce anything, a few only do.

[jay]

The proposal to reduce the number of councilmen to five is moving forward.  Watch for charter amendment petitions to be in circulation in the next few months.  This issue will appear on the November 2014 General Election ballot.

[AllanY2525]

Allan,
Our company is now the largest private owner of Youngstown acreage particularly on the eastside.  The expedient process to acquire these lands no doubt have been thru the old county tax cert. sale.  My battle with Lien Forward and recently with the new County Landbank have been well documented here.  Today however, Councilman Swierz has lead the way in bringing the private and public sector together for the common good of joining forces in placing land back into productive status.
The two projects Ohio Land Management and MCLB are working on as we speak, are the Powerstown Beautification Project and The Mt. Hope Cemetery Trust.
The 90 acre return to nature project, is a CITY landbank attempt IMO for D'Avignon to justify holding onto a dormant ancient City Landbank giving some meaning to his PORK JOB.

Ron - my bad... I sometimes get the two confused.   Why do we even need two different land banks, anyways?

[Youngstownshrimp]

Allan,
The Landbanks can only function today, if they group 100's of parcels into acreage and forfeit in one fell swoop, then parlaying the pieces out into the public demand, even if the property is just one lot.  Attacking pieces individually down to a single vacant lots is a defeating task for all.


The east side has a lot of undeveloped land because the city plan of the 1950s was to use that area for future
growth of the city - growth that did not happen.  There is already an effort underway to de-commission about
90 acres of land' including the disconnection of sewer, water, gas lines, etc and return this land to its former
natural state. 

The land banks are supposed to be gathering vacant parcels and trying to re-assemble them into larger
parcels for re-use.  Some folks have already begun to approach the new Mayor about the difficulty in
dealing with the land bank and acquiring properties that have been foreclosed on by same.

One person I know of is trying to acquire a property on Broadway ave and the city's legal department is
getting in the way.  The mechanisms are already in place, but are being grossly mis-managed, and
political turf wars, etc are getting in the way of progress.

The WickPark Neighborhood meeting that took place recently was attended by Mayor McNally and
this complaint was given to him.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Allan,
Our company is now the largest private owner of Youngstown acreage particularly on the eastside.  The expedient process to acquire these lands no doubt have been thru the old county tax cert. sale.  My battle with Lien Forward and recently with the new County Landbank have been well documented here.  Today however, Councilman Swierz has lead the way in bringing the private and public sector together for the common good of joining forces in placing land back into productive status.
The two projects Ohio Land Management and MCLB are working on as we speak, are the Powerstown Beautification Project and The Mt. Hope Cemetery Trust.
The 90 acre return to nature project, is a CITY landbank attempt IMO for D'Avignon to justify holding onto a dormant ancient City Landbank giving some meaning to his PORK JOB.

[AllanY2525]

There has to be a charter change that would exclude counting east side prison inmates in the 1st ward's population figures.

Forgive my ignorance - but is there any legal language in the current charter stating that prisoners DO have to be
counted as voters?


The east side has a lot of undeveloped land because the city plan of the 1950s was to use that area for future
growth of the city - growth that did not happen.  There is already an effort underway to de-commission about
90 acres of land' including the disconnection of sewer, water, gas lines, etc and return this land to its former
natural state. 

The land banks are supposed to be gathering vacant parcels and trying to re-assemble them into larger
parcels for re-use.  Some folks have already begun to approach the new Mayor about the difficulty in
dealing with the land bank and acquiring properties that have been foreclosed on by same.

One person I know of is trying to acquire a property on Broadway ave and the city's legal department is
getting in the way.  The mechanisms are already in place, but are being grossly mis-managed, and
political turf wars, etc are getting in the way of progress.

The WickPark Neighborhood meeting that took place recently was attended by Mayor McNally and
this complaint was given to him.

[Dogsled]

How are prisoners counted as citizens to be represented?  Is it based on the number of beds?  If that is the case you have to include the number of bed in County Jail, do they do that, and if not, what's the difference between the 2? 
Is there an official paper stating what the heck a council persons job duties are.  It's hard to say if population is the need for a councilperson in an area.  Take the East side where population may be waning.  Alot of open land and/or demolition aquisition of money is required to rebuild the area.  The simple matter of a councilperson working with waster water, the water dept and Ohio edison on properly disconnecting vacant peoperties and prepping them for the possibility of future income.  Is the Cities engineering dept ready to work with a councilperson to make sure if the opportunity arises we have a person ready to present facts of what we have to offer say 300 acres of clean land and not a 'brownfield'. 
And is a task this big in need of a politician?  Or should the Engineering dept be put in charge and manpower added to be the steering force that can offer business factual info of the true potential this land has to offer.
I would rather see us go to 4 councilmen and add an army of qualified Civil Service people in the Engineering dept of all different skill and responsabilities that would eliminate this BS passing out cash for studies no one follows. 
There are so many things that need REAL attention and NO council person is going to do it.....time to stop throwing away good money on council jobs and studies and put a business plan in effect.  This needs to be done in every failing city in this country but the politicians have such a tight grip on their gravy train we won't see change like this in our lifetime. 

[jay]

Proposals from five firms to draw new boundaries for the seven wards ranged from $7,500. to $26,000.  Although these bids were received, Mayor McNally refuses to pay for a new study.

[PD]

I agree and 95 out 100 do as well. The 5 that disagree are Pinkard, Gilliam, Rodgers, Tarpley and Swierz

[jay]

There has to be a charter change that would exclude counting east side prison inmates in the 1st ward's population figures.

[PD]

I just wanted to Chime in regarding this topic. This will happen and the goal is to have this on the November ballot.  Updates will be posted regarding this process and meetings

[Youngstownshrimp]

You can do it Jay!   

Let it all out Jay, attack!  Go get the evil bureaucrats, overthrow the politicians, take back your city!  arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!