Youngstown City Charter Review Commission
Meeting Notes: March 1, 2012
Meeting Began: 5:30 p.m.
Meeting Adjourned: 6:55 p.m.
Host of Public Forum: Nikki Posterli and Scott
Schulick
# of participants: 18
Present: Jerome Williams, Chair; Phil Kidd; Sandra
Horton-Teague; Thomas Rusback
Special Guest:
v Councilman Paul Drennan and Councilman Mr.
Ray
Suggestions/Critique
v Participants felt that the Charters should
have been made available prior to the day of the meetings
v Participants felt that they should have
had more time to review
v Participants felt that the public should
have been more informed of the meetings.
v Great pace
v Allowed individuals time to express their
concerns
v Great! Kept participants focused on
addressing concerns
v Participants would like for Charter
Commission to keep them updated on progress of changes to Charter through
public forums.
Participants concerns regarding Charter
Mayor-Section 4
v Participants felt that the number of
Council members should be reduced and the number of Wards. Reducing the salary
of the Mayor due to the reduction in population and revenue that the city is
unable to generate. Participant feels that the Salaries of the Mayor and
Council should have never been increase especially when there was a decrease in
population and in the amount of revenue that the city was unable to generate.
v Participant feels that Council should have
pay reduced and let the Mayor and Council terms be reduced to 2 year terms.
v Participant feels that the Mayor should be
able to serve for unlimited terms. As long as the people continue to elect the
Mayor, the Mayor will be should be able to serve.
v Participant believes that Mayor should
serve 4 year terms. After the 4 year terms it should be left up to the people
to determine whether or not they would like to elect the Mayor again.
Council-Section 5
v Participant feels that there should be At
Large representation for City Council. Also there should be redistricting.
Participant feels that there is no Bicameral representation at the local level.
Therefore, with At Large representation every district will be represented.
v Participant feels that At Large
representation would be a conflict. The people would not know who their council
person is. This would then lead to corruption
v Participant feels that cost of city
government must be contained. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce council and
Wards to 4 since the population has decreased. Today, there could be an East,
South, West and North Ward and Council to represent it.
v Participant feels that President of
Council needs to be active like a vice-mayor role and the number of terms
should be eliminated.
v Participant feels that council members
should reflect the existing population. Divide the city in 4 equal blocks.
President of Council –Section 6
v Change the salary of the President of
Council. It should be reduced.
v Salaries of Council needs to be reviewed.
v Charter needs to set all times of meetings
for council to 6:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. so that the public can attend.
Meeting of
Council-Section 7
v Participant feels that council meetings
should be recorded so that the public can see what is taking place and the
meeting notes should be available within 3 days. Council needs more
transparency.
v Participant feels that Council meetings
hould be more open and there should be at least 15 -20 minutes given for the
public to ask questions.
v Participant feels that the voice of the
people has been silenced. Notice has been left to the chair to decide who or
when the public will speak. This is placing a limit on the public and
restricting them. Public should be able to address council members freely at
meetings without advance notice.
Departmental
Officers and Employees-Section 9
v Participant feels that the City needs an
HR. department for employees to go to file complaints. This should not be left
up to department heads.
v Participant feels that there should be
greater transparency in the Water department. Explanation of changes needs to
be given to the public. Public also needs to be informed of decisions to
changes systems or utility prices such as water before the decisions are made.
Ordinances-Section 16
v Participant feels that the City Website
should contain more information regarding City Ordinances.
v Participant the public is getting the run
around when it comes down to getting answers. Needs a customer service
person.
Salary-Section 18-19
v Participant feels that salaries and
responsibilities of city employees needs to be made public. Hiring and firing
should be publicized so that the public will know where the money is going and
how it is being utilized. Water department has become a dumping ground for
hiring. The salary cost too high along with benefits and credit card use by
certain personnel. This should be monitored so that people will know what is
going on with the money and who is spending it.
Director of Finance-Section 25
v Participants feel that there is no good
explanation of where the money is being utilized within the city within the
last 20 years
v Participant feels that finance reports
should be accessible to the public online. Let the public see how the city’s
money is being utilized.
Parks and Recreation-Section 28
v Participant suggests a requirement for
council to review cost effective measures and savings for the city before
issuing contracts.
v Participant wanted to know how many parks
does the city have? How is it determined?
Department of Health-Section 40
v If City and County health departments
merger it should be included within the Charters.
Division of
Employment-Section 42
v Participant feels that although this has
been repealed the public still needs transparency on this.
Department of Water and Other Public Utilities-Section
43-45
v Participant feels that non-partisan
elections should take place.
v Participant would like for the water
department to show a listing of individuals that are eligible for special
programs and the requirements for these programs (transparency).
Nominations & Elections-Section 69
v Participant feels that the Charter should
essentially remove parties and open up the field for other partisans. A more
meaningful election, because Youngstown is a one party city.
v Participant feels that non-partisan
candidates would allow for elections to be more meaningful and focus on the
issues and less dogma. It would create more viable candidates. For example, you
elect a field of 4 top candidates for the primary then, you let them face off
then choose the top 2 and have them face off in the general election. This
creates two viable candidates for the general election.
The Recall-Section 74
v Participant feels that the 5000 required
signatures that are needed to recall the Mayor should be reduced to 1000.
v Participant feels that the Charter should
be changed based on the City’s population, not every 4 years.
Division of City into Wards-Section 83
v Participant feels that redistricting is
needed. Council needs to be reduced to 4 people and a President of Council.
Wards also need to be reduced to 4 Wards.
v Participant feels that all “may” wording
needs to be changed to “must.”
v Participant feels that Commission should
consider re-districting. Forget Wards by numbers and go by population. It is
uneven for council to have such uneven populations.
New Departments or Divisions-Section 88
v Participant feels that it is important for
the commission to consider creating a Human Resources Department. Any Human
Resources complaints should be handled by the law dept. Complaints within the
law department should be handled by the Mayor.
v Participant feels that there should be a
customer service department created.
v Participant feels that too much
duplication is being allowed in City Hall. For example, all supply orders for
departments should go through the Mayor’s Office for approval, so that there
could be more accountability with how funds are being spent. Department heads
should not be allowed to do this.
Budget Estimate-Section 89
v Participant feels that there should be
more audits conducted. Youngstown has been running out of money for the last
couple of years then miraculously money appears at the last minute. There
should be more transparency.
v Participant feels that the spending
authority needs to be lowered. Department heads should be allowed to spend up
to $25,000 without council’s approval.
v Participant would like to know what are
the audit policies and how do you access them?
Public Hearings-Section 90
v Participant feels that public hearings
should be videotaped and posted online
v Participant feels that during public
hearings the information that is provided should be readable and understandable
by the public. The public should be able to understand what is being spoken
about during these hearings. For example, when talking about a particular issue
council should say what issue not use special codes or section numbers. The
public has no idea what these codes or numbers mean.
Interest in Contracts or Supplies-Section 113-114
v Reports that are involved in the bidding
& selling of supplies should be accessible by the public. Allowing the
public to access this information would ensure that locals and minority groups
are fairly represented and included in the bidding.
v Participant feels that there should be
provisions within the Charter that forbid conflicts of interest in bidding. For
example relatives of department heads (any employees) should not be receiving
bids from the city. Someone needs to be watching this. There needs to be more
transparency to ensure that special favors are not being done.
Hours of Labor-Section 115
v Needs to be a customer service or
complaints department for the public.
v Participant feels that the public has been
side-stepped in the Charter. Election of the people who are drawing up the
Charter should have been done by the people, not City Council. Requested
changes in the Charter should be placed on the ballot so that the people can
vote on what they want in the Charter.
v Participant feels that something needs to
be placed in the charter that would allow for citizens to have more information
on incoming businesses within the city and allow citizens to have a say on
whether these businesses should be allowed to do business in the city.
v Participant feels that the public should
have a stronger say so or rule in what goes into the Charter. The State
Constitution gives allowances in putting together the Charter.
Major Concerns and Issues for the Charter
v More Communication with Citizens
v The creation of a Human Resources
Department
v Salaries
v Transparency
v Visibility & Accountability
v Councilman & Wards reduction and time
limits
Public Forum adjourned at 6:55 p.m.
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