YOUNGSTOWN Public offers input on ideas for charter review committee
The charter is outdated, a committee member says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city's charter review committee has begun hearing the public's ideas about breathing new life into the 80-year-old municipal governing document and making it fit the city's 21st-century needs.
Committee members heard a variety of ideas about what should change and what should remain the same in a public meeting attended by about three dozen people Wednesday at Tabernacle Baptist Church on the city's North Side, and then they expressed a few ideas of their own.
"What we're dealing with is a document that is very much outdated. The whole town has changed," said committee member Gary Thornton.
The charter was approved by the voters in 1923 and has been revised periodically since then.
The way it was
In 1923, the city had a much larger population and the $50-a- month councilman's salary bought much more than it does today, he noted. Thornton said he was most interested in hearing proposed changes that might contribute to the city's revitalization and benefit its residents.
"The only way you hold someone accountable is that you pay them a decent salary," said Arlette Gatewood, another committee member. "We should pay the councilmen a decent salary. We should eliminate the aides," he added.
Willie Williams, economic empowerment chairman of the NAACP's Youngstown Branch, called for maintaining term limits for elected municipal officials, keeping the current total of seven council members, keeping council members part time, and keeping the park and recreation committee as it is.
Other ideas
But Clarence Boles, a school board member and Democratic nominee for the 6th Ward council seat, called for eliminating the city council president position and having the council clerk conduct council meetings.
He also advocated reducing the number of council members from seven to five, making council members full time, and equalizing the population of the wards.
There was a strong show-of-hands consensus for requiring police and firefighters to live in the city. "If the people don't live in the city, they're not really concerned about the city," said resident Nathaniel Danley.
Louise Gillam, wife of Councilman Artis Gillam, D-1st, said she favors retaining the current seven wards and giving the money now paid to council aides to the council members.
Resident Maggi Lorenzi called for requiring that the city budget be prepared in the year before it is to take effect, rather than allowing it to be prepared early in the year it is effective.
Both Gatewood and committee member Marilyn Rudzinski expressed concerns that voters may reject some of the proposed charter revisions on the ballot if too many changes are suggested.
milliken@vindy.com