YOUNGSTOWN CITY COUNCIL Fortune wraps up term as president

The outgoing Youngstown council president has 22 years of elected experience.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- James E. Fortune Sr.'s political career started as a favor to a friend.
That favor led Fortune to spend 22 of the past 24 years as either 6th Ward councilman or council president.
Fortune will pound the gavel Wednesday for the last time as president at the last scheduled city council meeting this year. His term expires Dec. 31.
He is the last of the longtime, old-school council members, primarily because city voters adopted a charter revision in the mid-1990s that limits council members to serve no more than two consecutive four-year terms.
Fortune's 22 years of elected experience is only eight years less than the combined elected experience of the city's current seven council members. Those who have served with Fortune say he is known for his integrity, for being a man of his word, and at times, being a man of too many words.
"He talks a little too much," said Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd and council's president pro tempore and finance chairman. "That's just his nature. He tells you those war stories. But he had the insight from his history on council that others did not, so it's important to listen."
Fortune got into politics because of his friendship in the 1970s with Robert Spencer, a schoolteacher. Fortune and Spencer volunteered at an after-school program for children.
One day in 1973, Fortune said Spencer called him to tell him he was running for 6th Ward councilman.
"He asked me if I'd be interested in being his campaign manager," Fortune recalled. "I had no ambition to be a politician. But Bob and I were so close. We agreed on everything in principle, so I helped him."
Spencer won that election as well as three other two-year terms on council. But an impending school strike in 1981 posed too much of a distraction for Spencer, who opted to resign in February of that year.
"He said, 'You have to pick up where I left off,'" Fortune said of Spencer. "I had a good job in the mill. I could have walked away from it, but I wanted to continue to help the people of Youngstown."
Won election
So in May 1981, Fortune, who had worked 22 years at the then-Jones & amp; Laughlin Steel Corp., won the Democratic primary, and the general election in November 1981.
After only a few years on council, Fortune was named head of its finance committee, the most powerful position on the legislative body.
Although it had great power, it also had great responsibility, particularly with the city's continuous financial struggles and challenges over the years, Fortune said.
Fortune said holding the position cost him the 1991 election. Ronald Fabrizio beat him in the Democratic primary by about 60 votes that year.
"We had a bad situation with the cost of garbage collection going up 50 cents and we had a water rate increase at the same time," he said. "Because I was finance chair, I took the heat for everyone. Also, I didn't campaign as hard as I should have. But it was a wake-up call that you always need to campaign hard."
In 1993, Fortune reclaimed the seat, getting 65 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, and then winning the general election.
Former Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro said Fortune was his closest ally during his early years as mayor. Ungaro was first elected in 1983 and served 14 years.
Youngstown was the first city in Ohio to be in state fiscal watch, in late 1996, with Ungaro as mayor and Fortune as finance chairman.
"The city had serious financial problems," Fortune said. "We went through a lot. Pat and I looked to develop industrial parks and offered tax abatements to get companies here. We took a lot of heat for it, but had it not been for that, we'd still have nothing."
The state removed Youngstown from fiscal watch in May 1999.
Man of his word
Councilman Michael Rapovy, D-5th, and council President-elect Charles Sammarone, who sat next to Fortune for six years at council meetings when he represented the 5th Ward, said Fortune's word was his bond.
While Fortune enjoyed a good relationship as 6th Ward councilman with those who represented the 5th Ward and sat to his right, the same couldn't be said for John R. Swierz, a 7th Ward councilman who sat to his left from January 1996 to April 2002.
In February 2002, Swierz filed a police report accusing Fortune of threatening harm; something Fortune denied. Fortune also threatened to sue Swierz in civil court.
Swierz picked
When Sammarone quit as council president in March 2002 to become water commissioner, Fortune was presumed to fill the vacancy because he was council president pro tempore. However, Youngstown Democratic precinct committee members were responsible for picking Sammarone's replacement. Fortune didn't seek the appointment. Swierz did and was selected.
In the May 2003 Democratic primary, Fortune ran and beat Swierz by 25 votes, and won the November general election.
Swierz declined to comment about Fortune and their past history.
Fortune said the two of them just didn't agree on certain issues, but he didn't challenge Swierz for council president to gain revenge.
How effective was Fortune as council president? It depends on which council member you talk to.
Councilman Paul Pancoe, D-6th, said Fortune does a "decent job," and Rapovy said Fortune is a solid president because of his vast experience and history with the city.
Gillam said Fortune was a better councilman than council president. His style as council president is too laid back and he lets council members act inappropriately at times and sometimes permits them to grandstand.
"Council president is much tougher than being a councilman," Fortune acknowledged. "You have no real power."
Sammarone, who served 12 years as council president and is succeeding Fortune on Jan. 1, said a council president can do only so much to keep the members in control.
Fortune opted this year to run for mayor instead of re-election as president. He finished fifth in the seven-person Democratic mayoral primary.
No regrets
Fortune doesn't regret giving up his council presidency to seek the city's top elected office.
Fortune, who turns 68 on Jan. 11, said this was his last chance to run for mayor.
"I felt I could have been one of the best mayors the city had ever seen," he said.
As for running for 6th Ward councilman in 2007, Fortune said he has "no ambitions at this point, but that can easily change. Something could happen in the future, but right now, I feel comfortable where I am."
skolnick@vindy.com