COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY Budget will mean less money for code enforcement

City officials say money will be found to pay the city's code enforcement officers.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City council was to approve a $5.26 million community development agency budget today that drastically reduces funds for code enforcement officers.
But it could have been worse.
Council at one point didn't want to provide any money for the officers.
In previous years, the CDA budget provided the funding needed to pay for code enforcement officers. Last year, the CDA provided $459,000 to pay code enforcement officers, whose duties include enforcing housing and building codes.
The federal government funds the CDA. City council members said they want to focus the money on programs to provide assistance to low- and moderate-income residents.
With that in mind, council agreed in March to eliminate the $325,000 it was going to allocate to pay for the officers' salaries and benefits.
Without CDA funding, there would likely be cuts to code enforcement because there is no money in the general fund for the officers, Carmen Conglose Jr., the city's deputy director of public works, said last month.
Because of that, members of council met with Finance Director David Bozanich to come up with a solution.
Council will provide $101,121.95 for code enforcement officers in the CDA budget, said Councilman Richard Atkinson, council's CDA committee chairman.
Will find funds
But Atkinson, R-3rd, said Bozanich "assured" him that there would be no cuts to code enforcement and the money to keep all seven officers on staff would be found.
"He'll work it out; he is creative," Atkinson said of Bozanich.
Attempts Monday to reach Conglose and Bozanich weren't successful.
The CDA committee was to meet at 5 p.m. today, and council was to meet in special session 30 minutes later to approve the CDA budget.
Also, Atkinson said, this is the last time the CDA budget will subsidize the salaries and benefits of the officers.
"We're weaning the departments away from the CDA budget," he said. "We're not trying to hurt any department."
The money to pay a portion of the code enforcement expense is coming out of money for housing rehabilitation.
The CDA budget will provide $100,000 -- less than half of what was previously allocated by the CDA committee -- for housing rehabilitation.
That shouldn't be a problem because there is almost $300,000 left over in the housing rehab budget from last year, Atkinson said.
"We don't have a whole lot of contractors bidding on housing rehabilitation," he said. "It's a major job, and we don't get as many done as we'd like."
The federal Community Development Block Grant program funds the city's CDA program.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency that administers the CDBG program, needs the city's CDA budget by the end of this week.
skolnick@vindy.com