YOUNGSTOWN Council votes to hire city clerk replacement

Council also promoted another employee in the clerk's office.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Seven weeks after firing the city clerk, city council hired her interim replacement on a permanent basis.
Council voted 6-1 on Wednesday to hire Faith C. O'Nesti, the first assistant clerk and a 32-year city employee, as clerk, retroactive to Feb. 16. O'Nesti had sent letters last month to each council member seeking the appointment.
As interim clerk, O'Nesti was paid the position's annual salary of $64,458 compared with $50,372 she earned for the first assistant clerk position.
In the same vote, council promoted Terri Dawson, first deputy clerk, to O'Nesti's former post. Dawson's promotion is effective Monday, and her annual salary will increase from $39,643 to $50,372.
Dawson is returning to work Monday after being out for about a month with a medical condition.
Two part-time temporary workers, hired a month ago, will remain in the clerk's office for the time being.
Previous clerk fired
Council voted 4-3 on Feb. 15 to fire Arlene D.T. Bahar as clerk, a job she had held since October 1998.
When Bahar was fired, Councilmen Artis Gillam, D-1st, and Mark Memmer, D-7th, said council would conduct a search to replace her, but didn't set a time frame.
"I'd like to know what happened to advertising," said Gillam, the only council member to vote against promoting O'Nesti and Dawson.
Memmer said he initially favored advertising for the job, but because no one else on council wanted to move forward with that plan, he abandoned the idea. Memmer said he was the only council member who interviewed temporary part-timers when the clerk's office was staffed solely by O'Nesti.
Also at Wednesday's meeting, council:
UNamed Gillam, Memmer and Councilman Michael Rapovy, D-5th, as members of a committee that will oversee the city-owned Chevrolet Centre. Council members said they need to be more involved in what happens at the center.
Through its first five months, the center's profit is $245,872, less than half of the profit projected for that time period by Global Entertainment Corp., the company that manages the facility.
UHeard a request from Michael F. Shaffer, branch director of the downtown YMCA, to allow more free parking near the center.
URatified a three-year contract with a new union that represents 12 part-timers in the parks and recreation department.
skolnick@vindy.com