Councilmen-elect seek review of Youngstown travel policies

YOUNGSTOWN — In the wake of the spending of about $13,000 in taxpayers’ money for a conference in New Orleans by five lame-duck city councilmen, two councilmen-elect say it may be time to review city travel policies.

The councilmen who attended the five-day National League of Cities’ conference in the Big Easy say they returned with important information. Also, the councilmen said they made contacts with people in other communities who can help Youngstown on issues including crime reduction, economic revitalization and disaster preparedness.

Councilman-elect Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, said outgoing Councliman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd, is going to brief him and other council members-elect shortly about what he learned during the conference.

“Hearing it is good, but being there is better,” Brown said. “It would have given the new council a jump on” their new jobs if they had gone to the conference.

Brown, who starts Jan. 1 as a councilman, said he is interested in looking at council’s travel policy after the five councilmen went to the annual conference with about six weeks left in their terms.

“With all the criticism, we’ll look at not allowing lame-ducks with a few months left to travel to conferences,” he said. “... We may need to look at that policy and see if we can figure out how to send council-elects. We need to look at the policy.”

Councilman-elect Paul Drennen, D-5th, agrees with the idea.

“We need to review this,” he said. “It should be considered.”

Councilman-elect John R. Swierz, D-7th, a former council member and president, said he would have never gone to the conference if he was leaving office shortly thereafter.

“I might have been able to benefit from some things, but I wouldn’t have been in office long enough to do anything with it,” he said. “I’m not condemning what they did, but I wouldn’t have gone.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com