Y-town officials to take trip, then exit office

Some defend the travel on the grounds that they still
represent their wards.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — With about six weeks left in their terms, five outgoing city council members will spend $12,709.50 in city money to attend the National League of Cities’ annual convention in New Orleans.

The five will travel Nov. 12 for the five-day convention that begins a day later.

Those attending the convention are Artis Gillam Sr., D-1st; Rufus Hudson, D-2nd; Richard Atkinson, R-3rd; Carol Rimedio-Righetti, D-4th; Paul D. Pancoe, D-6th; and Mark Memmer, D-7th. Except for Rimedio-Righetti, the rest won’t return to council next year.

So, should the city foot the bill for the lame-duck council members?

“That’s a pretty good question,” said Memmer, who serves as chairman of council’s finance committee. “I may be able to learn something in November” at the conference that can help the city.

Memmer, who lost the Democratic primary last month, said he may run for another political office in the future. If so, the information he learns at the conference “hopefully benefits me in the future and in turn my constituents.”

The conferences “are not vacations. We work,” he added.

Other outgoing council members say they should attend the conference because they represent their constituents until the last second of this year.

“Should I quit as a lame duck or continue to do my job?” Atkinson said. “I’m going to continue to do my job. ... If someone calls at 11:58 p.m. Dec. 31, I’m still going to help them. I haven’t quit going to meetings, and I haven’t quit being a councilman.”

Hudson said he was elected to represent his ward for his full term and attending conferences is part of that responsibility. The conferences teach effective leadership, budgeting and dealing with the media, among many other topics, Hudson said.

“I’ll be the same as I was on Dec. 31, 2007, as I was on Jan. 1, 2000,” Hudson said. The latter date was his first day as a councilman.

Outgoing Councilman Michael Rapovy, D-5th, hasn’t traveled to an elected official conference in about four years, saying his work as a carpenter doesn’t give him time to do so.

“When I went, I got a lot out of them,” he said. “The other council members come back and share information. If they want to go, they’ll go. It’s not a waste of time.”

Asking council for permission

Because there isn’t enough money in their travel budgets, Gillam, Hudson and Atkinson will ask council today to use money from their discretionary fund account. The requests total $7,115.31.

Each council member receives $3,125 annually from the city’s general fund for travel expenses. Each member also receives $5,000 a year in discretionary money from the general fund. Any unused money from those two accounts carries over to the next year.

Discretionary fund money is designed to provide public purpose needs, such as emergency lighting or sidewalk improvements, Memmer said. But it’s also used for other purposes, as long as council approves it, he said.

For example, Pancoe is seeking approval from council today to give $1,000 of his discretionary fund to the Youngstown Baseball Association.

skolnick@vindy.com