Youngstown council considers police cuts
YOUNGSTOWN —City council will consider a proposal Wednesday to reduce the number of ranking police officers from 66 to 39 through attrition.
There is no time-frame for the full implementation of the proposal because it isn’t known how many officers plan to leave the department and when, said Mayor Jay Williams, who is sponsoring the legislation.
The plan is to replace each departing ranking officer with a patrolman, Williams said.
But there is no guarantee.
The ordinance to be considered Wednesday by council states: “As funding permits, additional patrol officers and part-time patrol officers can be hired with the savings realized.”
Capt. Kenneth Centorame, president of the ranking officers’ union, said he was “surprised” to find out about “a major transfer of the police department” from a reporter with The Vindicator and not from the city administration.
He was also skeptical about the mayor’s statements that each officer leaving the department would be replaced.
“This is more of a secret than the Manhattan Project,” Centorame said in reference to the secret project during World War II to develop an atomic bomb. “The mayor has not discussed this with me or any member of the bargaining unit.”
For the complete story, read Tuesday’s Vindicator or vindy.com