Downtown director takes new Valley job

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Phil Kidd

By KATIE SEMINARA

The bottom line for Phil Kidd is serving Youngstown, and his new post will put him on the front line of that effort.

YOUNGSTOWN — Phil Kidd wore the hat of downtown director of events for almost a year, while tackling community betterment projects on his own time.

At the end of the month, he’ll hang up his event planning hat for a position with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, starting Dec. 1.

“This is a logical progression,” the 29-year-old said of his decision to resign.

“I’m going to make a larger impact with this job, and I believe in the people I’ll be working with,” he said.

Established in March, the MVOC is primarily funded by the Wean Foundation. The collaborative aims to form groups that share the common goal of cleaning up urban neighborhoods in Youngstown and Warren.

Kidd became interested in the MVOC’s efforts to eliminate vacant properties neighborhood by neighborhood.

“I want to be on the front lines of the issues facing the city,” said Kidd, who believes he’ll bring a variety of strengths to the MVOC.

Kirk Noden, MVOC executive director, is looking forward to those strengths and said the bulk of Kidd’s duties will be community organizing in the cities.

“He’ll be tackling the nitty-gritty quality-of-life issues,” said Noden, who noted that neighborhood safety and vacant properties fall into that category.

“I think it’s a great job, and Phil has the energy and passion for the city. He understands how to work from the bottom up and his contributions will still be very significant to the city,” Noden said.

Part of Kidd’s job will involve creating awareness among community members, while updating city officials — allowing a cohesive effort.

Mayor Jay Williams said Kidd’s relationship with Youngstown will continue to grow as the city plans to work closely with the collaborative.

“While there is disappointment, I’m glad he’s going to work for the MVOC,” Williams said. “I think they are emerging as a force in neighborhoods and there is no better place, other than the city, that [Kidd] would fit.”

Kidd’s salary as director of downtown events was about $41,000 annually.

“This is a lateral move,” said Kidd in terms of his new salary.

When he took the event planning job with the city at the beginning of the year, his top priorities were increasing the number of events downtown and creating a Web site that would promote those events.

Over the course of the year, Kidd accomplished both of those tasks and created events such as the downtown pub crawl, outdoor movie series and the farmer’s market downtown.

“The other thing I’m really proud of is developing a blog as a city official,” said Kidd.

“My intention was to create a transparency into city hall as a public official. I wanted people to see where their tax dollars were being spent,” he said.

Kidd has also been recognized for his Defend Youngstown Web site and T-shirts. Creating Defend was an effort to link area leaders, business owners and citizens in support of the city.

Defend Youngstown will remain as is, he said, and its Web site “will serve as almost a one-stop information resource center.”

kseminara@vindy.com