Despite cutbacks, city lists $50K job

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Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams

By David Skolnick

Without a court settlement with a federal agency, it’s unlikely the city would fill the vacancy, the mayor says.

YOUNGSTOWN — The financially strapped city, looking at layoffs to balance its general-fund budget, will hire a “pretreatment administrative assistant” for its waste- water-treatment plant with an advertised salary of $50,826.88.

Among the desired qualifications for the job is “thorough knowledge of supervisory methods, major clerical work,” as well as the ability to type 40 words a minute.

As for the starting salary, Mayor Jay Williams said the exam announcement should have listed a range and not a specific number.

“We set a range for all positions,” he said. “We look at a range before making an appointment. When a position is vacated, we lower the salary or give a range.”

Williams said he couldn’t provide a range Tuesday but added the person hired would likely make less than the advertised annual salary.

City council has the authority to reduce the starting salary of this position.

This is the only job currently advertised on the city’s Web site.

Under a 2002 federal court settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about the city’s wastewater system, the city is required to employ a “pretreatment administrative assistant,” Williams said.

Without that agreement, the mayor said it’s unlikely the city would fill the position.

“I doubt it,” Williams said. “Our practice is to not fill nonessential positions.”

The final day to sign up for the job is Thursday, with a written test given Saturday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 45 people had applied to take the 100-question multiple-choice written test, said Jennifer Lewis, the city’s civil service commission administrator.

The position is considered to be management with the person holding the job working “closely with the industrial pretreatment coordinator and [supervising] the sewer maintenance program in regards [sic] to administrative duties, such as billing, collections, accounts receivable and payable, typing of technical reports, maintenance of data based filing systems, purchasing, public contact, and related tasks.”

Despite the title, the job description, the need for the person to have “major clerical work” experience and the ability to type 40 words per minute, Williams said, “It’s not a secretarial position. Don’t let the title fool you.”

The position is classified as a management job, and it requires “some specialized skills,” Lewis said.

“This is an administrative-assistant position ... The individual does the bulk of bookkeeping work,” she said.

Dave Paul was the last person to hold the position, leaving a few months ago to take a better-paying job with the city.

The city wants the person hired for this job to have a minimum of an associate degree in business or related field and two years’ experience in a wastewater environment.

The person hired must obtain a Class I Ohio Environmental Protection Agency operator’s license no later than two years on the job.

Someone who has a high school diploma or equivalent and at least a year of wastewater-operating experience can take the Class I license test.

Youngstown’s salary list currently increases the annual pay for this job after a person gets a Class I license to $52,716.30.

Because of the weak economy, the city cut $665,000 from the police department’s payroll budget. That amount is equivalent to 22 to 26 officers’ losing their jobs.

Also, $205,000 was cut from the payroll budget of other departments that could eliminate eight to 12 workers.

City officials have worked for months to save jobs and haven’t laid off anyone yet.

If cuts are to be made, they’ll be jobs funded from the general fund such as in the police, parks and streets departments and secretarial positions.

The vacant wastewater-treatment-plant job is funded by that particular department so eliminating it doesn’t impact the general fund, Williams said.

skolnick@vindy.com