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Mayor to forgo veto of council plan for police hires
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Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
Mayor Jay Williams said he won’t veto city council’s decision to move $555,000 from the police department’s overtime budget to hire new officers.
That came after a somewhat heated discussion Wednesday at city council’s finance committee meeting between council members and the mayor.
Williams told The Vindicator last week the council decision was “misguided and arbitrary.”
Council members said they took offense to the comments.
Lawmakers and the administration have publicly criticized each other during the past few months about budget decisions and a lack of cooperation.
“I’m not going to continue to sit and allow council to fire shots at the administration,” Williams said.
In response, Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, said, “There are times we could have struck back at the administration and we didn’t.”
Council wants to use that money to hire 11 new police officers.
But Williams said taking the $550,000 from the police’s $1.3 million overtime budget would harm that department.
To hire new officers, Williams proposes using $150,000 to $200,000 in police overtime and $100,000 to $150,000 from an expected state grant.
Councilman Paul Drennen, D-5th, said the administration never told council about that plan, however.
Council understands that only a portion of the $550,000 is needed to hire police officers, and “we intend to put the rest of the money back into overtime,” Drennen said.
Council’s safety committee will meet today at noon to further discuss the issue.
Williams said he’s satisfied with council’s plan to put money back into the police overtime budget when it’s needed.
The lawmakers agreed to replace Vector Security, the security company at city hall since 2008, with a group of up to 26 retired city police officers as well as current and former members of law enforcement.
The change will increase the city’s safety budget by up to $59,000 for a full year, city officials say. The move came at the request of the three municipal court judges.
Tom Beitler, Vector’s general manager, said the move, which takes effect May 2, will result in 12 layoffs.
Beitler told council his staff does a good job, and that he doesn’t understand why the cash-strapped city would spend more money on security.
Williams and Gillam said Vector generally does a good job, but they deferred to the recommendation of the judges, who wanted the change.
Council also heard a request from Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras to withdraw from the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and not use its economic development services.
The request came after the chamber’s board of directors voted 8-1 to support a new state law that restricts the collective- bargaining rights of state employees.