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Youngstown council awaits vote to fill seat
Betras ‘frustrated’ with law, Kitchen
YOUNGSTOWN
After refusing to delay a Wednesday vote to fill a vacant Youngstown council seat, which would have violated state law, Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras changed that decision.
DeMaine Kitchen officially resigned Monday as 2nd Ward councilman to become administrative assistant/secretary to Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone.
Kitchen told The Vindicator on Aug. 1 that Monday would be his resignation date. But Betras said Kitchen didn’t give him an official resignation date until Monday.
The party is meeting Wednesday to fill council vacancies on the Nov. 8 ballot in Youngstown’s 3rd Ward and for an at-large seat in Struthers.
Betras wanted to include the Youngstown 2nd Ward vacancy vote at the same meeting. That is only two days after Kitchen resigned.
State law requires political parties to wait at least five days after a city council member resigns to fill that vacancy.
When reminded of the law by The Vindicator, Betras said Friday: “I’m going to hold the election” to replace Kitchen on Wednesday. “Let [people who object] challenge it.”
But on Monday, Betras, an attorney, said he consulted with other lawyers and decided he had to wait at least five days. Betras also said he’s a “bit frustrated” that Kitchen didn’t tell him his resignation date until Monday.
“I have no control over the time line Mayor Sammarone had in mind,” Kitchen said. “We talked about the resignation, but nothing was set in stone.”
Youngstown’s 2nd Ward Democratic precinct committee members are asked to attend Wednesday’s 7 p.m. meeting at party headquarters, 3325 Mahoning Ave., to find a convenient date for the group to select Kitchen’s replacement, Betras said.
The 2nd Ward represents most of the city’s East Side.
Also, Monday was to be the deadline to apply for the vacant position. The new deadline is Friday.
Letters of interest can be sent by email to dbetras@bhlaws.com or by mail to 6630 Seville Drive, Canfield, OH 44406.
Those who’ve already applied include: former Councilman Rufus Hudson; Mildred Delgado, a precinct committee member and manager of Plaza View Apartments, a downtown Youngstown high-rise for low-income seniors; Jackie Adair, a community activist and a retired postal worker; TJ Rogers, lead custom project liaison at Lender Processing Services; and Richard Martin, a driver for Garwin Inc., a transportation service, and a retired New York City Transit Authority trackman.
The person selected would fill the rest of Kitchen’s term, which ends Dec. 31, and be the Democratic candidate for the position on the Nov. 8 general- election ballot.
Youngstown 3rd Ward Democratic precinct committee members will vote Wednesday on who will finish out the rest of Jamael Tito Brown’s term, which ends Dec. 31. The person selected also will be the party’s candidate on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Brown resigned Aug. 1 to be council president.
The 3rd Ward includes most of the city’s North Side.
Those who filed for the 3rd Ward appointment by Monday’s deadline include: L. Nathaniel Pinkard, chairman of the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, and retired Mill Creek Park police chief; Joe Louis Teague, a 3rd Ward precinct committeeman and unsuccessful 2005 mayoral candidate; Christine Vinion, a staff accountant for a local manufacturing company; Byron L. Armour, an associate minister at Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church; Harold Adams; and Hattie Wilkins, a Democratic activist who worked 20 years at Brentwood Originals in Youngstown.
Also Wednesday, Struthers’ 15 precinct committee members will vote on who will replace former Councilman at-large Dan Yemma, now county treasurer, on the November ballot.
The committee mem-bers voted in June to appoint Carol Crytzer to Yemma’s unexpired term.
Crytzer was the only person who applied by Monday’s deadline to replace Yemma on the ballot.