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Youngstown Parks Department to hire recreation director
YOUNGSTOWN
Members of the city’s park and recreation commission say they expect next month to hire a director, filling that long-vacant position.
Of the 56 who applied for the park and recreation director job, the city’s Civil Service Commission determined that 29 met or exceeded the professional and educational requirements to be considered for the job, and ranked them.
State civil-service rules allow the park and recreation commission to hire anyone in the top 25 percent on the list to be director; that works out to be the top seven on the list.
Interviews begin Friday.
“We hope to have a person in place by January,” said Denise Skowron, the commission’s chairwoman. “It’s a real good group of people. It might be a hard decision.”
Jason Roller, a commission member, added: “I feel very confident we have a well-qualified list of candidates. We have to go through the process, and I’m confident it will be a successful one.”
The job would pay between $55,000 and $61,000 annually.
Shortly after Joseph McRae’s abrupt retirement in May 2007, Jason Whitehead, then-chief of staff and secretary to the mayor, became the interim park and recreation director with no additional pay to his annual salary of $74,187. McRae made $70,794 annually during his last year on the job.
A week after Jay Williams resigned Aug. 1 as mayor to join President Barack Obama’s administration, new Mayor Charles Sammarone accepted Whitehead’s resignation.
The commission can select any of the top seven candidates. Also, for each candidate who declines to be interviewed, the commission can consider the next person on the list for the job.
Candidates for the appointment need at least five years of “progressive responsibilities” in park and recreation management in areas such as personnel management, facility maintenance, budgeting, grant writing, fundraising and event coordination. Also, required is at least a bachelor’s degree in park and recreation, public administration or similar fields.
In addition to being valued on professional and educational requirements, the candidates received credit for military service under state law.
The top three candidates were the only ones to receive military credit. Without the credits, they would have finished, eighth, ninth and 17th, respectively, on the list.
The commission ranked Mark Doinoff of Artesia, N.M., a 1979 Cardinal Mooney High School graduate, as No. 1. Doinoff serves as budget officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, a job he’s had since January 2009. Before that, he spent more than 14 years as a recreation-facility director for the U.S. Air Force at three bases.
At No. 2 is Robert Burke of Newton Falls, operations manager at Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program in Warren since May 2005, and director of Newton Falls Community Center since October 2004.
Joseph Brown of Salado, Texas, who’s served as recreation superintendent for Harker Heights, Texas, since December 2009, is ranked third. Brown played five games in the National Football League with the Seattle Seahawks and four years for The Ohio State University.
The fourth-ranked candidate is Douglas Maxwell, who worked as Medina’s facility manager from September 2003 to this past January. He lost his job because of the city budget cuts.
At fifth is Theodore Morus Jr. of Atlantic, Pa., a former park and recreation planning and management consultant with Pashek Associates Ltd. of Greenville. He also spent about 14 years as Greenville, Pa., park and recreation assistant executive director.
David J. Herpy, Kent State University’s outdoor-recreation program-coordinator since January 2007 is ranked sixth, with Jennifer L. Rice of Girard, assistant director of parks and recreation for Ravenna since January 1991, as seventh.
If one candidate drops out, next on the list is Sean Logan of Lisbon, the former director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources who also spent six years as a Columbiana County commissioner and 11 years as an Ohio House member.
Other notable candidates include Jeffrey Patterson, the former fiscal director of the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, at No. 12; Alan Knapp, the retired Trumbull County planning commission director, at No. 16; Andrea Mahone, a city school board member who runs a youth activity program, at No. 23 on the list.
Two current city employees are also in the top 29 — John J. Spivey Jr., a municipal court administration employee, is No. 18, and Jennifer Jones, coordinator of the litter control and recycling program, is 27th.