‘Interim’ director: No need to fill position

By David Skolnick | February 10, 2011 at 12:05a.m.

Jason Whitehead, Chief of Staff for Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams

YOUNGSTOWN

Jason Whitehead, the mayor’s chief of staff who’s served as the city’s “interim” park and recreation director for nearly four years without an increase in his salary, says there’s no need to fill that position on a permanent basis.

Whitehead told city council Wednesday that the cash-strapped city isn’t in a position to hire a full-time director with an annual base salary of $55,000 to $62,000 with full medical-insurance coverage.

Whitehead went so far as to say money would be better spent bringing back six part-time park employees laid off last year rather than hiring a director. Bringing back those workers, who make $8 an hour with no medical benefits, would cost about half the annual base salary of a park and recreation director.

“It doesn’t really make sense” to hire a director “when you have six people on layoff who will bring a greater value,” Whitehead said Wednesday at a council park and recreation committee meeting, which six of council’s seven members attended.

But council members say they want a full-time director to better serve the city’s youth.

“One problem in the city is youth violence and the lack of youth programs,” said Councilwoman Janet Tarpley, D-6th. “We need a full-time director. We need someone to focus on this.”

Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, told two of the four park and recreation commission members who attended Wednesday’s meeting to ask for everything they want within reason, regardless of the cost, and let council figure out what to fund.

“Shoot for the stars and let us decide,” he said.

Members of council and the park and recreation commission have wanted a permanent director for years, but the city administration has urged them to wait because the city doesn’t have the money for such a position.

The commission met Dec. 22 and voted 3-2 to hire Jonathan Bentley, program manager for Youngstown school district’s College Tech Prep 21st Century Community Learning Center, as director.

But the appointment, that was to be effective Feb. 1, violated city and state law and thus is “null and void,” according to a Jan. 12 letter to the commission from city Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello.

The position is a civil service appointment, and the commission improperly bypassed that process, Guglucello wrote. Also, the commission violated state law by failing to inform the public it was holding the meeting, she wrote.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Gerald Fordham, a commission member, said he and other members would discuss moving ahead with hiring a director before its next meeting, Feb. 24.

Guglucello then reminded Fordham that to do so at an unannounced meeting would violate city and state law once again.

“You just can’t do that,” she told Fordham.

Whitehead was named interim park and recreation director in May 2007 when Joseph McRae abruptly retired after eight years on the job. Whitehead receives $74,187 a year in base-pay as chief of staff with no additional compensation for running the park and recreation department.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Whitehead said the commission expects to hire someone to operate the city’s Henry Stambaugh Golf Course sometime this month.

Whitehead added that the city plans to operate an eight-week summer youth program and have the North Side Pool open from mid-June to mid-August.