43
County would take over city’s building department in January
YOUNGSTOWN
City council will consider legislation Wednesday to close its building department — which currently has only one employee — and have Mahoning County handle those responsibilities as part of its government-consolidation effort.
The decision is a matter of cost savings and efficiency, said Mayor Charles Sammarone.
A one-employee department isn’t working, he said. For it to run properly, the city would have to hire three additional employees, which is too great an expense, Sammarone said.
It would cost about $400,000 annually to run properly, and the department doesn’t generate that amount of money to cover that, he said.
“We have a lot of fees, but the way our rate is structured with waivers, we haven’t been able to profit off building department fees,” said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works.
Also, the county’s building department is efficient and has done a great job with the city’s housing inspections; something it took over in March, Sammarone said.
“I haven’t heard a single complaint about the county since it took over inspections,” he said. “I used to get complaints when the city did inspections almost every day.”
If all goes according to plan, the county will take over the city building department next month, Sammarone said.
It’s a great example of government consolidation while providing people with better service, he said.
The proposal isn’t sitting too well with Brenda Williams, the city’s chief building official and the department’s lone employee.
Williams wanted to address her concerns about the proposal during the public-speaking portion of Wednesday’s meeting.
But at the request of city Law Director Anthony Farris, council won’t permit Williams to speak.
“It likely related to personnel issues and possible litigation,” Farris said. “She’d be speaking on her employment.”
Williams declined Monday to comment to The Vindicator.
The last time she spoke to the newspaper, she received a reprimand from the administration for not referring questions to her supervisor, Shasho.
In her written request to speak Wednesday, Williams wrote she wanted to discuss “the lack of pre-planning with other city departments that must precede elimination of the building department and the loss of revenues to the city that will occur.”
Williams could be offered another job with the city, Shasho said.
The job is a negotiator with the primary responsibilities being to track property transfers, negotiate easements and tabulate real-estate costs.
That job pays about $25,000 less a year.
Williams’ annual salary is $72,563.66, according to payroll records provided by the city.