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County presses city for 1 building-inspection unit
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McNally
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County commissioners have backed off their proposal to raise the city of Youngstown’s fee from $60 to $100 per building inspection.
The commissioners, however, want the city to commit to a schedule of discussions concerning merger of the city and county building-inspection departments.
John A. McNally IV, chairman of the commissioners, said in a Thursday staff meeting he wants to ensure “that the effort to consolidate the building- inspection departments between the city and the county actually occurs.”
City officials, specifically Mayor Charles Sammarone, recently balked at the county’s proposal for a 67 percent rate increase.
Sammarone could not be reached for comment on Thursday evening.
McNally denied the increase was an arm-twisting attempt, however.
“The end goal for Mahoning County is consolidating the building-inspection departments. We’re not worried about twisting people’s arms. We don’t need to,” McNally said.
“The efficiencies that will be gained for contractors in the county and the city by having one building-inspection department in place will be more than enough payment for us.”
“The city came to the county about four months ago asking for assistance with building- inspection issues because of retirements in their office. We gladly provided that assistance. We provided it at what we thought was a very good rate for the city,” McNally said.
All three commissioners and Jeff Uroseva, the county’s chief building official, said they favor the merger under the county’s umbrella, and McNally said he hopes merger talks can begin by Oct. 1. If consolidation occurs, the merged operation would be housed in the county’s Westchester Drive building-inspection office, McNally said.
McNally said Karen Gaglione, an assistant county prosecutor, would be drafting a proposed one-year agreement with the city, maintaining the $60-per-inspection rate but containing a time frame for building-inspection merger discussions.
“It’s going to include concrete language about a consolidation plan with dates where we want a consolidation plan completed so that we can move forward with consolidation of city and county building-inspection departments,” McNally said.
“Obviously, the city must be happy with our services. They want to extend the agreement for another year. I support that, but I would certainly want to see some type of consolidation,” County Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti said.
Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti, a former city councilwoman, said she hasn’t heard any council members express opposition to consolidation as long as the city’s building-inspection workers have the opportunity to transfer to the county staff.
“We just need to have a definite date that it [consolidation] will occur. I don’t want to leave this open-ended. ... I want a year [contract period] plus a definite date for consolidation in that agreement,” Righetti said.