43
Study to evaluate city operations
YOUNGSTOWN
A $250,000 study will evaluate city operations to identify and then resolve inefficiencies and weaknesses.
The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide $50,000 to the city for the study.
HUD selected Youngs-town in December for the federal Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative, which is designed to give struggling cities needed resources — primarily financial and personnel assistance — to spur economic growth and operational efficiency.
“We thought we’d get a lot more money,” said Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone about the HUD grant and the study’s expense. “I was hoping to get more money.”
But the city still is moving ahead with the study. The city received a $50,000 commitment from the Raymond John Wean Foundation, and is looking for more financial assistance from local organizations, foundations and businesses, Sammarone said.
If the city doesn’t receive additional money from outside sources, it has the remaining $150,000 in the city budget to pay for the study, he said.
Sammarone said he is convinced the study will be of great benefit examining city government’s efficiency.
“They evaluate all city government offices to make sure we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “We are holding government accountable. This is a no-nonsense administration. In 28 years [of working in city government], I haven’t seen much change in how we deliver services.”
Not only will the $250,000 pay for the evaluation, but also the implementation of recommendations made in the study, he said.
The PFM Group, a company that provides finan-cial and management services to government and nonprofit entities, will conduct the study. The company has a contract with HUD to do this for other Strong Cities, Strong Communities participants.
“They’ll evaluate the departments and the managers we have and put a plan together as to what’s needed and what’s not needed,” Sammarone said. “We need an independent evaluation. They have the experience. They’ve done it in other cities.”
The study should start next month. It will take about six to eight months for the company to identify and resolve the city-government’s operational problems, said DeMaine Kitchen, the mayor’s administrative assistant.
“The goal is to save money,” he said. “But I’m not an expert to say ‘how do you fix it?’; ‘how do you remedy it?’ We need an expert, outside party to propose solutions.”
HUD announced in December that Youngs-town would be part of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative.
Youngstown became the seventh city, joining Detroit, Cleveland, New Orleans, Fresno, Memphis and Chester, Pa.
The other cities received notification of their acceptance last July, but a decision on Youngstown was delayed because then-Mayor Jay Williams was preparing to resign in order to join the President Barack Obama administration.
Sammarone and Kitchen met in October with federal officials and convinced them to add Youngstown to the program.
One benefit, Kitchen said, is that the program provides more “access to the federal government” for the city.
For example, Kitchen and T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director, will go to Washington, D.C., on Thursday for a meeting with federal officials, including Cecilia Munoz, director of the president’s domestic policy council, which coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House. Also, attending the meeting are officials with the other Strong Cities committees.
The PFM Group’s Cleveland office did two other studies for the city.
The city paid $100,000 in 2006 for a study of potential joint-economic development districts with Austintown and Boardman. The study, released in March 2008, went nowhere because of opposition from trustees in the two townships.
Also, the city paid $167,000 between 2009 and 2010 for a study of its water-distribution system and a possible expansion of it. Not much has been done with that study.
Youngstown will be using a PFM Group office in Pennsylvania for the study, Sammarone said.