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Reaction to Youngstown charter proposals is varied
YOUNGSTOWN
City council members and Mayor Charles Sammarone have mixed opinions about the sweeping changes to elections and political positions recommended by the charter-review committee.
The committee recommended 11 changes to the charter at a Monday meeting. It previously had recommended about seven other changes, and it’s not finished yet.
“That’s quite a bit to bring up all at once,” said Council President Jamael Tito Brown. “That’s a lot of change. If you’re going to have 20, put two or three up first. If you start changing too fast, you lose consistency in government — and that impacts how the city operates.”
“It’s really voluminous,” added Councilman John R. Swierz, D-7th. “They want to make a lot of changes.”
He suggests the committee pick five to seven of the most-important issues to recommend to council.
“We’re not at the finish line yet,” Swierz said. “They may decide to whittle it down. My fear is if we put numerous issues on the ballot, are people going to come to the polls and vote on all of them or some of them?”
Though Jerome Williams, the charter-review committee chairman, said there likely will be 25 to 30 proposed changes, the group will prioritize them for council.
At Monday’s meeting, the committee proposed significant changes including: eliminating political partisan elections, no longer electing council president citywide, creating the position of vice or deputy mayor, reducing city council members’ pay, denying council members medical insurance if they could get it through their job or their spouse’s employer, requiring the city to redistrict its wards, eliminating term limits for mayor, making it easier to recall the mayor and council members, and requiring all city council and council committee meetings to start no earlier than 6 p.m.
Recommendations from the charter-review committee need to be approved by city council for them to be considered by voters during the November election.
Sammarone said he opposes nonpartisan elections because “I’m a Democrat. I’m not ashamed of being a Democrat.”
He said the committee needs to “justify” its recommendations.
But, Sammarone added: “They’re doing their job. You’re supposed to review the charter from A to Z. Once I appoint a committee, I let them do what they need to do.”
Sammarone appointed three members with the seven council members and council president each selecting one representative.
The mayor said he had “no objection” to not electing a council president, a job he’d held for years, and have council choose one of their own for the job. Also, having a vice or deputy mayor is an idea “that could work,” Sammarone said.
Brown, the current council president, said his position should be elected citywide. Also, the charter-review committee should give more responsibility to the position, he said.
Swierz said he’s not against nonpartisan elections, but the former council president said that position should stay as it is.
The last charter-review committee met eight years ago even though the city charter says a committee should convene every four years.
“We should consider having the committee meet more than every four years,” Swierz said.
Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th, opposes nonpartisan elections and said he wants to talk to the committee members to learn the reasons behind several of their recommendations.
“I don’t know what the right balance is, but they shouldn’t change the entire charter,” Ray said. “Too much isn’t a good thing. It will overwhelm people. [Decide] what are the most-important issues and focus on improving efficiency in government.”
Councilman Nate Pinkard, D-3rd, said, “For some things, I question the wisdom on why.”
Examples, Pinkard said, are reducing the number of signatures needed for recall petitions and the formula recommended by the committee to reduce the pay of council members.
Each council member is paid $27,817.24 annually. The committee recommended council members be considered part time and be paid no more than 80 percent of the average annual income of a city resident, which is $25,902. That would make the annual salary of a council member no more than $20,721.60.
“There’s got to be an easier way,” Pinkard said of the salary.
Councilwoman Janet Tarpley, D-6th, said a reduction in pay would have the city “go back to yesteryear when we were known for corruption and things that shouldn’t be done. Decent pay helped bring out the better and brightest” members. She also opposes nonpartisan elections, eliminating council president and creating a vice or deputy mayor.
Tying salary to average annual income of a resident is fair and creates an incentive for council members to see the city population grow, committee members say.
Committee members said the reduction in the number of signatures for a recall is because those amounts haven’t changed in decades while the city’s population has significantly declined.
The current requirement is petitions with valid signatures of 5,000 registered voters for mayor and 700 for council. The committee recommended it be a flat 15 percent of the total vote in the last mayoral and council elections.
That recommendation was the closest vote among the issues the committee considered Monday, passing 5-4 with one member abstaining and one member absent.