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Elections board offers free remapping service to Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County Board of Elections, largely responsible for Youngstown’s new seven-ward redistricting map, is willing to provide its services — at no cost again — to the city if a charter amendment to reduce the number of wards to five is approved by voters.
The board unanimously voted Thursday to put the ward-reduction charter-amendment proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Director Joyce Kale-Pesta said a preliminary, unofficial map of five wards would take about two weeks to prepare.
The request for the five-ward map came from Youngstown Councilman Paul Drennen, D-5th, who supports the ward reduction.
“It’s easy to do,” Kale-Pesta said of a five-ward map. “We’d have plenty of time to do it.”
The charter-amendment proposal gives council 30 days after the fall-ballot vote is certified to redraw the lines for five wards, effective with the 2015 election. If council failed to do so in time, the mayor would have 14 days to redistrict.
If approved, the charter amendment would not only consolidate the city into five wards but would eliminate two council positions.
Some council members, who oppose the charter amendment, said 30 days wouldn’t be enough time to redistrict, and work needs to get started on a ward-reduction effort before votes are counted.
Because of that, council voted 6-1 on Wednesday to authorize the board of control to enter into a contract for about $7,500 with Triad Research Group of Westlake.
Triad had proposed in February redistricting the city’s seven wards to make the population in each more equitable for a price between $7,500 and $10,000.
After council voted in May to have the board of control hire Triad, McNally, who is chairman of that board, refused to consider it.
Instead, the board of elections did the work at no cost.
McNally said Wednesday that the board of elections likely wouldn’t have time because of the election to focus on a proposed map of five wards.
But Kale-Pesta said Thursday that she and board employees could meet in about two weeks with council to go over a preliminary five-ward map, and could have a final map “done a couple of days after certification.”
After some delays, the ward-reduction proposal will officially be on the fall ballot.
At a meeting last week, the board of elections refused to certify the proposal because city council submitted two nearly identical documents about the same issue.
One was approved by city council by ordinance and the other was a citizens’ initiative.
Since then, the county prosecutor and the Ohio Secretary of State’s office told the board that the city law director had authority over Youngstown charter issues.
Law Director Martin Hume was at Thursday’s board meeting and recommended one amendment on the issue be on the ballot. The board complied, going with the city council ordinance proposal.
Also Thursday, the board adopted the secretary of state’s recommended in-person early voting times and dates. A judge recently ruled that early voting would start Sept. 30 though state officials are appealing the decision.