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A Youngstown councilwoman and her husband are being assessed $1,200 by the city for failing to mow grass
YOUNGSTOWN
Councilwoman Annie Gillam abstained from voting on assessing fees to specific property owners for failing to cut the grass on vacant lots because four parcels she and her husband own are on the list.
Each lot was mowed twice by the city with the Gillams owing $1,200 to the city – $150 for each cut, according to the assessment list.
Because she was on the list, Gillam, D-1st, said Monday it would be inappropriate to vote on the ordinance that seeks payment for costs incurred by the city from property owners who haven’t paid the municipality for demolition, boarding up structures and grass cutting.
The list includes four vacant properties on Kenneth Avenue on the East Side owned by her and her husband, Artis Gillam Sr., a former city councilman.
She said the lots are connected and each is small enough that all would be needed to build a house there.
The list shows the city had those four lots mowed June 30 and July 28. Lots are mowed if the grass is at least 8 inches high.
The councilwoman voted in favor of the 8-inch limit and has urged better enforcement of tall grass and other property codes.
Gillam said she and her husband went on vacation in July, and likely let the grass grow too high, but she disputes that the city cut the grass there twice.
“I have an issue with the city,” she said. “It couldn’t have been bad that they had to cut it twice.”
Her husband said he’s cut the grass on those parcels.
Though his wife said the city cut the grass once there, Artis said he doesn’t believe the city had the grass cut there at all.
“That’s not true,” he said of not mowing the lawns on Kenneth. “I’ve been cutting them. I don’t know why they’re charging us.”
He also said if the city mowed the grass on the Kenneth Avenue properties, “they left it real high. It doesn’t look like anyone mowed it.”
The city puts the assessments on the tax duplicates of those who fail to mow the grass and don’t pay the fees, said Law Director Martin Hume.
ANTI-FRACKING AMENDMENT
Also at council’s special Monday, lawmakers voted to put an anti-fracking charter amendment proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The Mahoning County Board of Elections will vote on putting the issue on the ballot at its Wednesday meeting, which starts at 5 p.m., as long as the city provides it with the paperwork, said Mark Munroe, board director.
Council approved the proposal as part of the agenda without any comments about the bill that has been rejected four previous times by city voters.
The possibility of its not getting on the ballot came when Secretary of State Jon Husted removed anti-fracking charter amendment proposals in Athens, Fulton and Medina counties.
But his decision wasn’t connected to a proposed fracking ban in a home-rule city such as Youngstown.
Hume and Munroe said Husted’s rule recognizes there’s a difference.
Munroe is meeting today with secretary of state officials in Columbus, but it’s likely the board of elections will OK placing the initiative in front of voters.
FrackFree Mahoning Valley, which backs the amendment and the four others that failed, needed at least 1,270 valid signatures on their petitions to be eligible for the ballot, said Susie Beiersdorfer, a member of the group.
FrackFree turned in 1,832 signatures, and the board ruled 1,534 were valid.
“We expect a challenge [to keep this on the ballot], but we will withstand a protest,” she said.
Beiersdorfer also said FrackFree is proposing shorter ballot language. The full proposal has been on the ballot every other time, and she said that has hurt its chances of being approved because “it’s too long and people don’t want to take the time to read it.”
But Hume said the city law department determined the shorter language “isn’t an adequate explanation of the proposed charter amendment,” and rejected it.