Youngstown council assistant and deputy clerk lost civil-service protection

By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

At the request of city council, a commission has agreed that council’s assistant and deputy clerk positions are no longer civil-service protected jobs and serve at the pleasure of the seven-member body.

That means those clerks can be hired, fired, promoted or demoted by council.

On Wednesday, council will consider a resolution in support of the change — which its members requested of the civil-service commission and received a few weeks ago.

After the resolution vote, council expects to vote on promoting Jennifer Ozenghar from first deputy clerk to first assistant clerk, said Valencia Marrow, clerk of council. That would raise Ozenghar’s annual salary from $42,016 to $51,580, according to Kyle Miasek, the city’s deputy finance director.

Besides Marrow, who already serves at council’s pleasure, Ozenghar is the only clerk in the department. In addition to the positions of clerk of council, first assistant clerk and first deputy clerk, there also are second, third and fourth deputy clerks on the books though it’s been at least 20 years since every clerk position has been filled.

Terri Dawson, who retired in August as first assistant clerk, hasn’t been replaced.

Council wants to hire a third person for the department, but won’t consider doing so until after the first three months of the year, and that decision would depend on the city’s financial condition, Marrow said.

Instead of hiring a first deputy clerk, council may consider hiring someone as a lower deputy clerk to save money, she said.

The lower clerk annual salaries range from $31,367 to $35,863, Miasek said.

Ozenghar retains her civil-service protection from her prior job as a legislative aide in the law department, Law Director Martin Hume said. Should she no longer remain with city council, she could choose to return to her previous job in the law department, Hume said.

Also Wednesday, council will consider removing 22 long-vacant health-department positions — including assistant dairy inspector, disease-intervention specialist, AIDS coordinator and homeless-nursing clerk — from its master salary list.

But Erin Bishop, city health commissioner, said she doesn’t believe council will vote on the legislation because the union representing health-department employees wants more time to review the proposal. Council postponed a vote on this issue at its Dec. 17 meeting.

Contributor: William K. Alcorn, staff writer