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Racism takes center stage in Youngstown council meeting
On the side
All paid up: Cynthia McWilson, a Democratic primary candidate for Youngstown City Council’s 5th Ward, has paid all of her delinquent Mahoning County property taxes. When she unsuccessfully ran for the 58th Ohio House District seat last year, she owed $1,396 in late property taxes, but was making payments. The amount was down to $1,258 on three properties, including her home, earlier this month. She paid that amount Tuesday to the county.
Change in plans: A potential fundraiser this month or in April in Mahoning County for the Ready for Hillary PAC [political action committee], that is leading the charge for a 2016 presidential bid by Hillary Rodham Clinton, isn’t going to happen. County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said a few weeks ago he was going to work with the PAC to have an event here with a “very A-list movie star and political activist.”
Betras said Wednesday, “We were excited to do it, but with everything going on with the primary and trying to catch up on my law practice, I didn’t have the time to make it super successful.”
Racism and preferential treatment given to those of a certain socioeconomic status — perceived or actual depending on who is talking — are longstanding issues in Youngstown.
They were publicly aired during a heated discussion Wednesday among city council members and Mayor John A. McNally on a grass-cutting and property-cleanup program.
While these issues have come up more in recent months, primarily comments made by the public at council meetings and an occasional response from a council member, this was the first time in my 10-plus years of covering city government that the conversation of race escalated so quickly among elected officials.
The topic was paying $102,168 a year to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to supervise and manage — along with two city officials — a program to give work to about 20 low-income “at-risk” people between 18 and 24 years old. The workers would cut grass, clean up lots and dump sites, board up vacant buildings and do some landscaping.
Councilwomen Annie Gillam, D-1st, and Janet Tarpley, D-6th, who are both black and are the key decision-makers on the legislative body, said YNDC has ignored their wards until they personally went to the agency’s officials to get their fair share.
Ian J. Beniston, YNDC executive director, who is white, strongly denies the accusations, saying “resources are equitably divided by wards.”
Tarpley said, “We can’t act like race isn’t an issue when it’s an issue.”
McNally, who is white, said city council needs to stop accusing YNDC of not treating certain areas fairly.
Acknowledging he was “a little frustrated,” McNally said, “The issues of race are things we deal with. It’s an ever-present issue. It’s always out there.”
Also, Tarpley and Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th, who is white, got into a shouting match with the former claiming the latter made statements about his ward having the most people who pay taxes live there. Ray adamantly denied saying it.
What is racism to one person is nothing to another.
As Tarpley said, “That’s the way we feel. If we had that experience, you can’t change my experience.”
On council, there are four black members and three white members. When there are 4-3 votes, nearly all of them are four votes from the black members and three from the white members.
During last year’s failed effort to reduce the number of wards from seven to five, Ray and Paul Drennen, D-5th, who is also white, supported the proposal. They were accused by some local black leaders of a power grab and working to regain control of council for white people.
The two provided reasons for their position — less population requires less council members and the money the cash-strapped city would save — and strongly deny being racist. But to some they’re racists and there’s no changing their minds.
During the 2013 mayoral race, black leaders defended DeMaine Kitchen, a black candidate, against accusations he sexually harassed a white city employee.
They said it never happened and to claim otherwise was racist.
It turned out Kitchen admitted he made inappropriate remarks to the woman, and an investigation determined he sexually harassed her.
However, there are still people who don’t believe it.
Is there a solution? Unfortunately, don’t count on one.