Thursday, April 21, 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
City council authorized the board of control to sign a contract paying $174,261 to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to supervise grass cutting and cleanups at vacant structures.
Council voted 7-0 Wednesday on the ordinance.
YNDC will employ four supervisors, a management intern, about 15 workers from the Mahoning Columbiana Training Association – typically lower-income city residents between age 18 and 24 – and about a dozen AmeriCorps members.
In 2015, the year with YNDC having these responsibilities, lawns at 10,356 vacant structures were cut and 533 empty structures were boarded up, said Ian Beniston, the agency’s executive director.
That $135,168 contract was for 35 weeks. The new contract is for 46 weeks.
“A lot of phones [at city hall] ringing with complaints stopped ringing” last year because of YNDC’s work, said city Finance Director David Bozanich.
In 2014, private contractors paid by the city cut about 2,900 lawns.
Also, council voted to permit the board of control to sign a contract for up to $12.5 million with Anthem Health Insurance to continue to provide health insurance to city employees. The city has about 730 employees with about 60 of them not using its health-insurance plan.
Anthem originally proposed a 6.15 percent increase while other companies contacted by the city were seeking a 10 percent increase over the city’s current coverage plan, which expires April 30, said Rebecca Gerson, deputy law director.
The city was able to negotiate a 2 percent increase with Anthem, she said.
While the contract is for up to $12.5 million, the final total should be closer to $12.3 million, Gerson said.
In 2015, city employees paid deductibles for the first time. The higher the deductible, the less expensive the plan.
One plan has deductibles of $250 per person and up to $500 per family; another is $500 and $1,000, respectively, and a health-savings account option has deductibles of $2,600 and $5,200, respectively.
City employees pay 10 percent of the health insurance premiums.
Council, consisting of all Democrats, also approved a resolution urging the Republican-led U.S. Senate to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to a vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Republican senators are refusing to have a confirmation hearing, saying the next president should decide who should be nominated to the high court.