Youngstown city lawmakers fail their first test as political leaders

With each failed vote for who would be on Youngstown City Council’s standing committee, the stranger it became.

Four of council’s seven members serve on the committee that recommends who serves on council’s 12 committees.

They’re only recommendations, so council could reject any of the appointments.

That it was the first meeting of the year of council – which has four new members and three incumbents – wasn’t a good sign.

However, it seemed as though most of the members were of like mind as the same five rejected the makeup of the committee three times.

The one common denominator was Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th, who was on the slate all three times. Only Ray and new Councilwoman Lauren McNally, D-5th, voted in favor of the committee membership the three times.

Ray nominated himself during the second and third round of voting – as well as the fourth, which council backed 4-3 after council President Charles Sammarone finally got angry and said, among other things, “This is the worst meeting I’ve been to in 32 years to pick a standing committee.”

That Ray nominated himself raised questions if it was allowed.

“That’s a new one to me,” Sammarone said.

After reviewing the rules of city council, Law Director Martin Hume said there wasn’t anything that prohibited it.

The fourth vote resulted in Ray’s serving on the committee with incumbent Councilmen T.J. Rodgers, D-2nd, and Nate Pinkard, D-3rd, and newcomer Basia Adamczak, D-7th.

If the majority of council wanted to shut Ray out of the process, it did a lousy job. I don’t know if that was the plan, but based on the votes, it appeared to me that was a priority for at least some.

Ray, who was aggressive during the standing committee meeting, wanted to be chairman of the community development committee – and got that appointment. He wanted to remain head of the public utilities committee – and that happened. He also wanted to be on the finance committee – and got that, too.

However, Ray didn’t get everything. He wanted to be president pro tempore, but saw the writing on the wall: Pinkard already had wrapped that up well before the meeting started. Knowing he couldn’t win, Ray didn’t even seek the nomination.

When I later asked members of council about needing a fourth vote and Sammarone criticizing them for “playing politics,” several either gave me a response that contradicted how they voted or didn’t give me a straight answer.

Pinkard said the no votes were a “nonissue,” but wouldn’t explain why. The third slate, which Pinkard rejected, was the same as the fourth, which he supported.

Pinkard said he voted yes on the fourth slate because “it was getting ridiculous.”

New Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th, said she wanted a balance of men to women, new to incumbent members, and blacks to whites.

“Diversity was the goal,” she said. “I wanted a good mix. The optimum was a white man, a black man, a white female and a black female.”

That’s exactly what Davis got during the first vote when she – along with Pinkard, Ray and Councilwoman Basia Adamczak, D-7th – were nominated. She voted no as she did the three other times.

Adamczak voted no three times, and like Pinkard, changed her vote for the fourth slate, which was identical to the third.

“I didn’t really have an issue, but I wanted everyone to be fairly represented,” she said. “We had a member on each side of town and had majority and minorities represented.”

New Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st, voted no each time.

“It had to be all the way even with some new blood with the veterans,” he said. “It worked out good for us.”

When I asked why he voted against every slate, Oliver said, “I didn’t have opposition.”

I pointed out he must have or else he would have voted yes at least once.

Voting no “didn’t mean I was opposed to it,” Oliver said. “It was a certain end that was supposed to come out. I wanted a diverse standing committee, not all experienced and not all males.”

Again, I pointed out all three incumbents, who are men, were selected for the committee along with Adamczak, a woman.

His response: “It took a couple of times to get it right.”

Also, nearly all the key committee assignments and chairman positions went to the three returning members.

Had the four newcomers worked together, they would have had perhaps one of them serve on the finance committee or end up being the head of CDA, safety, and/or housing community and economic development.

Instead, the newcomers head obscure committees that rarely meet such as legislation, general improvements, and off-street.