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Youngstown council again postpones vote on an anti-loitering ordinance
YOUNGSTOWN
City council opted again not to approve an anti-loitering ordinance with some members still uncomfortable with the legislation.
Council postponed a vote Wednesday on the proposal, sponsored by Mayor John A. McNally, even though members agreed at a June 23 committee meeting to approve it.
Council first delayed the vote June 15 when members said they were concerned about police training and questioned if the proposal was constitutional.
“We’re going to take another look at it, as some council members still have concerns,” said Councilman Nate Pinkard, D-3rd and chairman of the legislative body’s safety committee. “So we’re going to discuss it further.”
Among those concerned include Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th, a retired Youngstown police officer. Davis still questions the proposal’s constitutionality.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio criticized the proposal. An attorney for the organization told The Vindicator on July 6 the ACLU likely would sue the city if council approved the ordinance.
“It’s not off the table; it’s coming,” said Pinkard, a retired Mill Creek MetroParks police chief. “Some council members have concerns, and we’ll address that.”
Pinkard expects council to approve it at its next meeting Aug. 17.
The proposal would make it illegal to sit, lie down or loiter on downtown sidewalks, streets or within 50 feet of a business.
The proposal came after numerous downtown business owners complained to city officials about large groups of people blocking the entrances to their stores and restaurants, saying that some were selling drugs, drinking alcoholic beverages and being disruptive.
If the legislation is approved, those who violate it would be charged with a fourth-degree misdemeanor after a written warning. Subsequent convictions would be second-degree misdemeanors.
A vote on a proposal to let a movie group borrow up to $2 million to make two films in Youngstown also was postponed.
The loan would be given only if the companies obtain an irrevocable letter of credit from a lending institution. If the companies were to default, the lending institution would be required to pay back the loan.
The companies – Odyssey Motion Picture LLC of Santa Monica, Calif., and Alpha Pictures of Melbourne, Australia – still need to finalize a deal with a bank, said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s director of community planning and economic development.
That is expected to be done before council’s next meeting, she said.
City council approved several ordinances at the meeting:
Established new policies for the city’s residential garbage-collection program, primarily making it a fourth-degree misdemeanor to steal new 96-gallon garbage bins that arrived Wednesday. The city will deliver the bins to the city’s 22,000 residential garbage customers by July 29.
The administration wanted to charge fees to those who put out more garbage than would fit in the city-issued carts and two bulk items. But council rejected that request because the city’s sanitation superintendent says most residents exceed that amount of garbage each week.
Having the board of control advertise to hire a company for about $275,000 to demolish an empty 3-million-gallon water tank on Princeton Avenue on the city’s South Side.
Allowing the board of control to seek proposals for $166,500 to purchase, install and maintain LED display lighting at the city-owned Covelli Centre.
Forwarding two citizen charter-amendment proposals to the Mahoning County Board of Elections to determine if they have enough valid signatures to get on the November general election ballot.
One proposal would ban fracking – rejected five previous times by city voters – and the other would increase the rights of part-time workers.