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Youngstown charter commission to discuss recommendations at public meeting
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown Charter Review Commission will have a public meeting Tuesday to discuss its recommendations and get feedback from residents on them.
The commission has six proposals and is working on a seventh that it will present to city council for consideration, said Christopher Travers, its chairman. It’s up to city council to determine what proposals will be before voters to consider on the November ballot.
The public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Covelli Centre’s meeting room will be “to report what we’ve looked at and what we’ve done and receive feedback,” Travers said.
The seven-member commission originally expected to recommend three to six proposals. But during its review of the charter, it decided seven would be presented to city council, Travers said.
The proposals are:
Removing the provision that city employees are required to live in Youngstown. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that it was no longer constitutional for cities to require that, and Youngstown has followed that decision. The proposal also would keep the requirement that members of commissions and boards appointed by the mayor live in the city, but have a provision that if a qualified city resident cannot be found, the mayor can appoint someone who lives outside of Youngstown with the consent of city council.
Change language that the mayor “will” convene a charter-review committee every four years to “shall” to make it a requirement. The city hasn’t consistently had committees every four years.
Delete the requirement that the city planning commission include a member of the park and recreation commission. Voters approved a charter amendment in November 2013 to eliminate the park and recreation commission. Since then, mayors have appointed residents to planning to fill that position.
Require those running for city council to live in their ward for at least a year before seeking office. There would be a provision in place to allow a person to run for council if their home was redistricted into a different ward less than a year before the election.
Require ward redistricting after every census if there is a 7 percent population variance between the most- and the least-populated wards. It removes the “ambiguity” of the existing charter language on redistricting, Travers said.
Removes a $12 reduction in salary to council members for missing regularly scheduled meetings. Council members are paid $27,817.24 annually, and the $12 penalty hasn’t been enforced for at least a few decades.
“We recommend city council address the meeting absence penalty in rules of council,” Travers said.
The seventh potential amendment relates to “outdated language” that requires all city money to be disbursed by check, Travers said. The committee also may add language to that possible amendment to require information on all transactions to be made available online to the public, he said.
The commission plans to meet July 19 with city council to discuss the proposals it will present.
A 2012 charter review committee proposed 17 changes. Council rejected 13 of them, kept the language of two, and made changes to two others. City voters approved the four proposals during the November 2012 election.