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Youngstown mayor-elect releases names of applicants for cabinet
YOUNGSTOWN
Mayor-elect Jamael Tito Brown said he has “a great group of applicants” to choose from to join his incoming cabinet.
Brown, a Democrat, on Friday released the names of applicants for eight department heads: law director, buildings and grounds commissioner, public works deputy director, city prosecutor, fire chief, police chief, water commissioner and parks and recreation director. He didn’t provide backgrounds for or resumes from the candidates.
“The citizens will be well-represented by those chosen for these positions,” Brown said.
No one applied for the finance director position.
Brown said he and his transition team had already planned to conduct a national search for the spot because of the financial problems facing the city before having no one seek the job. The city is projected to have a deficit of $2.5 million to $3 million in its general fund by the end of 2018.
Brown has previously said he had no interest in retaining Finance Director David Bozanich, who is the unnamed city official mentioned in the indictment against downtown property developer Dominic Marchionda alleged to have taken a $25,000 bribe, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. Bozanich hasn’t been charged.
Brown wants to select as many department heads as possible by the time he takes office Jan. 1, but said he won’t rush any decision.
Among the familiar names applying for jobs are several current department heads. These include Law Director Martin Hume; Charles Shasho, public works deputy director; Prosecutor Dana Lantz; Police Chief Robin Lees; Water Commissioner Harry L. Johnson III; and Robert Burke, parks and recreation director.
John J. O’Neill Jr., fire chief for the past 20 years, didn’t apply to retain the position. O’Neill said he is retiring in September or October 2018, and will return to his prior position as a battalion chief.
“It will be great to have him at the department to help train a new chief,” Brown said of O’Neill.
Most of the fire chief candidates currently work for the department.
Among names of note who applied for positions in Brown’s administration:
Janet Tarpley, who finished third in last month’s mayoral race, for buildings and grounds commissioner.
John Jeffrey Limbian, a former law director and prosecutor, for law director.
Former Police Chief Jimmy Hughes, who retired in 2011 with a pension payout of about $500,000 and was briefly a 2013 mayoral candidate, for his old job.
Elrico Alli, Lowellville police chief who was fired in 2007 by then-Attorney General Marc Dann as director of law enforcement operations after it was discovered he was still on the Youngstown police payroll, also for police chief.
Delphine Baldwin-Casey, a retired Youngstown detective sergeant who earlier this year became the first black female officer on the Campbell Police Department, also for police chief.
Among the other police chief candidates are several current city police officers including Douglas Bobovnyik, lieutenant of detectives; Ramon Cox, commander of family services; Kevin Mercer, captain of administrative services; Frank Rutherford, lieutenant in charge of the day turn; Donald P. Scott, in charge of the crime lab; and Jason Simon, captain in charge of the fiscal unit.
The position that attracted the most candidates was parks and recreation director with 14, followed by police chief with 12. The least number of candidates were for prosecutor and deputy director of public works with three each.
The mayor can make several key department-head appointments with none having civil-service protection.
Brown’s transition team will begin interviewing candidates next week and provide a list of finalists – it could be as few as one or as many as five – to the mayor-elect.
Brown said he would then do final interviews and hire people for each job from that pool of finalists. Each person hired is subject to a background check and a drug test, he said.
Some people who submitted applications have since withdrawn their names from consideration, Brown said, because they didn’t want their names made public for a variety of reasons. That included not wanting their current employer to know they’re looking for another job and not wanting to undergo a background check or drug screening, he said.
There are other positions Brown will seek to fill soon, including director of downtown events, director of community planning and economic development and a number of attorneys in the law department – all of whom have unclassified jobs and are appointed by the mayor.