McGiffin leaving downtown Youngstown coordinator post

YOUNGSTOWN

Michael McGiffin will step down as the city’s downtown events coordinator at the end of the month, in order to take a new job at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said McGiffin did a “great job” for the city and he is sorry to see him go.

“It was a better opportunity for him, maybe a greater challenge,” Brown said.

The position is among a handful that the new mayor had planned to seek applicants for, even before McGiffin tendered his resignation Thursday.

Brown said he could seek to advertise for that post, as well as community planning and economic development director and attorneys in the law department, as early as today.

McGiffin served as coordinator for downtown events and citywide special projects since November 2014.

He was the city’s point man for downtown festivals and other events, as well as community-wide marketing efforts.

McGiffin said his biggest successes were the City of You campaign, building Federal Frenzy into a major downtown event, growing the Christmas Parade and celebration, and “increasing the standard of what our events look like and how downtown is presented and how it functions.”

Read more about him and the position in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.