Youngstown Council mulls spending $50K for off-duty patrols

By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

City council will consider legislation Wednesday to spend up to $50,000 annually for off-duty police officers to patrol in and around 20 Federal Place.

The legislation for the city-owned business building at 20 W. Federal St. would give the board of control approval to use Youngstown Cityscape, an organization involved in downtown beautification, as a “pass-through” to hire off-duty officers there, said Mayor Charles Sammarone.

It would be too expensive to have a city officer patrol in and around the building on overtime, and there aren’t enough officers to devote one to 20 Federal Place, Sammarone said. There is an officer who patrols downtown, but with increased business at 20 Federal Place, an officer is needed there during peak work hours, he said.

The city administration and the Youngstown Police Association, the union that represents patrol officers, agreed to pay off-duty cops $23 an hour for eight hours a day, five days a week, said city Law Director Anthony Farris.

Police officers make between $14.42 an hour, for a first-year patrolman, and $34.58 an hour, for a captain, he said. Under the deal with Cityscape, the city doesn’t have to pay the officers overtime or the city’s 14-percent contribution to pensions, Farris said.

“If you assign an officer [to 20 Federal Place], you take them off the street,” he said. “You either have one less on duty or you pay overtime.”

Those working at 20 Federal Place complain about cars double- or triple-parked in front of the building, loitering, panhandling, trespassing, and there was an assault there recently, Sammarone and Farris said.

“A police officer in uniform is a presence, and officers can arrest people breaking the law,” Sammarone said.

Legislation hasn’t been approved, but a city police officer began patrolling 20 Federal Place on Thursday.

The city pays St. Moritz Security about $132,000 to $140,000 annually to have two security guards at the downtown building around the clock, said Sean McKinney, the city’s buildings and grounds commissioner.

The city will eliminate one morning/afternoon shift for St. Moritz in about three weeks, cutting that cost by 25 percent, McKinney said.

City officials also will look at further cuts to St. Moritz security or even eliminate it, he said.

Also Wednesday, council will consider legislation permitting the board of control to change the food-and-beverage vendor at the city-owned Covelli Centre.

After months of talking, a deal has been struck to replace Centerplate with JAC Management, the company that runs the center’s day-to-day operations, as the facility’s food-and-beverage vendor.

City officials want JAC to take over next month, but until the state Division of Liquor Control transfers the liquor license from Centerplate to JAC, the switch will have to wait, Sammarone said.

The switch would increase the city’s profit on food-and-beverage sales by $50,592 annually, with JAC making another $23,784 a year, city Finance Director David Bozanich said recently. He based those amounts on 2010 figures. The city would receive a larger percentage of the center’s net food-and-beverage profit under the JAC deal.

Council also will consider an ordinance Wednesday authorizing the board of control to give $230,000 to the Youngstown Business Incubator for water and wastewater improvements to the incubator at 241 W. Federal St., and to 234 W. Boardman St., a long-vacant Furnitureland warehouse.

The two buildings are connected by an enclosed bridge over Dutton Alley.

The incubator is negotiating with Revere Data, a market analysis firm for the financial industry, to move from 5,200 square feet of space it occupies at the incubator-owned Semple Building on West Federal Street to the 8,600-square-foot Boardman Street building, said Barb Ewing, the incubator’s chief operating officer.

Revere likely would double its work force from 40 to 80 employees in 2012, she said.

The incubator received $450,000 in federal funds to renovate the former Furnitureland warehouse.