YOUNGSTOWN — City council is expected Wednesday to approve a tax abatement for Youngstown Tool and Die Co., which is planning a $10.1 million expansion that would more than double its workforce.

All seven council members met virtually Monday as the finance committee to discuss what it will consider at its Wednesday council meeting. It was the first time council met since a brief special March 16 meeting to approve the city budget.

The finance committee recommended voting in favor of the abatement and though Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd, had questions about the somewhat unique abatement, no one spoke against it.

On March 4, council chose not to vote on the abatement to review the paperwork.

Youngstown Tool and Die plans to move from its current location at 1261 Poland Ave. to the former Exterran Energy Solutions Inc. property at 2572 Salt Springs Road. The Salt Springs location is 60,000 square feet, about three times the size of the company’s 22,000-square-foot current building.

The company plans to increase the number of workers from 46 to 100 in three years.

The abatement is for the remaining two-plus years left on Exterran’s unexpired abatement and for an additional five years.

Exterran, which made equipment for the gas and oil industry, received a 10-year tax abatement from the city. But Exterran went out of business in March 2016. The building has been vacant ever since.

“This puts this building back into productive use,” said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director.

With the abatement, the company would pay $23,180 annually in property taxes and save $69,540 per year.

The school district approved the additional five years for Youngstown Tool and Die — which makes custom designed aluminum extrusion dies — in exchange for the company establishing an internship program for graduates of the city school system.

When council postponed the vote March 4, Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st, said he supported the abatement, but had concerns that the city administration wasn’t doing enough to make sure other companies follow through on agreements to hire city residents, women and minorities.

He said Monday: “I hope in the future we can do even more with companies.”

Woodberry responded: “Yes, we will be.”

Meanwhile Monday, council members chose to recommend referring a few key proposals to committees.

One item was to spend up to $150,000 to relocate several departments from the fifth floor to the vacant second floor of city hall.

The ordinance called for code enforcement, demolition, property rental registration, environmental sanitation and grass cutting departments to relocate.

But Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent, said that the move should be delayed even though the money — which comes from property registration fees — is there.

“I’d like to hold off until everyone is back to work and we know what’s going on,” he said

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said that COVID-19 “has changed our lives” and “now is not the time to be doing this.”

The second floor has been vacant since May 2018.

Council on Wednesday will move the proposal to its buildings and grounds committee.

Council members also decided Monday to wait on a couple of pieces of legislation to realign the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) Department.

One item was to eliminate the position of deputy director of planning, which is vacant, and create the job of planning with the annual salary going from $67,569.12 to $72,398.56. The other was to reduce the annual salary of the Community Development Agency director from $76,883.87 to $72,883.67.

Council will refer the ordinances Wednesday to its CPED committee to allow Nikki Posterli, CPED director and the mayor’s chief of staff, to discuss the realignment with its members.

The city’s Civil Service Commission appointed Beverly Hosey, the city’s compliance director, as CDA director.

Turner expressed concern about the appointment because Taron Cunningham, who won a lawsuit against the city over his improper firing as CDA director, is suing for reinstatement and back pay. Cunningham was fired March 8,, 2019, but a judge overturned it saying the termination wasn’t done correctly.

City Law Director Jeff Limbian said of Cunningham being rehired: “The likelihood of him getting his job back is (between) slim and none.”

He added that the court process could take “two, three, five years.”

The city has been without a full-time planner since 2008, Posterli said.