YOUNGSTOWN — During a frequently humorous presentation Thursday morning, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown discussed the work being done to spend the city’s $82.7 million in American Rescue Plan funds, and talked about his participation in a Harvard University “Just City” fellowship called the Mayor’s Institute on City Design.

He spoke at the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber’s Good Morning Youngstown program at the Rossi Auditorium in Fellows Riverside Gardens in Mill Creek MetroParks.

“Youth, crime prevention, parks and recreation, and senior citizens are at the top of where we should be spending our money,” the mayor said, adding that the list is not in any particular order.

He said lots of people are wondering whether their proposal is still under consideration, but he hopes people will relax about it.

“You don’t have to call me. You don’t have to ask me out for coffee, take me out for wine and cigars. It all feels good. You don’t have to call and ask if you can take us to the Cavs,” he said.

“You’re still in the game, so when, you ask, where is my proposal? It’s still in the pot.”

He compared the process to a Powerball lottery game. “You’ve still got your Powerball ticket. We’re telling individuals: ‘We haven’t forgot about you. We want to make sure we continue to do what we’re doing.”

A committee made up of the mayor’s office, law director’s office, city finance department, two council members, several philanthropic groups, the Economic Action Group, the city planner and a consultant are still looking at 150 proposals the city has received for the funds. The city also received 600 completed surveys.

“We’ve looked at all of the proposals, and we’re working on a score card. And we look at what do the guidelines say, what does the treasurer say, and will this fit in the scheme of things?” he said.

Not long after starting his talk, a photographer approached him from the side to take his picture. He paused and held his pose until a couple of photos had been taken, drawing big laughs from the crowd.

“This is not my first time doing this,” Brown said to continued laughter.

He also showed an unflattering screen shot that Nick Chretien, local business development professional, shot of the mayor while Brown was on a Zoom call Wednesday with the other seven mayors participating in the Just City fellowship.

“We hear from experts from different segments of the world,” Brown said. “They talk about how you design your city affects your economy, how it affects poverty, how it affects education. Nick said, ‘Mayor, ask a question. I’m going to screen shot it for you,'” Brown said, showing the image, which produced a another burst of laughter.

“If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?” he said.

“We have homework assignments,” the mayor said, explaining how the fellowship works. “We turned in our first project yesterday, and on the 8th of April, I will be heading to Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., to do my presentation. There’s nothing the city has to pay. It’s all paid for,” he said.

“They are going to fly me up, all of my accommodations are paid. I think that’s how we continue to win in the city of Youngstown to make sure they know we exist,” he said.

The website for the fellowship says one goal is to “help mayors navigate a just and equitable recovery from the pandemic, providing actionable ideas for city leaders rising to meet this moment of change.”

Another goal is to “explore ways to create lasting, transformational impacts from new federal funding streams such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act.”

The eight mayors will hear presentations and interact with “experts in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, art activism, housing and public policy. Over the semester-long program, mayors will identify how racial injustices manifest in the social, economic and physical infrastructures of their cities and develop manifestos of action for their communities.”

The mayor took the opportunity while speaking to a large group of business people to offer opportunities to the “youth from the city of Youngstown.”

He urged them to “join me in considering hiring a youth from the city of Youngstown. You may say they need to have this skill. They need to have that skill. Let them shadow. Give them an internship. Expose our young people to the jobs we have here today.”

The mayor also congratulated Youngstown police Chief Carl Davis, who attended the breakfast meeting, on law enforcement removing 200 guns from streets of the city since last April.

“I want to say great job, Chief Davis, to you and your team,” Brown said. This also produced a strong ovation.

Among the several other speakers at the breakfast was Dr. Maria Kowal, chief medical officer of One Health Ohio, which operates several medical clinics in the Youngstown Warren area, “particularly to the uninsured and underinsured,” according to its web site.

She greeted the audience in Ukrainian “as one of over 45,000 Ukrainian Americans living in Ohio.” There are about 4,600 living in the Youngstown Warren area.

She thanked Brown for his supportive remarks during a recent event, the Youngstown Jewish Federation for sending volunteers to Poland to help Ukrainian refugees, and Youngstown State University for holding a choir concert to raise money for “peace in Ukraine.”

She it’s great to see the Ukrainian colors being projected in the night sky in Ohio and elsewhere. “For us Ukrainians, it gives us hope that so many are supporting us.”