YOUNGSTOWN — City council plans Wednesday to approve $344,120 in American Rescue Plan-funded projects recommended by its members, but administration officials said the vagueness of some of the requests could lead to them to go nowhere.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said the language in some of these council requests to spend ARP money, as well as those approved Aug. 24, is not specific enough for the project funding to be allocated.

“It’s vague,” Brown said Monday at council’s finance committee meeting. “There has to be more specifics if BOC (board of control) is to approve it.”

If a council request is too vague, Brown said, “We can’t do anything with it.”

The board of control consists of Brown, Law Director Jeff Limbian and Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

Limbian mentioned Councilwoman Basia Adamczak’s request for $146,222 to hire a quality of life and property maintenance ambassador for her ward, the 7th, for two years through the Youngstown Neighborhood Develop-ment Corp.

“Frankly, I was stymied by this,” he said. “Unless the position is created, I don’t know how we hire someone.”

After further discussion, Adamczak asked that the legislation be changed for Wednesday’s meeting to have YNDC “provide” the ambassador rather than “hire.”

Limbian said: “I know this is a delicate subject, but part of the issue” and “part of the critique” is assigning a specific entity.

“I’m not sure that’s a legislative function,” he said.

LAW DEPARTMENT

Adamczak said she included supporting documentation as well as job specifications with her request and it shouldn’t be an issue.

She also asked if the law department wrote the legislation based on the information she provided to make sure it was legal. Limbian said the law department only prepares the legislation and doesn’t determine its legality, adding he doesn’t want to “manipulate your language.”

Limbian said the law department would “be happy to work” with council to create language, but right now it just writes legislation based on what it gets from council without determining if it’s legal.

After the meeting, Adamczak along with Councilwomen Lauren McNally, D-5th Ward, and Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, said the law department should be making sure that information is legally compliant. They also said they provide plenty of information with the legislative requests.

“How much more specific do they need to be?” McNally said.

BOARD

OF CONTROL

Brown, Limbian and Miasek said at the Aug. 22 council finance committee meeting that there were reservations and concerns about council’s requested uses of ARP money and that the board of control would review each ordinance to determine if it complied with federal law before authorizing the spending.

Council approved $684,685 in member spending of ARP funds at its Aug. 24 meeting. It was the first time council agreed to spend any of the $14 million allocation it gave its members — $2 million per member — on April 6.

To date, the board of control hasn’t authorized any of those funding requests.

The discussion on Adamczak’s plan to have a quality of life and property maintenance ambassador started with questions from Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, about the legality of hiring someone for the job, even through YNDC.

Adamczak said hiring is the wrong word.

The person who gets selected for this job would be paid $45,000 in the first year and $49,000 in the second year with the rest of the money going toward benefits, mileage and computer software, among other costs, Adamczak said. The person would drive around the ward, looking for code enforcement issues and then contact city officials to follow up, she said.

Davis said she wants to hire an ambassador for her ward and Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward, wants two for his ward. But Davis remarked that the expense was too high as the city could hire a police detective sergeant for about $60,000 annually.

The city was awarded $82,775,370 in ARP funding and has earmarked about half of it to date though it has actually spent a small amount.

The other council-supported ARP requests for Wednesday’s meeting are:

• $100,000 from Davis for 3,765 linear feet of sidewalks as well as new curbs along the Glenwood Avenue corridor in her ward;

• $64,898 from McNally to replace “broken and unsafe” sidewalks on Glenwood Avenue between High Street and Midlothian Boulevard;

• $30,000 from Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, for a mobile market to provide fresh food in his ward;

• $3,000 for the Economic Action Group to “invest in public art in Youngstown to support a more vibrant community. These funds will enhance a targeted area under a public right-of-way in downtown,” according to the ordinance.