YOUNGSTOWN — The head of an organization that received approval from city council for $90,000 in American Rescue Plan funds, only to have the administration reject the request, said the fight isn’t over.

While vowing to not give up on getting the money, Jimma McWilson, owner of the Family Empowerment Student Achievement Institute, seems out of options with the administration rejecting the plan and Mayor Jamael Tito Brown’s refusal to veto likely leaving it in permanent limbo.

McWilson said the city administration is defying what council authorized with the $90,000, and on Tuesday he criticized Brown for letting it die rather than vetoing it.

“Council should have the opportunity to override (the veto) or not,” McWilson said. “It doesn’t take six months to do that.”

City council on Dec. 7 approved the $90,000 ARP allocation for the institute to provide tutorial services to undereducated former Youngstown school district students to help them find employment. The legislation was sponsored by Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward.

Each of the seven council members has $2 million to spend from the city’s $82,775,370 allocation. This was Hughes’ first ARP funding request.

For the past three months, McWilson and his supporters have sent several emails to city officials and the media asking about the money.

Back in April, city Law Director Jeff Limbian told The Vindicator that the board of control — consisting of himself, Brown and Finance Director Kyle Miasek — does independent reviews of all ARP requests to determine if they are fiscally sound and comply with federal rules. He expressed concern about this project though the board and council have sparred over a number of other ARP projects approved by council.

Limbian wrote McWilson on June 12 saying the administration was denying the $90,000 request.

Limbian wrote that the Family Empowerment proposal was “vague and diffused with no clear target of specific individuals. In effect, the proposal is seeking funds and then looking for those it can educate.”

In a June 20 follow-up email, Limbian wrote the board of control “is not obligated to, and at times, does not spend money on a project simply because the legislative body has authorized it. If the board of control simply rubber stamped the legislators’ desires, there would be no checks and balances in local government.”

McWilson said the decision shows “negligence” by Limbian and “it corrupted the current process and procedures.”

He also accused Brown of “betraying and abandoning” the undereducated residents of Youngstown.

McWilson said he wants the city government and school district to come together “to correct this problem of undereducation, miseducation, misdirection and misinformation.”

The two entities, joined by a community task force, to “correct the problem using culturally relevant best academic practice models” would cost $1 million, he said.

Brown’s decision not to have this item considered by the board of control led to a heated discussion between him and council members at the latter’s June 21 meeting.

Hughes complained that Brown’s decision meant that council essentially means nothing.

Brown again said he was concerned with some council-backed ARP projects not being properly vetted by the administration before the legislative body votes on them and that needed to change.