YOUNGSTOWN — The Mayor Jamael Tito Brown administration is asking city council to sign one-year contract extensions with its planning consultant, who works in Philadelphia, and its human relations consultant, who moved back to Youngstown in late 2023 after being gone for 37 years.

Council’s community planning and economic development committee heard presentations Tuesday on both contracts.

Samantha Yannucci would get the same contract of up to $75,000 annually for her work as the city’s planning consultant under legislation proposed by the administration.

Yannucci started working for the city as the planning consultant in 2024, being paid $25,000, while Hunter Morrison, who had a planning contract with the city since August 2019, also did the work.

Morrison retired in June 2024 and a month earlier, city council, at the request of Brown, agreed to raise Yannucci’s contract to up to $75,000 through her company, Ombuds. She was paid $71,054 last year.

Yannucci moved to the Philadelphia area to work for the Centre for Conscious Design in September and continued to handle planning for Youngstown.

Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, asked Yannucci if she planned to move back to Youngstown. The reply was not any time this year.

Turner asked if the city could find someone local who could do the work.

“It’s more efficient, especially for a city planner, to be here,” she said. “To not have a city planner in the city is a poor use of resources.”

Nikki Posterli, director of the city’s community planning and economic development department and the mayor’s chief of staff, said the city tried twice to hire a city planner and the searches didn’t result in a candidate that fit Youngstown’s needs.

The city will try to search for another candidate toward the end of the year, she said.

Posterli said that Yannucci has come to Youngstown whenever requested by city officials, meets with them by Zoom regularly and does a very good job.

Yannucci said: “Every city should not only have a city planner, but a whole planning department.”

Youngstown has been without a city planner on staff since March 2009.

The council committee also heard from Brian Clinkscale, who has been the human relations director since December 2023. The administration is asking city council to approve another one-year contract with him that pays $52,000.

Before the city signed a contract with Clinkscale, there wasn’t a human relations director since July 2021.

Clinkscale moved back to Youngstown for the job after leaving the city 37 years ago. Before his contract with the city, Clinkscale spent 10 years as supervisor of the Alameda County Workforce and Benefits Administration in California.

His main jobs are to ensure there is fair housing and fair employment in the city.

Also Tuesday, the committee heard a presentation to hire Kwai Daniels, who operates Kwai Daniels Films and DP Visual Media, for about $11,100 to coordinate a television show — likely on a cable television access channel — that highlights the positives in the city, such as people with talent and local businesses.

Daniels said he also would create a website and use the city’s social media platforms to promote the show and the city as well as work with students at the Choffin Career and Technical Center.

The contract doesn’t need council approval because of its cost and instead would go to the board of control, which Brown chairs.

The Daniels’ deal is an offshoot of a $60,000 contract the city signed in June with CS Public Affairs of Canfield to develop a strategic communications plan and present a positive image of the city. CS is run by Andy Resnick, the former communications and public affairs director for America Makes in Youngstown.

Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, said he wants an outlet to provide information to city residents and tell the city’s story in a positive light.