YOUNGSTOWN — After the city law department determined Councilwoman Amber White is a legal resident of the 7th Ward, the administration is planning to hire an outside investigator to look at the issue.

“It’s an ongoing investigation that will be done by a third-party investigator,” city Law Director Lori Shells Simmons said Monday.

The second investigation is being done at the behest of Mayor Jamael Tito Brown.

“The mayor wants to make sure it’s correct,” Shells Simmons said. “It’s our duty to go the long haul.”

The outside investigator will be hired quickly though it probably has to first get approval from the board of control, Shells Simmons said.

The board consists of Brown, Shells Simmons and Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

White recently showed documentation to the law department that she has moved out of her rented Mount Vernon Avenue home in Youngstown to a different residence in the 7th Ward, Lou D’Apolito, a city deputy law director who conducted the initial investigation, said Friday.

White said Monday: “I’m not worried about it. It’s fine. They can do it. I’m a resident.”

The residency of White, an independent who started serving a four-year term in January 2024, was brought into question because she and her estranged husband, John, who is seeking to run as an independent candidate for mayor, own a house in Liberty at 1162 Tibbetts Wick Road, which they purchased March 17, 2022, for $65,000. They rent the Youngstown house on Mount Vernon Avenue.

John White faces felony charges of disrupting public service and domestic violence after a May 2 arrest at the Liberty home they own after he allegedly caused damage and acted violently toward his wife.

John White has been in Trumbull County jail since June 3 for allegedly repeatedly violating the conditions of his bond to stay away from his wife as well as a temporary protection order approved May 19 by Judge Beth A. Smith of Mahoning County Domestic Relations Court.

On that same day, Amber White filed for divorce and child support services.

The protection order was provided to John White, whose eligibility to run for mayor is in question, at the Liberty home, according to the court docket which also lists the Mount Vernon Avenue address as his residency.

John White will remain in the Trumbull County jail at least until a Friday hearing in common pleas court in front of Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor.

D’Apolito said Friday after Amber White showed she had moved to a new address in the 7th Ward when she responded to an inquiry about her residency, he was satisfied she lives there.

He added: “I’m not going to pursue it. I told her this could be explored by others. But I can’t see where I can prove where she lives.”

White also changed her voting address with the Mahoning County Board of Elections on May 12 from Mount Vernon Avenue to a different home in the 7th Ward.

If it could be proved that Amber White isn’t a resident of the city’s 7th Ward she could be removed as a member of council.

It is often difficult in Ohio to prove an officeholder and / or a candidate doesn’t reside where he or she claims.

Amber White called 911 on May 2 to say her husband was angry over an article that day in The Vindicator that states his eligibility to run as an independent candidate for Youngstown mayor is being questioned. She told police he asked her to run for mayor and when she refused, he became angry and violent – and this wasn’t the first time.

Amber White told police that her husband damaged their Liberty house, including throwing a crockpot with food at her that ended up going through the front window, threw all of their car keys onto the garage roof, grabbed their juvenile son from her and threatened to “burn the house down as well as burn the vehicles.” While talking to Liberty police, Amber White told police her husband grabbed her cellphone and threw it into a watery ditch.

Girard Municipal Court Judge Jeffrey D. Adler revoked John White’s bond – he posted 10% of a $12,500 bond after his arrest – on May 7 for having contact with his wife, which is prohibited under the terms of his bond. But Adler didn’t put White in jail after he agreed at a May 14 hearing to have no contact with his wife.

During that court appearance, White waived his rights to a preliminary hearing and had his case bound over to a grand jury. He hasn’t been indicted as of Monday.

Only two days after his appearance in front of Adler, Gabriel Wildman, an assistant county prosecutor, wrote White showed up at the house of a Youngstown woman asking about his wife and said he would “burn the whole city to the ground before he let somebody take (her) away from him,” and that he’s been chasing her for 15 years and “would never stop.”

White allegedly texted his wife on May 25 from an unknown number referring to the couple by their nicknames and sent references to her location and what she was doing at the time of the messages, according to Wildman’s motion and screenshots of the messages.

Right after his arrest, White repeatedly called his wife, accessed her cell phone and deactivated it as well as hack her various accounts, locking her out and changing her passwords, Wildman wrote.

Kovoor revoked John White’s bond at a June 3 hearing.

White has more than 35 criminal convictions, according to various court documents, with felony convictions including receiving stolen property, aggravated assault, breaking and entering and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was sentenced to prison for the latter three convictions.

John White’s eligibility is questioned as it relates to a city charter provision for mayoral candidates.

The provision reads: “The mayor shall be an elector and resident of the city for the five years immediately preceding the mayor’s election, and not less than 30 years of age.”

White registered to vote Feb. 5, 2021.

The Mahoning County Board of Elections ruled four years ago that White wasn’t eligible to run for Youngstown mayor.

It will again be up to the board to determine White’s eligibility when it meets July 8 to certify independent candidates. The board will rely on a legal opinion from Shells Simmons.

Tom McCabe, elections board director, said White “is probably not qualified.”

The city’s law department is expected to heavily rely on that 2021 opinion and rule White ineligible.