YOUNGSTOWN — After failing Monday to pass legislation by emergency because two of its members were absent, city council called a special meeting for today to give it another shot.

Council Clerk Valencia Marrow sent notice of the special Friday meeting at noon by email at 11:12 a.m. Thursday. Council is legally required under state law to give at least 24 hours’ notice before holding a special meeting.

Council gave first readings to several pieces of legislation at Monday’s meeting when only five of its seven members attended. Council needs at least six members to vote to approve legislation by emergency measure.

Absent on Monday were Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, and Amber White, I-7th Ward.

All seven council members had previously agreed to Monday’s special meeting.

Council takes a recess after its final June meeting until the third week in September and typically schedules one meeting each in July and August.

At Monday’s meeting, council scheduled an Aug. 26 meeting.

But council didn’t want to wait until then for some pieces of legislation, including the approval of the $3.27 million Community Development Block Grant budget.

If council can’t get at least six votes at today’s meeting, it could possibly hold another meeting as soon as Saturday. If legislation isn’t passed by emergency, the other option is a simple majority vote after ordinances get three readings at three separate meetings.

Also on today’s agenda is an ordinance to authorize the board of control to sign a $43 million contract for a project to keep wastewater from 13 lines from flowing into two Mill Creek Park’s Lake Glacier and Lake Cohasset. The money is for Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown to do the first two of four phases of the interceptor sewer project.

The $43 million is an estimate and a final number is to be determined later this month.

The interceptor sewer is part of a larger wastewater improvement project the city is required to do under a federal consent decree.

The interceptor project will be discussed at a 5 p.m. Monday public meeting at the Covelli Centre Community Room.

The city, federal government and state of Ohio “successfully finalized a proposed resolution,” according to a June 20 federal court filing by all the parties, to the ongoing dispute that permits the city to reduce a phase of the wastewater improvement project.

The federal government wants to make the resolution official by Aug. 26 to “provide sufficient time for the United States to consider any public comment on the proposed consent decree amendment and advise the court and other parties as to the United States’ final position.”

Also on today’s agenda is another opportunity to vote on permitting the board of control to spend $30,000 for a second expert witness in its ongoing effort to stop SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC from converting rubber tire chips into synthetic gas at its facility near downtown.

The $30,000 would be to pay JD Gibbs, associate director of consulting at BSI Group in Columbus, an environmental services expert with 33 years of experience.

The board hired Ranajit (Ron) Sahu of Alhambra, California, in a 3-0 vote for $60,000 on March 13 to provide testimony in front of the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission in the case filed against SOBE and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency director. At the time of the city’s appeal last year Anne Vogel was the EPA director. It is now John Logue.