Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Youngstown Mayor-elect Derrick McDowell, center, is all smiles as he talks with supporter Maria Salreno of Youngstown, right, and his wife, Nettie McDowell, left, as the votes come in Tuesday evening.

YOUNGSTOWN — Derrick McDowell, an independent candidate who ran on a platform of change and accountability, won the Youngstown mayoral race over two-term incumbent Democrat Jamael Tito Brown.

McDowell, running for elected office for the first time, beat Brown 55% to 45%, according to complete and unofficial results Tuesday from the Mahoning County Board of Elections. The board will certify results Nov. 18.

Frank Bellamy and Cecil Monroe ran as write-in candidates for mayor. There were only 22 total write-in votes.

For council president, 6th Ward Councilwoman Anita Davis, a Democrat, beat Rich Yaslik, an independent, 71% to 29%, according to complete and unofficial results Tuesday from the board.

Alex Rubino ran as a write-in candidate, finishing in a distant third. There were only 26 write-in votes.

After his win, McDowell, owner of the Youngstown Flea, said: “One of the overwhelming things we heard in this community as I canvassed for the last 12 months was that folks wanted a real choice for real change. People said they were not looking for something that’s inauthentic. We’re looking for something that’s real, that’s tangible, and say as a community that we can point our finger and say that is what I’ve been longing for. I believe they saw that in every piece of the campaign that I put forth for them and I’m just thankful that the voters were able to go out (Tuesday) and express how important that change is to them, that they were willing to use their voice as a vote to make the change that they’re looking for solidified. I’m just thankful, thankful.”

Asked about how excited he is by the victory, McDowell said, “I’ll be honest with you, I’m not one of those people that gets overly excited and so the moment hasn’t sunk in completely yet and that is not a negative from me. My wife calls me a machine. I am a worker bee. I am very task-oriented. I’m literally ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work now. There are things for me that won’t wait. We don’t have to wait to take office in January to begin having the deep discussions and conversations that lead us forward.”

During the campaign, McDowell said city hall needed to be fixed and “real accountability must be restored and on full display by leaders of our city.”

McDowell is the first independent to be elected mayor since Jay Williams in 2005.

McDowell ran on a campaign of reclaiming the city’s identity, empowering residents and “investing in restoring all 31 of our neighborhoods to ensure that our community’s curb appeal is our most tangible form of visible evidence pointing to real change.”

Brown said the Tuesday defeat “hurts. When you put everything you have into it and don’t win, it hurts. I’m one of those guys who respects the will of the voters. I’ve had a great time being an elected official.”

In addition to his two terms as mayor, which end Dec. 31, Brown is a former council president, 3rd Ward councilman and city school board member. Brown lost the 2013 Democratic primary for mayor to John A. McNally. Brown came back four years later to beat McNally in the Democratic primary and then the 2017 general election.

Brown said he didn’t know what his political future holds or if he has one.

“Sometimes you don’t have to be elected to be a public servant,” he said.

Asked why he thought he lost, Brown said: “I never want to make excuses, but sometimes the heat of national politics bleeds over into local politics. I look forward to being a citizen. I’ll get to be a dad at home a little bit more because when you’re mayor you have a lot of responsibilities to the city. I’ll serve until Dec. 31 with pride. We worked so hard to get to where we are. I’m not sure what the next person and the next administration will do.”

Brown won the Democratic primary in May to get on Tuesday’s ballot, beating 3rd Ward Councilwoman Samantha Turner by just 64 votes.

McDowell said even with his inexperience in elected office, he is very familiar with people in city hall and on city council.

“There’s patterns to follow” as mayor, he said. “This isn’t something that we’ve got to reinvent the wheel. You look at what it looks like to transition from a Brown administration to a McDowell administration. You look at what those first 90 days are going to be and the priorities that are going to help immediately make impacts and in the long-term make impacts and so we begin now well before January talking about what that transition looks like.”

He added: “We will see a number of folks come forward and raise their hands to say I want to be part of that real change. I want to be a part of what a McDowell administration and a city hall under your leadership and vision looks like.”

McDowell said he is going to “begin by investigating deeply city hall; a thorough review top to bottom. We’re going to listen to folks and we’re going to take note of the work that’s been done and we’re going to analyze it and we’re going to bring back to the table the real solutions that we can believe will bring about the real change that folks are asking and demanding that I deliver on. That’s where we begin.”

COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Davis, first elected in 2015 to city council, will take over as its president Jan. 1, with a landslide victory over Yaslik.

“I’m thrilled with the outcome of the results, but it’s with mixed feelings because I’ll be leaving my seat on council,” Davis said.

Council president has little responsibility under the city charter.

The president runs city council meetings, but doesn’t get a vote.

Davis, a retired Youngstown police detective sergeant serving her third term on city council, wants to see the president’s position restructured to give it more power, though that would take a vote during an election to change the city charter.

That includes having a seat at all of the mayor’s staff meetings, sponsoring legislation, having the right to vote in the case of a tie and being an ex-officio member of all council committees, Davis said.

Davis said she hopes the mayor will let her participate in staff meetings as soon as she takes office.

“We’ve all got to work together,” she said.

As for the other issues that would require changes to the city charter, Davis said, “I’d like to see it in front of voters next year and I’ll do my job to educate people on the role and why it needs to be changed. I’ll work to do whatever I can to bring attention to the need to change the president of council to make it a functional position.”

The president also becomes mayor and fills out the unexpired term if a vacancy occurs. That happened once in the city’s history when Jay Williams resigned as mayor in August 2011 to work for the administration of then-President Barack Obama and Charles Sammarone, council president, took the position.

Council President Tom Hetrick, a Democrat, chose not to seek reelection this year. He was elected in 2021.

Davis beat Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward, 54.8% to 45.2% in the Democratic primary in May.

Yaslik, an automotive dealership parts manager, also ran as an independent in 2023 for 5th Ward councilman against Democrat Pat Kelly. Yaslik received 32.9% of the vote in that election.

There are still two years left on Davis’ term representing the 6th Ward, which includes most of the city’s South Side.

The ward’s Democratic precinct committee members will meet to select the person to fill out the remainder of Davis’ term.

While there are eight precincts in the ward, one or two of them are currently vacant, said county Democratic Party Chairman Chris Anderson.

“We’ll take letters of interest from candidates who want to be screened” to fill the vacancy, Anderson said. “Also, anyone can be nominated from the floor.”

The last vacancy on Youngstown council was filled by Kelly in January 2023 for the final year of Lauren McNally’s term representing the 5th Ward. McNally resigned at the end of 2022 to become a state representative.

Kelly was selected from nine candidates, including Yaslik, by the ward’s Democratic precinct committee members. He then won a four-year term during the November 2023 election.