YOUNGSTOWN — A Sebring charter amendment to eliminate the village’s civil service commission that was winning by one vote during unofficial results ended up losing by a single vote after provisional ballots were tabulated.

The charter amendment proposal lost 300-299 and is headed for an automatic hand recount by the Mahoning County Board of Elections on Nov. 26.

The margin of defeat is 0.16 of a percent based on results certified Tuesday by the elections board. Any results that are 0.5 of a percent or less get an automatic recount.

The proposal was ahead 296-295, also 0.16 of a percent, after the Nov. 4 election. But there were still provisional ballots to count.

Among those provisional ballots, five voted against the charter amendment and three were in support, which turned the outcome from a victory to a defeat for the ballot issue.

The Sebring charter amendment was the only race — either for issues, levies or candidates — in the county that fell within that 0.5 of a percent margin.

Tim Gabrelcik, Sebring’s village manager, said the day after the election that village officials decided to ask voters to eliminate three charter provisions dealing with the civil service commission because the written test required for those wanting to be police officers and emergency 911 dispatchers is “so prohibitive.”

Candidates must score at least 70% on the written test to be considered for hiring or a promotion, and that has been a problem, Gabrelcik said.

If the charter amendment had passed, there would have been standards and a written test with a committee of the village manager, mayor, police chief and a citizen interviewing candidates for police and dispatcher hirings and promotions, Gabrelcik said. But more weight would be given to interviews and experience than the written test, he said.

There are seven full-time officers, a police chief, two part-timers, four full-time dispatchers and three part-time dispatchers in the village’s department.

YOUNGSTOWN MAYOR

The final results for the Youngstown mayoral race saw challenger Derrick McDowell, an independent, picking up an additional 40 votes with provisional ballots and late-arriving absentees counted, while two-term incumbent Democrat Jamael Tito Brown received 42 more votes.

The final tally has McDowell winning by 876 votes — 4,654 to 3,778 for Brown. There were 22 write-in votes, but only two counted. Write-in votes are only counted for those who file paperwork to be write-in candidates.

Not counting the other 20 write-in votes thrown out, McDowell received 55.18% of the vote to 44.79% for Brown. Frank Bellamy received two write-in votes while Cecil Monroe, who also filed as a write-in, received no votes, meaning he didn’t even vote for himself.

BOARD OFFICE

At Tuesday’s meeting, board Chairman David Betras read the emails he and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently exchanged about the ongoing issues with the condition of the board’s office at Oakhill Renaissance Place, 345 Oak Hill Ave.

In a Nov. 7 email to Betras, LaRose asked about a Sept. 29 waterline puncture that flooded the area at Oakhill Renaissance Place, where the board’s voting equipment is stored. None of the equipment was damaged.

In a Thursday response, Betras wrote that he had warned county commissioners “that such a failure in the aging infrastructure was not only possible, but increasingly likely. Unfortunately, those concerns proved prescient.”

Betras has been raising issues about the condition of the board’s office at Oakhill and demanding a new building for a few years.

The pipe broke Sept. 29 when county maintenance employees were working in the area. None of the voting machines were damaged, but the board switched out seven of them for backups during the Nov. 4 election as a cautionary measure.

County Commissioner Geno DiFabio, who attended Tuesday’s elections board meeting, said Betras’ email “was a little harder than it had to be.”

DiFabio said the water pipes have not been turned back on and won’t be.

“We’re doing the best we can,” he said.

Betras said he wanted a new building, and appreciated DiFabio coming to the meeting. Betras added that he wanted county officials to work with elections Director Tom McCabe and Deputy Director Melissa Wasko in the search for a new location.

DiFabio said that would be done.

Betras said he’s “heard a lot of rumors” about the possible relocation to another building — mentioning the former Eastern Gateway Community College, 101 E. Federal St. in downtown Youngstown, prior to the board meeting — and said that wouldn’t be an acceptable location.

During the meeting, DiFabio told Betras not to “lose sleep over any rumors you might have heard. When it’s finalized, you’re going to be very much an integral part of it. We’ll work with you.”

After the meeting, DiFabio said there are no plans to move the elections board to the former Eastern Gateway location.

At a Monday meeting of a Youngstown City Council committee, members discussed possibly moving the county elections board to the city-owned 20 Federal Place, 20 W. Federal St.

DiFabio said Tuesday that isn’t going to happen. DiFabio added that he hasn’t been approached by any city official about a move since he started serving as a commissioner in January.