YOUNGSTOWN — Reflecting on his eight years as Youngstown mayor, Jamael Tito Brown said he’s proud of his accomplishments moving the city forward — and he may not be done running for elected office.

“I’ve not ruled out serving as an elected official again,” Brown said. “I still think about it every day. My options are still there. When you come off of a loss, you kind of have that taste in your mouth that doesn’t taste well. Politics is one of those things when it’s going good, it’s a great feeling. When it’s not, it’s not a great feeling so I’ll let time decide what we want to do, but we haven’t ruled anything out.”

Brown, a Democrat who lost reelection last month to Derrick McDowell in his quest for a third four-year term, said with Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti deciding not to seek reelection next year and state Rep. Lauren McNally choosing to run for commissioner, he is looking at both positions.

“I’m open to whether it’s county commissioner or state rep,” he said. “I’ve been approached about both of them and people say, ‘What about that?’ I never thought about it to be honest with you, but everything is on the table. We’re going to figure out what our next step will be. We’ll finish the term and take a breath. I don’t know if that breath is going to be one week, two weeks or a month. We’ll take a breath before making a decision. There are so many opportunities that are in front of me. Running for office, whether it’s at the county or state level, has been put in front of me.”

The idea of running for county commissioner is appealing, Brown said, because of “the challenges” and “leadership perspective.”

Serving in the Ohio House is also interesting, Brown said.

“You’re in the superminority, but what I can bring is I’ve learned over the last eight years as mayor how to be a bridge between Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “I can bring that to the position. I’ve worked for the county, and I’ve been a legislator. Those things would prove to be great skills for either of those jobs. We’ll figure it out in the next few weeks.”

Feb. 4 is the filing deadline for the May 5 Democratic primary.

In addition to his eight years as mayor, Brown served as Youngstown council president, 3rd Ward councilman and on the city school board. Brown was chief deputy county treasurer for 11 years and spent two years as the city’s human relations commission director.

McDowell, an independent and first-time political candidate, beat Brown by 876 votes — 4,654 to 3,778 — in the November general election.

Asked how he lost, Brown said, “I think it’s the national climate. If you look at who won, the national politics spilled over to the local government and what we were doing. We had a Republican (Renee DiSalvo won reelection as municipal court judge) and an independent (McDowell) win in a strong Democratic community. We had the federal government shutdown. That’s spilling over into local politics. As a party, you have to look at that and say, ‘Well, how does that happen at the county level and the state level?’ It’s an issue.”

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Brown, whose last day as mayor is Wednesday, said there are multiple answers to his proudest accomplishments.

That included a reduction in crime, including reducing the homicide rate by more than 50% in the last four years, he said. That was done through a focus on technology as well as forging close relationships with the community, Brown said.

“We were out in the community building relationships and trust,” he said. “People want their neighborhoods to be safer, and they figured if they can help by sharing information and we are visible, they came forward.”

He cited the technological advances, including body cameras for all police officers and the use of license plate recognition and security cameras. Brown said he wanted to implement a real-time data center, where all of the cameras and technology could be watched by officers at the actual time it was occurring to help solve, reduce and stop crime. Brown said Columbus has such a facility, and he wanted to bring one to Youngstown.

Brown said he was proud to bring financial stability to the city, which has experienced monetary issues for years. That includes four straight clean state financial audits with no findings for recovery or adjustment and a major upgrade in the city’s credit rating from Moody’s Rating, which will help reduce interest rates when the city borrows money.

The city greatly benefited from its $82.7 million American Rescue Plan allocation.

The city put $27.5 million of that money into neighborhood and economic development, including $8 million for new construction and / or rehabilitation of quality affordable housing, $3 million to provide low-interest loans to qualified homeowners to improve and update their houses, and $2 million revolving loan fund for landlords to make renovations, repairs and / or address housing code violations.

“It was making life-changing decisions that’s going to impact generations to come,” Brown said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us that we would never be able to do all at once. Those would have been gradual pieces, but we were able to infuse those things together — parks, demolition, improving homeownership, housing and quality of neighborhoods. Those are going to help generations.”

But Brown said all of the credit for the city’s solid financial footing shouldn’t go to ARP funding.

“I look on the other side,” he said. “If COVID had not happened we were priming to do a lot more. Had we not had a shutdown, we don’t know what we would’ve been able to do. We started looking at projects that just did not happen. Once we came out of COVID, we led and led strong. We didn’t just survive, we thrived out of COVID.”

Asked what he is most proud of during his eight years as mayor, Brown said it is a difficult question.

But, Brown said, “When we talk about the connection and how we were able to take a situation during COVID and build a strong relationship with the state and federal governments. Our relationship with the governor before my administration, we were not even invited to the table. I’ve been to the governor’s house. I’ve been to the White House. So on multiple occasions, Youngstown is now looked at as a positive. It’s not that old corruption, mob town reputation. They’re looking at Youngstown saying, ‘It’s on the rise. It’s moving in the right direction.’ People want to be a part of what we are doing and invite us to the table where the decisions are being made.”

That includes the February announcement that a $62.2 million project, including $27.2 million in state funding, would result in the creation of the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense downtown that is expected to create 750 jobs during the next four years.

“We worked alongside city council and local organizations along with those at the state and federal level to figure out what was needed to get the project on the road,” Brown said. “That was a proud moment for our community.”

Brown also said he was proud to restore “integrity and honesty” in Youngstown city government.

He said: “When I came in, I wanted city hall to be a lot better when I leave. I told voters that I wouldn’t cave to money, power and politics. It’s all about the integrity and honesty I have. Youngstown is open for business, and you don’t have to pay anybody or know anybody. I truly believe that what I have done over the last eight years of building relationships has led people to have faith in Youngstown government again.”

As for his biggest shortcoming during eight years as mayor, Brown said, “I can honestly tell you I didn’t brag enough. I didn’t know how to brag. The one thing I would have tried to do better is to brag about what we were doing. We did our job and got great results, but we didn’t tell the story every day. Telling the story more frequently is something I should have done better.”

Being mayor, Brown said, has “been the best job that I had this far in my life. Every day is different. There’s not a day that goes by where there’s not been a challenge. I truly love what I did. It’s been a great run, a great job, and I thank the citizens and voters who gave me two terms as mayor.”