Youngstown Mayor Derrick McDowell addresses Mahoning County Commissioners and staff. He supports keeping the county Board of Elections within city limits....Photo by Dan Pompili

YOUNGSTOWN — The debate over the future home of the Mahoning County Board of Elections has become more contentious with legal action looming.

Some community leaders spoke up at Thursday’s meeting of the Mahoning County Commissioners, expressing concern and offering to help broker a peaceful resolution.

The Rev. Ken Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, and Youngstown Mayor Derrick McDowell both spoke to commissioners, offering support in resolving issues with the Board of Elections.

“I am offering my services as a mediator,” Simon said, offering to sit with commissioners and Board of Elections representatives. “I don’t want a dime; I don’t want anything. I just want to see this issue put behind us so that we can move forward to deal with the weightier issues facing the county.”

On March 4, the elections board passed a resolution in a 3-1 vote to hire an attorney to compel commissioners to meet with what it says are the county’s statutory obligations for an elections office.

“The board had hopes to resolve this matter cooperatively,” stated a letter to commissioners from BOE Chairman Dave Betras. “This time has passed, and your inaction is an indication of your failure to remedy the situation. The time has arrived that the board is compelled to pursue appropriate legal remedies.”

Those remedies, the letter states, could include “a writ of mandamus to compel the provision of adequate facilities necessary for the performance of statutory election duties, an action for declaratory judgment to clarify the commissioners’ legal obligations concerning election facilities, injunctive relief addressing unsafe working conditions and operational impairment, (and) any additional equitable or statutory relief deemed appropriate by the court.”

If the commissioners and Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro don’t sign off on the BOE’s move to hire a lawyer, the board could petition the common pleas court to allow it to use its funds for that purpose. Betras has said county prosecutors have already told him that representing the commissioners and the board of elections would be a conflict of interest.

BOE Deputy Director Melissa Wasko said Tuesday that the board isn’t hiring an attorney yet because “there’s no conflict until there’s a ‘No.’ If there’s a ‘No,’ that’s when there would be the potential of hiring an attorney. There’s no definitive ‘No’ to any specific building. We need a new building, and that’s not in conflict.”

The move to Oakhill Renaissance Place was controversial when it happened in 2006. Betras has been highly critical of the condition of the building for at least the past year, calling it deplorable and noting that, in addition to security concerns with voting machines and the risk of water damage, there is also mold and the tap water is not drinkable.

According to the Mahoning County Office of Management and Budget, for the last three years, the county facilities department has spent — on repairs, maintenance, utilities and other related costs at Oakhill, $335,546 for 2026, year to date; $1,031,255 in 2025; and $931,280 in 2024.

By comparison, the same costs for the Mahoning County Courthouse are $132,372 so far in 2026, $416,328.79 in 2025 and $346,875.98 in 2024.

Betras could not be reached for comment Thursday but at the March 4 meeting, he and fellow board members largely agreed that commissioners have not been receptive to the BOE’s concerns about what an elections office needs.

The BOE said it needs 22,000 square feet to properly function and provided commissioners with a list of what the board needs per standards set by the Ohio Secretary of State.

DiFabio called it “a wish list, a Christmas list.”

“Potable water is not a wish list. Having an area for early voting, enough parking, isn’t a wish list. This is standard practice,” said ranking Republican BOE member Tom McCabe. “That’s not what this is. These are the minimum requirements.”

Simon said he is concerned that a potential lawsuit is an unnecessary burden and urged the board to discuss its needs with commissioners in detail.

“This threat of a lawsuit is just ridiculous, and this back and forth with the BOE, particularly with the chair, who is pushing the board to file a lawsuit, it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars to go through this drama when all we need to do is have a conversation about the needs of the Board of Elections.”

Simon said he has been somewhat frustrated by his conversations with Betras, who has indicated that there is no suitable location within the city for the elections office to occupy.

Even the proposed $60 million county services building commissioners plan to put on the location of the former Eastern Gateway Community College building, once it is demolished, appears to be inadequate for the board and Betras, Simon said.

“You don’t even know what the possibilities are; you haven’t even had a conversation to say what your needs are,” he said. “If they said they’re going to build a building, you should be able to have a dialogue about what you want the Board of Elections part of that building to look like and what you need. They say ‘Give us a building,’ and now they’re going to offer you a building and you say you’re not going to move into it.”

DiFabio said on Thursday that commissioners have looked at Ohio Revised Code and determined that while the BOE has statutory authority to select its location, the county has the fiscal authority to approve or deny any lease contract.

A letter, sent March 25 to the BOE, states as much. It also makes the commissioners’ preference clear.

“However, as the county’s elected legislative body and executive authority, it is our obligation to do all we can to ensure that the best interests of Mahoning County residents are protected,” the letter states. “As such, we strongly urge and implore the Board of Elections to remain within the city of Youngstown, particularly in or near downtown Youngstown.”

On Thursday, DiFabio told The Vindicator it is the commissioners’ job to provide the BOE with “suitable and adequate space to conduct voting.”

“How they want to define that, that I think is where the rub is going to be,” he said. “If it’s reasonable and it’s proven to us it’s within the budget, we would approve that.”

DiFabio said he is frustrated that commissioners have offered the BOE a “blank piece of paper” to provide its specifications for the proposed new space downtown, but Betras and the BOE appear determined to move to Austintown or elsewhere.

“It seems they have no desire to even think about it,” he said. “We weren’t about to shoehorn them into a space we designed. We asked them to tell us what they need for the space and have a conversation, and they have no desire to do that.”

Youngstown Mayor Derrick McDowell said his administration also will do anything and everything it can to encourage the BOE to remain in the city.

“I’m not here to assault or insult anyone in the challenging process that we all know. We know that the Oakhill site is not up for debate on whether it can sustain the operations of our Board of Elections,” he said. “The city of Youngstown is prepared to roll out the red carpet if necessary to ensure that we play a role in keeping that location here in the city of Youngstown.”

McDowell emphasized that his intention was not to circumvent the commissioners or the BOE but to help facilitate any deal that places the office downtown. He said he is willing to work with other community partners to ensure adequate parking or transportation, including shuttles from the Covelli Centre to the BOE location, for example.

“I’m willing as a mayor to engage with whomever we need to engage with,” he said. “We, the city of Youngstown, are the county seat, and we, the city of Youngstown, have been divested from enough, and we’re asking for access to voting rights to remain here, and — I can only speak for the city of Youngstown — but we stand ready to roll out that red carpet if necessary.”