YOUNGSTOWN — After a number of votes and some confusion, city council decided to deny the law director a 14% raise that would have put his salary at the same amount as the finance director.

When it all shook out at Wednesday’s meeting, council voted 4-3 against giving Law Director Adam Buente the pay increase.

Voting against the raise were Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward; Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward; Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward; and Cynthia McWilson, D-6th Ward. Supporting the raise were Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, Mike Ray, D-4th Ward; and Amber White, I-7th Ward.

But before that vote, council voted 4-3 to suspend their rules and vote to consider Buente’s raise as an emergency measure. Council can waive readings of legislation if six members vote in favor of suspending the rules and voting as an emergency. Council overwhelmingly votes for legislation using that method.

After some hesitation, Hughes, who had voted against suspending the rules, asked that vote be rescinded. Clerk Valencia Marrow informed Hughes that he had to request the vote be reconsidered and not rescinded, which he did.

The motion to reconsider passed 7-0 and then the motion to vote on Buente’s raise by emergency passed 6-1 with Turner as the lone no vote.

Then the fourth vote on the raise – this time to consider granting it – was rejected 4-3.

Buente said: “I respect council’s authority, but could have done without the spectacle. Ultimately nothing changes. My job is to represent the city and its charter, and I will continue to do that.”

The rejected ordinance would have raised Buente’s annual salary by 14% from $102,360.54 to $116,759.97.

The salary increase would pay Buente the same amount as Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

Buente, Miasek and all other nonunion city employees received 4% raises plus $1 an hour in additional pay in January. The pay raises were the same as what was given to union employees.

City voters in the November 2020 election approved a charter amendment 58.8% to 41.2% to allow the salaries of the law and finance directors to be determined by council, rather than the old charter language that stated the pay is 60% of the mayor’s salary.

A month after the vote, then-Mayor Jamael Tito Brown proposed 15% increases for the two jobs, which hadn’t received pay raises in the previous 13 years.

Council agreed in January 2021 to the increase for Miasek — going from $83,949 to $96,553.60 annually — but Brown pulled the proposal for law director because of issues council members had with Jeff Limbian, then the law director.

After the meeting, McWilson and Kelly admitted to a Vindicator reporter that they were confused by the initial vote to suspend council’s rules as it was a separate vote from all other legislation.

Kelly said: “I didn’t know where we were.”

As for rejecting the raise, Kelly said: “We need more discussions on this. All of a sudden, we’re talking about more legislation for raises.”

During the meeting, Miasek told council, in response to a question from Kelly, that the administration would request more raises “when we believe it’s the right time and council agrees.”

McWilson said council needs to consider raises for all department heads as a group “rather than one after the other. It would make more sense for us to look at everybody across the board.”

Oliver said of the votes: “I couldn’t tell you what was going on there. I don’t have a problem with giving the law director a raise. He does a good job in his position. I’m in favor of a raise. We need to be able to retain good people, good talent.”

Oliver said he was “a little disappointed” in the outcome, “but you and your colleagues aren’t going to agree on everything.”

LEGAL ISSUES

Council voted 7-0 Wednesday to authorize the board of control to settle a federal lawsuit with a company that had its property demolished without notice — paying it $105,000 and removing a $30,000 demolition fee.

The settlement agreement with Armadillo Development LLC of Lisbon has the city admitting no liability in the demolition. The board of control is to vote today to settle the case.

Buente said: “We deny any wrongdoing. Our code enforcement did what they were supposed to do. But this is going to be very costly litigation.”

The legal bill is already $20,000 and climbing, Buente said.

“Reviewing all the evidence, the worst-case verdict could have been $700,000,” Buente said.

So it was decided to settle.

Tokio Marine HCC, the city’s insurance company, is paying the settlement with the city having to pay a $100,000 deductible, Buente said.

The city’s insurance deductible was doubled earlier this year from $50,000 to $100,000.

The city filed a lawsuit May 26 seeking $30,000 from Armadillo for demolition expenses. The city voluntarily dismissed that case June 15.

As part of the settlement, the city isn’t seeking the $30,000 demolition cost from the company.

Armadillo’s lawsuit states the city demolished the former Italian American War Veterans Post 4 building at 113 S. Meridian Road on Sept. 16 without informing the business.

Armadillo acquired the property on April 29, 2021, from the Mahoning County Land Bank and spent more than $200,000 toward improving the site into a planned commercial space, according to the lawsuit.

Then-fire Chief Barry Finley issued an emergency demolition order on Aug. 22, 2025, stating: “This structure is vacant and structurally unsound. This building is a danger to firefighters who may enter in the event of a fire. I am advising that this structure presents an actual and immediate danger of failure and/or collapse in the event of a fire. This is an immediate emergency situation and it creates an imminent threat to the public health and safety according to Youngstown codes.”

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Douglas Ross of Warren on behalf of Armadillo, contends from the time the company acquired the property until the Sept. 16 demolition, the business “did not receive any correspondence, notices, letters, violations or complaints from the fire chief, the code enforcement office or any other representative of (the city) alleging the property or the improvement was in violation of defendant’s codified ordinances or the improvement was structurally unsound, a danger to firefighters, presented an actual and immediate danger of failure, and/or collapse in the event of fire.”

Ross wrote: “The allegations in the order were meritless” as Armadillo spent more than $200,000 in improvements, which “were structurally sound, secure and watertight. With this order signed by the fire chief, the defendant falsely, pretextually or unreasonably asserted that an emergency existed.”

Ross added the city waited 25 days from Finley’s emergency order to demolish, which “further demonstrates that no real or actual emergency existed.”

In the lawsuit, Ross states the city has “improperly used the ordinance and so-called emergency demolition orders to unlawfully demolish numerous properties in the city of Youngstown without notice to the property owner.”

Council voted 7-0 Wednesday to authorize the board of control to pay a $50,000 insurance deductible cost to Tokio Marine for legal fees in a $33,000 settlement payment to Laura Morway, a former deputy law director.

Morway was fired in 2022 after less than five months on the job and filed a federal sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit on Jan. 7, 2025, against the city.

The settlement was reached during a January mediation in federal court with the board of control approving in March the settlement that admits no liability on the part of the city.

The $33,000 settlement was paid by Tokio Marine.

But the city has to pay a $50,000 deductible to the insurance company for legal fees stemming from Morway’s lawsuit.