YOUNGSTOWN — City council will consider legislation Wednesday to authorize a lawsuit settlement with a company that had its property demolished without notice — paying $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.

If council authorizes the settlement Wednesday, the board of control could finalize it as soon as its meeting a day later.

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.

The county auditor’s website shows the land bank obtained ownership of the property on April 2, 2021. The post shut down in 2011.

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, 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.”

An attorney representing the city’s insurance company sought a dismissal of the lawsuit.

Armadillo filed Nov. 3 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

But on Dec. 4, a lawyer representing the city’s insurance company had it transferred to federal court because it involves a claim “over which this court has original jurisdiction and involving a claim or right arising under the Constitution.”

The city on May 26 filed a lawsuit in common pleas court seeking $30,000 from Armadillo for demolition expenses. The city voluntarily dismissed the case June 15.

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

In Armadillo’s lawsuit that was moved to federal court, Ross stated 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.”

Among the cases is the August 2020 demolition of the former Anthony’s on the River building at 14 Oak Hill Ave. The city settled the case in June 2024 for $80,000 and other financial considerations to the building’s owner.

The other considerations were removing a $48,000 demolition assessment, $10,675 in interest on that assessment and the payment of about $10,000 in delinquent tax balance on the property.

The city paid $110,937 in December 2023 after losing a case in which items were improperly removed and destroyed by a city-hired contractor from 905 South Ave. in November 2020.

OTHER LEGISLATION

Council also is being asked Wednesday to authorize the board of control to pay a $50,000 insurance deductible cost to Tokio Marine HCC, the city’s insurance company, 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.

Also Wednesday, council will consider an ordinance that raises the annual salary of Law Director Adam Buente by 14% from $102,360 to $116,759.

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

City voters in the November 2020 election approved a charter amendment 58.8% to 41.2% to allow the salaries of the two positions 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 annually — but Brown pulled the proposal for law director because of issues council members had with Jeff Limbian, then the law director.