Youngstown should agree to implement a payment plan to begin repaying nearly $4.42 million improperly spent from three funds.

The Ohio Auditor’s Office is calling for such a plan, but Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown continues to refuse to reimburse the money from the city’s general fund, claiming the city shouldn’t be obligated to do so until it’s ordered by a court.

We understand Brown’s reluctance, possibly triggered by concerns over tight finances and his belief that only a court order can compel the repayment, but that belief may be misguided, and delays will only serve to further set back the inevitable.

The Ohio Auditor’s Office has determined nearly $4.42 million in Youngstown’s water, wastewater and environmental sanitation funds were misspent on expenditures that should have come from the city’s general fund.

State audits of the city’s 2017 finances, released Aug. 29, 2019, and of its 2018 finances, which came out Dec. 31, 2019, said Youngstown improperly spent money from water, wastewater and environmental sanitation funds primarily for economic-development purposes. It required the city’s general fund to pay back the money.

Other misuses of the water and sewer funds, according to the 2018 audit, were $28,758 to buy an SUV for Brown, $2,120 charged for Ohio Municipal League dues and $45,379 for software support and maintenance. After the issue was pointed out by the auditor’s office, the city used general-fund money to repay the water and sewer funds for the SUV and the municipal league dues. Also, the city provided supporting documentation or made general-fund repayments for all but $19,176 of the software expenses, the auditor said.

The 2018 audit found that the city improperly spent $524,629 in water funds for an irrigation system at its Henry Stambaugh Golf Course.

Under a plan outlined by Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, Youngstown would pay the funds back to the three utility funds from the general fund over a 15-year period, at an annual rate of $294,355.47. That includes no interest.

If Faber had not agreed to the payment plan, the city might have been obligated to pay back the $4.42 million in one payment, putting it into fiscal watch or emergency.

The mayor’s response, however, was frustration. “We believe Auditor Faber should focus on how to help my administration move Youngstown forward and not talk about fiscal emergency,” Brown said.

But last week, Faber told Vindicator politics reporter David Skolnick that’s what he’s trying to do.

“We thought they could make those adjustments without putting them into fiscal watch or fiscal emergency. They would have had to make tough decisions.”

And he points out that if the city insists on a court order, the possibility always exists that a court could order the city to pay back the funds immediately.

And let’s not forget that court action will mean incurring additional expenses in the form of legal fees.

To us, it’s pretty clear the funds were spent from improper accounts. The fees that generated the money utilized out of these three utility accounts must have been established with specific intentions for future use. That’s reason enough to return the funds.

And if there is no specific future need — other than building up a rainy-day fund in these accounts, that is — then once the money is repaid, city leaders should consider cutting users’ utility rates and fees in order to reduce the surplus.

The mayor should agree to the repayment plan. Or, at the very least, he must express a willingness to admit the misspending and agree to cooperate. That acknowledgment might trigger an opportunity to go to the table with Faber, possibly negotiating a different agreement that is palatable to both the city and the auditor.

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