YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jamael Tito Brown is in the process of creating a committee to review the city charter saying his goal is for the group to meet for about a year and offer proposed changes with a focus on planning, zoning and housing.

“We’ve got to figure those things out,” Brown said. “We need to look at how zoning may be impeding our housing strategies. We need to look at allowing or disallowing tiny homes or the types of houses in neighborhoods. Our zoning codes may call for something, but our charter should probably speak a little direct to that.”

Under a provision in the city charter, approved by voters on Nov. 4, 1986, “a charter review committee will be convened by the mayor every four years to review and consider recommending amendments to the charter.”

However, the last charter committee was formed in 2016 by John A. McNally, then the mayor.

Brown, who started serving as mayor in January 2018 after being elected two months prior, has never established a charter committee.

The charter doesn’t provide for any penalty for failing to convene a committee.

The charter also doesn’t say how many members should be on the review committee.

Brown said he wants to have an odd number of members, at least seven, with him appointing all but one. The other member would be chosen by city council, he said.

“I’ve talked to former commission members and they say sometimes a larger group doesn’t work as well,” Brown said. “Also, sometimes smaller isn’t enough for the work. We’re trying to get a good group. I’m talking to members who’ve been on charter commissions before and they’ve offered their services to this one as well.”

Brown said he wants “an eclectic group from different segments of the community making up the membership.”

Unlike previous charter committees, Brown said he envisions the one that will be established in the next couple of months to “take about a year” to come up with suggestions that could be on multiple ballots, such as November of this year and possibly March and / or November 2026. There’s an outside chance the proposal could be on the May 6 primary ballot, but Brown said he’d prefer to start with the November ballot.

“What I don’t want to do is to rush into it,” Brown said. “I don’t want them to rush it to the ballot. I want to give them time to go through it and dive into the community and get input from different people on different topics and maybe if we need expert advice, we’ll seek that.”

Chris Travers, chairman of the last charter review committee in 2016, said he’s spoken with Brown and Nikki Posterli, the mayor’s chief of staff and a 2016 committee member, about joining the new group.

Travers agrees with Brown that there is no rush to get issues on the ballot right away and the committee should take its time.

“There’s a lot to review,” he said. “Overall, the charter probably deserves an overhaul. There are a number of things that are outdated or deserve some kind of attention. This document should be reviewed more frequently than it is.”

Brown assigned Jason Small, a senior assistant city law director, to provide guidance for the committee when it’s established.

Charter review committees can offer as many recommendations as they like, but ultimately it is up to city council to decide what goes in front of voters.

“A lot of times, the committee wants to do an overhaul,” Brown said. “We should do it in small increments. We’re at a different time in 2025 than we were in 2016 with housing, with government structure and what’s needed versus what’s not needed. I’ll take what they have, work with them and see what makes sense, talk to council and see what makes sense and make sure it’s a document we can live with and everybody can live with and it works for the community.”

PREVIOUS COMMITTEES

The 2012 charter committee proposed 17 changes. Council rejected 13, kept the language of two and made changes to two others. Voters approved the four amendments on the November 2012 ballot.

The 2016 committee proposed seven amendments. Council approved three and changed the language of a fourth. Voters backed the four amendments.

The three that council accepted from the committee were for policies that weren’t being enforced by the city. They were deleting a $12 missed meeting penalty for council members, eliminating outdated references to disbursing public money by check only and removing a reference to appointing a member of the abolished park and recreation commission to serve on the planning committee.

The change was the committee wanted the city to redistrict its seven wards no later than 90 days after a decennial census if it shows at least a 7% difference in population between the largest and smallest wards. Council changed it to no more than 180 days after a census and at least a 10% difference.

Council approved minor changes to the ward map on Feb. 7, 2022, a day before the 180-day time frame was to expire.

One of the 2016 committee’s proposals that council rejected was to change language that the mayor “shall” convene a committee every four years rather than “will.”

Also, city council, through a majority vote, and citizens, by collecting enough valid signatures on petitions, can put charter amendments on the ballot.

Council put a charter amendment on the November 2018 ballot that successfully removed term limits for its members.

City voters then approved a citizens initiative in November 2022 to reinstate term limits for council members.

An anti-fracking citizen initiative failed seven times between 2013 and 2018.

A “Part-Time Workers Bill of Rights,” which gave part-time workers in the city increased rights such as health care benefits and equal wages as full-time workers passed in 2016. It’s in the city charter, but its provisions — including the creation of a five-member commission appointed by city council — have never been enforced.