Staff photo / David Skolnick Youngstown City Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward and president pro tempore, reviews legislation Wednesday in council chambers. It was the first time since March 2023 that city council met in chambers because of the city hall fireStaff photo / David Skolnick Youngstown City Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward and president pro tempore, reviews legislation Wednesday in council chambers. It was the first time since March 2023 that city council met in chambers because of the city hall fire escape replacement. escape replacement.

YOUNGSTOWN — Finally, Youngstown City Council has come back to its chambers.

Council had its first meeting Wednesday in its chambers since March 1, 2023.

Issues with the city hall fire escape and then its inability to pass inspection after work was done in September kept council out of its sixth-floor chambers for more than 22 months.

Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, said Wednesday: “I’m glad to be home. It felt like Moses wandering in the desert. We were over at one place one time and another place another time. I had many meetings elsewhere. I’m glad to be back here.”

Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward, said: “I’m extremely glad to be back. We have a safe fire escape.”

For Amber White, I-7th Ward, this was her first meeting as a councilwoman in chambers. She’s served since January 2024.

“I’m excited to finally be in council chambers,” she said. “I have my own desk and nameplate.”

The fire escape project on the seven-story building has been delayed numerous times. The work to the structure was finished in September, but it wasn’t until the completion of interior work to the top floor that the fire escape passed a fire department inspection last week as well as one from the Mahoning County Building Department.

While city council committee meetings and other city boards and committees continued to meet at city hall, city council meetings took place at either the Covelli Centre or the Mahoning County commissioners’ meeting room since the fire escape was closed March 9, 2023, by fire Chief Barry Finley.

City council met elsewhere because of safety concerns. The issue is if there is a fire, it would be a problem to get people — particularly the public — safely off of the sixth floor, where council meets, because the only egress would be the stairs, which would also be used by firefighters to gain access to the floor.

When the fire alarms are activated, the building’s elevators are automatically shut down.

The fire escape has been functional since September, but couldn’t pass a fire department inspection because of problems inside city hall near the structure including a railing, rebuilt stairs and issues with the ceiling on the seventh floor.

While a final bill hasn’t been submitted, city council agreed in December 2023 to increase the maximum cost for the work to $1.4 million.

Issues causing delays included needed additions to the project, the city having to resolve concerns from the county building department about the safety of those inside city hall between the time the old fire escape was dismantled and when a new one was installed, and concerns about the foundation.

There was initial debate between replacement and repairing the fire escape after a Feb. 3, 2023, inspection report determined the fire escape was inoperable.

After Murphy Contracting Co. of Youngstown, the project’s contractor, did repair work, including cleaning and sandblasting the fire escape of bird droppings and rust, it was decided in July 2023 that it would be better to replace rather than repair the aging fire escape.

That not only increased the cost, but it delayed its completion to March 2024.

Additional issues – including the discovery that a measurement of the structure determined the fire escape and the connecting emergency doors on each floor didn’t match and then the need to resolve that – delayed the completion date to mid-May. Further delays moved the completion to mid-June – and even more issues pushed it to September. Then the inability to pass an inspection postponed council returning to its chambers until Wednesday.

Next for council chambers is a $210,000 upgrade — that also includes the council caucus room — for a new audio-visual system that will allow council to broadcast meetings on the city’s YouTube channel. Electrical work also is planned. That work should start and be finished in the coming months.

POLICE UNION CONTRACT

Council voted Wednesday in favor of a provision that permits its police patrol officers union to get a retroactive raise to the start of this year should a contract not be resolved until 2026. The officers’ contract expired Dec. 31.

But Finance Director Kyle Miasek said Wednesday that meetings with the union have been productive, including a negotiation session last week.

“The union and the administration believe there is the possibility of an agreement soon,” he said. “Both sides are mulling the offers.”

Miasek declined to discuss details of the negotiations, but said it’s the “administration’s position that we do pattern bargaining during negotiations.”

That means that whatever one union has received for a given year is what is negotiated for others. When that doesn’t happen, the difference is made up in the next contract.

City employee unions with contracts for this year received raises of 2.5%. The firefighters union received a 4% raise for 2026. A pay raise for 2027 hasn’t been established by the city.

During the patrol officers union’s last contract, its members received a 2% raise in 2022 and then 2.5% in 2023 and 2024.

That contract also increased the starting salaries of police officers by 27.35%.

The union representing ranking police officers has a “me-too” clause in its contract, meaning it automatically gets the same raises as the patrol union.