Q&A with incumbent Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown
Jamael Tito Brown
Office sought: Mayor of Youngstown
Candidate's party affiliation: Democrat
Candidates biography: Jamael Tito Brown is the 51st mayor of the city of Youngstown, and a lifelong resident of the 3rd Ward. Mayor Brown is married to Lynette C. Frost Brown and together they have four children: Aaron, Camille, Clarisa and Quentin and one granddaughter Ariana. He and his family are members of Union Baptist Church of Youngstown, Ohio.
Brown earned both his Bachelor's, Master's Degrees and Honorary Doctorate from Youngstown State University. He previously served the residents of Youngstown as president of council, as 3rd Ward councilman and as a member of the Youngstown City School Board. He was formerly the chief deputy treasurer overseeing day-to-day operations of the Mahoning County Treasurer's Office. Brown also served as director of the Human Relations Commission for the city. The Mayor has been a community organizer for Youngstown State University Urban & Regional Studies Department and a caseworker for the Mahoning County Children Services Board. His community involvement includes positions on the Cityscape board, board of directors for Mahoning Valley Sanitation District, as secretary of Wick Neighbors Inc. and as chair of Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partners (MYCAP).
Mayor Brown is one of 40 mayors selected to participate in the Harvard Bloomberg City Leadership project. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was selected by Gov. Mike DeWine to serve on the Minority Health Task Force to ensure that the most vulnerable have access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination.
What qualities do you possess that qualify you to be mayor of Youngstown?
I took an oath of office four years ago that I would not cave or compromise to money, power or politics, and as mayor I have remained committed to putting the citizens of Youngstown first.
As mayor, I have been leading at the national, state, and local level. No other candidate has this experience. My years of education and professional and political experience have afforded me the opportunity to be a leader who has firsthand knowledge in identifying and resolving the issues facing Youngstown. I am one of a select few elected officials who has served as school board member, city councilman, president of council and mayor.
Under my leadership, we have been working with community partners to create a food policy committee to address and reduce food deserts. We have been working with local philanthropic organizations as well as national and local retail vendors to locate and attract full-scale grocery stores to the city.
We are working with our local health professionals to identify health disparities to address infant mortality disparities between Black and white babies in the most vulnerable communities. We have created an Anti-Poverty Task Force in partnership with local social service agencies to create a blueprint out of poverty that focuses on uncovering and eliminating barriers.
If you are elected, is there anything in particular that you hope to accomplish? And briefly, what is it and why is it important?
I will continue leading our community out of this once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic, where our community will not only survive, but thrive as we recover from the COVID-19 virus. I will continue working with the governor's Minority Health Task Force, where I was appointed by Gov. DeWine to ensure that everyone who wants to be vaccinated has access, particularly those in the minority community who are the most vulnerable due to underlying health issues and limited access to quality healthcare.
We will continue investing in workforce development for Youngstown residents to ensure they are job-trained, job-ready and have job access.
What do you feel will be the top issue facing this office over the next term? How would you focus your efforts to tackle it?
The safety of our community will remain the top priority of the Brown administration. We must make sure that city residents are safe in their homes from intruders, secure from stray bullets and insulated from those who bring violence to our community. All city residents must come to know that when they venture outside their homes, they can travel to and from this city and know that the police are here to protect and serve with dignity and respect.
As part of our Community Impact & Safety Plan and commitment to ensuring citizen-officer safety, the city will invest in body cameras to be worn by all YPD officers in 2021. The Youngstown Police Department has also received an $800,000 grant from the federal Department of Justice which will assist in placing more officers on the street and focus on our Community Police Unit to build better community relationships and trust.
We are committed to ensuring citizens that all officers are practicing community policing. While Youngstown has not endured some of the disheartening and despicable examples of racism displayed in other communities across the country, we want to make sure that our residents and police officers grow and work together to develop long-lasting, positive relationships. Youngstown police officers will not just come to the neighborhood once a crime has occurred, but they will focus on building trust and relationships within the community so that a crime does not occur.
Another area of focus of our Community Impact & Safety Plan will be installing cameras throughout the main corridors of our city and in our neighborhoods. We will continue to work in collaboration with First Energy to create brighter and well-lit neighborhoods. It is understood that most crime happens in the dark and in places where no one is watching. When we are actively patrolling our streets, and the dark corners of the city are lit, crime will go down. Cameras and brighter streets have already caused criminals to be identified and caught. Our plan is to drive crime out of the shadows and out of our city.
My administration will continue to work with DeWine's office to remove illegal guns from the streets. We will implement a plan that was conceived with the governor more than a year ago. The Youngstown Police Department will work closely with the Ohio Highway Patrol to ensure that our streets are safe with valid drivers who are not carrying illegal guns.
What are your plans to ensure that all of your constituents would have access to the same resources and opportunities, regardless of race or socioeconomic status? In your view, where does the system fall short?
We will continue to invest in workforce development and have available land that is site-ready for companies looking to invest in the best strategic location between New York and Chicago; Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Youngstown residents must be job trained, job-ready, and have access to 21st-century employment in advanced manufacturing and renewable energy. We will continue to work to remove barriers to livable wage jobs with educational pathways through Mayor Brown's Attainment 2025 program. This program creates more opportunities for our children to receive post-secondary education opportunities.
We are working directly with Youngstown State University, Eastern Gateway Community College, the local Building and Trades, Flying High, Youngstown City Schools, and United States military personnel for secure and long-term solutions for city students who want a path out of poverty. We were one of only a few cities across Ohio that was successful in receiving a $30,000 Bill and Melinda Gates Grant that will help with greater pathways to success.
In an added attempt to remove barriers from the job competition equation, Youngstown was one of seven cities selected to receive a $10,000 U.S. Conference of Mayors DollarWise Grant. These grant dollars gave us the opportunity to create a program called License to Success which will help young men and women who have impediments to getting their driver's license issued. This program is designed to remove fines and penalties so that Youngstown residents can have an eligible driver's license and be better prepared for the workforce. We are leveling the playing field so that our young men and women will have a fighting chance in securing stable employment.
My administration is restructuring our Community Planning & Economic Development department to encourage business expansion in Youngstown and to recruit new businesses to relocate to Youngstown. We will continue to advocate and work with Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman and Congressman Tim Ryan for federal dollars to remediate brownfields. We have developed relationships across party lines in Ohio to be competitive for state funding for site-ready locations.
While our industrial park on the city's western edge is full, the city has plenty of land as we remove unusable homes and outdated commercial properties from our landscape. If we are going to compete with other Ohio cities, we must have site-ready locations. We must court national companies so that we do not miss out on the TJX and Amazon deals of the future.
What are you doing to disrupt the status quo of politics? If you had the power, what one change would you make right now?
At various times in our history, there was the belief that you had to either know someone or pay someone in city hall to be successful in Youngstown. Local investors went elsewhere for many years to expand their businesses, because they wanted a fair and level playing field. We are transparent in our business operations and are leveling that playing field. We will continue to focus on local developers investing more in the city by letting everyone know: "Youngstown is open for business, and you don't have to pay or owe anyone if you want to do business in this great city."
Are you satisfied with Ohio's response to the COVID-19 pandemic? If yes, why? If not, what do you think should be done instead? Can more be done at the local level? The federal level?
I have been working with the governor and mayors from Ohio's largest cities every week for more than a year to plan strategies for COVID-19 funding and relief. We have collectively disseminated information to our residents daily. To continue with our immediate and long-term response to COVID-19, I will continue leading our community out of this global pandemic. I want our community to not only survive, but thrive as we recover from the COVID-19 virus. I will continue working with the state's Minority Health Task Force, where I was appointed by Gov. DeWine, to ensure that everyone who wants to be vaccinated has access to the vaccination.
I have also created a local Minority Vaccination Coalition to particularly impact those in the minority community who are the most vulnerable due to underlying health issues and limited access to quality healthcare. This group of community leaders are tasked to implement a plan to vaccinate Youngstown's Black and Hispanic communities where trust has long been an issue. We are breaking down trust barriers so that our minority population receives the same level of vaccination and health security moving past this virus.
The city is receiving $88.6 million in federal stimulus funds. How should the city set budget priorities? What are your top three uses for the funds? How do you plan to make sure that the funds are spent properly?
I met with then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and discussed the need to direct dollars to municipalities to fight to recover from the disastrous financial effects of the pandemic. While I was clearly not the lone voice advocating for cities, our collective voices were heard and relief is at hand for drowning cities. Relief funds of $88.6 million are coming, but the money must be used wisely.
My priority is to develop a Strategic Comprehensive Plan, that includes input from the citizens, city council, the mayor, community partners and other communities. The plan will focus on having an impact on future generations. We must not allow this moment to pass by squandering the money on provincial ideas or shortsighted and temporary fixes.
The plan will include a designated compliance manager who will ensure that the funds are utilized appropriately and follow federal treasury guidelines. The American Recovery Plan funding has designated allowable usage guidelines, which include elimination of blighted properties in our neighborhoods, which is the foundation for any city's recovery. Once the blighted properties are eliminated, a clearer pathway will be created to implement the city's newly adopted housing strategy to provide affordable and quality housing to current and potential residents.
What do you think is the most pressing matter that pertains to the next generation of Youngstown residents who may be voting for the first time?
It is vital to clean up commercial corridors with our neighboring cities and townships to create a seamless transition from one jurisdiction to the other. Youngstown is working tirelessly to transform Belmont Avenue, Hubbard Road, Oak Street/McCartney Road, Wilson Avenue, Poland Avenue, Midlothian Boulevard, South Avenue, Market Street, Mahoning Avenue, Meridian Road, Martin Luther King Boulevard and Route 422. These corridor changes will create a greater opportunity to gain greater access to funding, where we can have "…one voice, one ask…"
The recovery funds will have a greater impact if we focus on youth employment programs that give our children more opportunities to be job-trained earlier. Food insecurities and infant mortality are key issues that need to be addressed in Youngstown. A full-scale grocery store in the center of Youngstown with access to healthy fruits and vegetables will be a great first step to eliminate the issue.
Improving quality of life issues include making sure our neighborhoods are safe and protected from fires and health-related tragedies. Even though our population is shrinking, our needs are not. We must create a full-scale fire station on the North Side of Youngstown with up-to-date fire equipment and citywide EMS services.
Are you frustrated by the political sniping, exaggeration and even lies associated with politics that has diminished respect and reasoned compromise? If so, what will you personally do to make the situation better?
Who is your hero, and why?
This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "Q&A with incumbent Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown."