• 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.

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• As part of our Community Impact & Safety Plan, and commitment to ensuring citizen-officer safety, the City of Youngstown will invest in body cameras to be worn by all YPD officers. 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.

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• 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 Governor 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.

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• 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.

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• We were one of only a few cities across Ohio that was successful in receiving a $30,000.00 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,

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• Youngstown was one of seven cities selected to receive a $10,000 grant from the US 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.

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• My administration is working to restructure our Community Planning & Economic Development department to encourage businesses expansion in Youngstown and to recruit new businesses to relocate to Youngstown. We will continue to advocate and work with Senators Brown and Portman and Congressman 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. 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 the playing field. We will continue to focus on local developers investing more in the city by letting everyone know that “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.

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• I have been working with the Governor and Mayors from Ohio’s largest cities for more than a year every week 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 Taskforce, where I was appointed by Governor DeWine, to ensure that everyone who wants to be vaccinated has access to the vaccination.

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• I have also created a local Minority Vaccination Coalition, to particularly impact 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. I met with then, Presidential Candidate 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. Covid Relief Funds are coming but the money must be used wisely.

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• 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 usages guidelines, which include elimination of blighted properties in our neighborhoods, which is the foundation for any city recovery.

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• 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. It is vital to clean up commercial corridors, with our neighboring cities and townships, to create seamless transitions from one jurisdiction to the other. Youngstown is working tirelessly to transform Belmont Ave., Hubbard Road, Oak Street/McCartney Road, Wilson Ave., Poland Ave., Midlothian Blvd., South Ave., Market St., Mahoning Ave., Meridian Road, Martin Luther King Blvd. 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...”.

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• ARP relief will have a greater impact if we focus on youth employment programs that give our children more opportunities to be job trained earlier.

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• 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.

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• 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 northside of Youngstown with up to date fire equipment and citywide EMS services.