YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio --– Mayor John McNally expects to name a director for the city’s newly created office of community and economic development as soon as Friday, the mayor said Wednesday.

Combining the community development agency and economic development office was among McNally’s stated priorities when he took office nearly a year ago. In November, city voters approved a charter amendment creating the new department.

Bill D’Avignon, a city employee since 1992, has been CDA director since 2006. T. Sharon Woodberry, has been city economic development director since 2008.

“Since the election, we’ve been working with the department heads in the economic development division and the community development agency and our law department to review the table of organization for both divisions” and assess staffing needs, McNally said.

“I’m hoping at either next week’s council meeting or the first council meeting in 2015 to have legislation up” to officially create the director’s position in the city’s salary ordinance, he added.

“I expect to appoint somebody to the position by the end of this week. We’re still trying to work out a little bit of salary issues internally and get that up and running,” he said.

The newly combined departments, at least temporarily, will be housed on the sixth floor of the city-owned 20 Federal Place building. Economic development is now on the building’s ground floor, while CDA is housed in the City Hall Annex, where McNally hopes to relocate the municipal court and clerk of courts offices.

“A lot of it depends on our discussions with the Youngstown Municipal Court and coming to an acceptable agreement with them to move out of City Hall and to move the clerk of courts operation out of City Hall as well,” he said. For several years, the building, formerly the downtown branch of the U.S. Postal Service, housed U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court.

Once the space on the second floor of City Hall occupied by the courts and clerk of courts office is vacated, McNally said he plans to move the community and economic development department there.

Copyright 2014  The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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