YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - With more than $110 million going to the cities of Youngstown and Warren in American Rescue Funds, transparency on where those dollars is the center of our latest Watchdog Report.

Mayors Tito Brown and Doug Franklin are joining forces to develop a plan to leverage federal funds to attract or build upon economic development in the region.

Both cities are asking for community input on where those federal dollars should be used, but when it comes to allocating and spending the money, how easy will it be for the public to track it?

Youngstown says you should watch for their proposals that go before city council.

"Everything has to go through legislation, so you'll see the legislation come through to enter bid or appropriate dollars for different projects," Brown said.

Brown says the U.S. Treasury has yet to set official guidelines on how American Rescue Funds can be spent.

Brown would not commit to creating an online site dedicated to tracking the use of those dollars.

Instead, pointing out that ordinances presented to city council will be public, as he vows to be transparent in this process.

Youngstown has a tainted financial past.

A state audit released in 2019 found the city of owed more than $3.1 million for improperly spending water and sewer funds in 2017.

The city's auditor says Youngstown is in the process of uploading all of its financial records to OhioCheckBook.gov.

Warren's records are already there.

"Every single expenditure, every single transaction, is easily readable," Franklin said. "We have an obligation with these funds to be accountable, to be transparent and it's required that we have public engagement."

The almost $82 million Youngstown is receiving has to be spent by December of 2023.

The city's auditor tells 21 News that a looming bill of income tax refund requests from those who worked from home in 2021, could come due before then. The money from the rescue funds could be used to pay the refunds.

"Revenue replacement can be looked at," Brown said. "That was the one real advocacy of mayors across the nation, because we were losing revenue as well."

Two measures proposing income tax paybacks are currently working their way through the Ohio House and Senate.