YOUNGSTOWN The two candidates for Youngstown Mayor, incumbent Democratic candidate Tito Brown and Independent candidate Derrick McDowell engaged in a debate hosted by 21 News Thursday afternoon.

Crime and Violence

The debate began with the topic of crime and violence in the City of Youngstown.

Mayor Brown said the city needs to continue to focus on patrolling and its Impact initiative to do more crime and violence intervention and prevention. Brown said this year, the city has taken over 107 illegal guns off the street.

Brown says it's important to go out into the community to go out in the community to maintain trust between its residents and its police force, as well as continue its cadet program and recruit more officers to continue to reduce violence and crime in the city.

When asked the same question, McDowell brought up a shortage of police officers and the reliance on overtime in the department, which causes a strain on officers.

McDowell said the city can combat this by being more aggressive with its recruitment process for officers with payment and better morale for the department.

McDowell further discussed the need to retain officers and make them feel that Youngstown is the place to continue their career, rather than look to go somewhere else.

Brown replied to this point saying 37 officers have left the department since 2013, but the department started seeing a plus of officers coming in since 2024. Brown says the city is using technology like Flock cameras, Ring doorbell cameras for residents, etc. to help officers solve crime.

Brown added that his goal in the next four years is to implement a real-time crime data center for officers.

Park Revitalization

On the topic of the revitalization of the city's parks for crime reduction, McDowell said the current revitalization was done with ARP funds, which were distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

McDowell said after these funds are used up, the city needs to find a way to continue funding the revitalization of these parks to prevent them from falling into a state of disrepair once more.

McDowell said he is not in favor of raising taxes to support these parks, but wants to attract more residents and businesses to the building to generate more tax revenue to fund these parks.

On the same topic, Brown discussed programs that the city has implemented such as "Fishing With the Mayor" and an overnight camp for kids to keep them active and away from crime.

EMS Services

Brown was then asked about a plan announced in 2018 for sustainable EMS service and if a city-run in-house EMS service would ever be feasible.

Brown said the city needs to look at long-term costs and that the city still cannot afford its own EMS service right now. With that said, Brown said the feasibility study showed that the city is on the right track, but right now is not the time for the city to have its own service.

McDowell pointed out that the feasibility study revealed that the city missed an opportunity to implement its own EMS service when Youngstown's fire union came to the city with a proposal from a community that had implemented its own EMS service, but the city did not look at it while it had the opportune moment.

Brown fired back saying that a proposal is one thing, but the city must also look at how it's going to pay for that service and look at the long-term effects that could be avoided by contracting a third-party EMS service.

McDowell fired back at that point saying that the city didn't even look at the proposal in the first place.

Fresh Food Access

On the topic of access to fresh, quality food, McDowell said the city has done very little work to identify where the food access issues are and where in the city to make fresh food more accessible.

McDowell added that the city needs to talk with its residents to see what they want to see in the city and where.

Brown was asked about a comment he made about using ARP funds to attract a grocery store to the city, which has still not materialized. Brown says he never stopped thinking about a grocery store.

Brown said he has a plan to put a "cornerstone market" in the former Bottom Dollar building offering fresh fruits and vegetables that farmers can grow and sell at. 

Attracting the Community

On the topic of attracting more people to move into the city, Brown said he plans to invest $25 million in new homes, rehabilitation homes and home ownership. 

Brown added that for those who already live in the city, the city will match up to $10,000 for homeowners to work on their sidewalks, garage doors or anything else on their facade, and for those who want to buy a new house in the city who already live there, the city will match with a $10,000 down payment assistance and $15,000 for energy improvements.

McDowell said when attracting potential new residents to Youngstown, the city needs to look at what other cities are doing and try to emulate that.

A recent Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) meeting revealed that there are 3,400 vacant homes in possession of the Mahoning County Land Bank.

However, the Mahoning County Land Bank clarified that what was actually said at the CPED meeting was that the Youngstown Land Bank, which is separate from the Mahoning County Land Bank was in possession of 3,400 vacant lots.

McDowell said rather than letting vacant homes sit and decay and demolish them, the city should instead focus on giving aspiring homeowners access, resources and education about how they can step in and grab one of these homes for themselves.

McDowell also questioned Brown's plan to invest $25 million into new homes saying these are once again ARP funds that will eventually be exhausted. 

Brown responded by saying that the city does have a housing strategy that answers all of his questions.

"Just because he's not at the table doesn't mean it's not happening," Brown said.

McDowell later attacked this argument saying the city needs to be more transparent about how it's handling these types of situations to keep residents informed.

Brown added that the city is not legally required to demolish those homes, but is demolishing them in response to complaints from residents who live near them and are tired of looking at them, and that the city does not own those homes.

Income Tax

When asked about Youngstown's income tax, which is among the highest in the State of Ohio at 2.75%, McDowell said he would love to see that tax reduced, but Youngstown is not in a position to lower it right now because it pays for the quality of life services the city needs.

McDowell said the city would need to have a long-term strategy around reducing the income tax, which would involve population increases in the city.

"If you want even a quarter percent of that reduced, you would need to look at having to bring in close to 10% more population," McDowell said.

Brown conceded with McDowell's point about not being in a position to cut the income tax and said the city has come up with a job creation grant where it works with the employer to share the income tax revenue.

Realty Explosion

On the topic of the deadly explosion at the Realty Building in May of 2024 and what might come to its former site, Brown said that he will make sure whatever goes there will fit into the city's downtown, but the property owner is the one who has the ultimate decision on what goes there.

Meanwhile, McDowell slammed the city's handling of the explosion the day it happened saying while Brown said safety was the city's number one concern in the explosion, no emergency communication went out to downtown businesses and residents similar to what Youngstown State University does with its Penguin Alerts. 

"Imagine being a stakeholder or a business owner with patrons inside your establishment when Realty Tower explodes and having no communication whatsoever about what to do in this emergency," McDowell said.

"I gave the example of YSU's Penguin Alert on purpose because I want to know if we have that in place or we don't. Because if we don't have it in place, I as a taxpaying resident, I as your next mayor am guaranteeing you that we are going to put in place the measures that will ensure [communication]," McDowell continued.

McDowell further slammed the city for how it handled the demolition process.

"We said that it was imminent danger of collapse, and yet we had to watch for close to 90 days as a contractor banged on that building, that historical building that we all knew was overbuilt," McDowell said.

Business Concerns

On the topic of concerns from downtown businesses about how they felt their concerns were not heard following several challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, long road construction projects and the Realty Explosion, McDowell was asked how he would address these concerns.

McDowell said as a business owner himself, he would go directly to affected businesses and ask what their concerns and their customers' concerns are.

One of the concerns brought up by McDowell was a lack of convenient parking downtown, which affects foot traffic at downtown Youngstown's businesses.

McDowell said while it's understandable that a large concert like Y-Live would force drivers to park further away, when they're just trying to pick up pizza from Avalon, for example, customers need better parking options.

"I watch people lap the block. They let a passenger out of their car to run into the store and they must lap the block to get to the business that they want to patron," McDowell said.

Brown responded saying the city did help businesses and addressed those businesses directly.

"My question is, I don't have a problem with helping, but when does it come for the business owners to step up and say, 'here's what I'm doing?' We do incentives for them as well, we work with them, we've done professional development for the flea, we've given them assistance as well. They forget that we've helped. At what point do we stop," Brown said.

Retaining Brown

Brown was then asked why voters should elect him for a third term. He said since he was elected, the city had eight years of balanced budgets, four clean state audits and an increased credit score, as well as reduced crime.

"We have a safer city, we have a great quality of life now, and we've got a healthier community that we've never had before. We're seeing that the neighborhoods are growing, they're getting better and we're seeing investment. ... So that's why I'm asking the voters, let's finish the job we started," Brown said.

Change of Course?

McDowell was then asked why voters should change course and vote for him. He said he believes residents aren't asking for another politician, but rather someone who sees them and is engaging with them.

"We're going to sit in those block watches and those neighborhood groups and those community associations and strengthen them because they have raised their hands and said, 'I want to be a part of the beautification, I want to be a part of that crime reduction, I want to be a part of engaging with our youth, I want to be a part of Youngstown's story in a greater way,'" McDowell said.

You can watch the full debate in the video player below.