Get AI Briefings, Transcripts & Alerts on Local & National Government Meetings — Forever.
Youngstown committee flags 27th-payroll, street staffing and equipment needs as budget pressures
Loading...
Summary
At a Feb. 24 Committee of the Whole meeting, finance staff briefed council on a one-time 27th payroll that will increase 2026 personnel costs and outlined street department requests including continued funding for 37 workers, $1.1 million in equipment and a proposed electric brush processor after EPA restrictions closed the city's current debris site.
Chair Mike Ray opened the Committee of the Whole on Feb. 24 as finance staff walked members through early figures for the 2026 budget, focusing on a seldom-occurring “27th payroll” and a suite of street-department requests.
Finance director Kyle Leezak told the committee that the city's first February payroll run showed about "$2,400,000" in gross wages for that pay period and that the final cost picture will be updated in March after retroactive pay for recently approved collective-bargaining agreements is added. "So when I run it again in March, we should have the language in our software system for what the CBA outlined for wage increase for YPA and YPRO," he said, framing the 27th payroll as a recurring calendar anomaly that will raise personnel costs in December 2026.
Why it matters: the added payroll and associated pension and Medicare contributions are budget drivers that affect how much general-fund support the administration needs to transfer to operating departments.
Street department officials described operational and capital needs tied to restoring staffing and equipment. The administration is asking the council to continue funding a 37-person street crew (three more positions than 2025) and built the 2026 budget with that headcount; staff said having the full workforce for the full year will add roughly $281,000 in payroll-related costs compared with the prior year and that benefits and the 27th payroll push total street payroll-and-benefit cost increases to about $622,000 year over year.
On equipment, street staff itemized requests that include small dump-bed inserts for pickups, a second hot box to enable permanent winter patching, fuel-pump replacement, and an asphalt recycler intended to reuse grindings from resurfacing projects. Chuck, a public-works speaker, explained the recycler's function: "when you heat it, the asphalt cement breaks down and it re-adheres all the aggregate as you heat it," which makes the reclaimed material more stable for certain patching uses. Street staff said the department has space in its garage for reclaimed material storage and that the $1.54 (sic) payment shown in the budget represents work already performed on facility repairs.
Councilmembers pressed staff on vehicle inventories and on whether smaller pickup-bed inserts could carry salt; staff said the devices are different from the larger aluminum-bed salt trucks and asked to supply a full inventory by email. Amber White asked staff to provide vendor photos and lifecycle information for a proposed electric brush processor (described in the meeting as an "incinerator") after EPA restrictions limited the city's ability to use its prior brush-disposal site; administration staff said the unit is self-contained and does not produce a visible smoke trail but promised to circulate specs and references for review.
Next steps: staff said purchases above $25,000 require separate council authorization; the budget-review process will continue in committee and at upcoming council budget hearings, where line-item expenditures will be brought back to the body for approval.
