news: 15 Jan 2008

A Tale of Two Cities
from the Vindicator

"Youngstown City Council will vote at its Wednesday meeting to support the creation of a memorandum.

Williams and Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson as well as members of their staffs recently met in Youngstown to discuss a closer relationship between the two cities."

Funds for e-services in City Schools
from the Vindicator

"The city school district is asking the federal Universal Service Fund to pick up nearly $1.7 million in telecommunications services.

The fund, more commonly know as E-Rate, was created by the federal government to help underwrite the cost of telecommunication and Internet access services to schools and libraries.

The program, run through the Federal Communications Commission, gets its money from a universal service fee charged to companies that provide interstate or international telecommunications services."

Jay Williams Backing Obama, Will Join Campaign
from the Business-Journal
(a great article by George Nelson, a good day to have a subscription)

"Williams and the Obama campaign are discussing other campaign appearance leading up to Feb. 5, or “Tsunami Tuesday,” because of the many states holding primaries that day and the number of delegates at stake. “We are in the process of putting together specifics,” the mayor said.

After attending a fundraiser for Obama last June at the home of McDonald’s franchisee Herb Washington, where Williams and the senator spoke privately, he remarked that Obama “understands the struggles we’re going through here.” As late as last month, Williams said he had yet to settle on a candidate and was uncertain whether he would make any kind of endorsement.

Williams’ support in the approaching Feb. 5 races could be valuable on two levels, said Thomas Flynn of Boardman, an associate professor of political communication at Slippery Rock University. On the surface, Williams is a political independent and a “pragmatic problem solver” associated with an innovative approach to addressing urban issues. While serving as Youngstown’s community development director, Williams was one of the chief advocates of the Youngstown 2010 plan."

Cities Seek Common Ground
from the Business-Journal

“Among the ideas the two cities are considering is a formula to share the gains the communities reap when one business relocates from Cleveland to Youngstown and vice versa, Williams notes.

“We’d like to set up a framework where we wouldn’t poach businesses from one another,” he says. A possible solution could be an agreement to share revenue sharing for a period of time to mitigate the loss of tax revenue should a business relocate."