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YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown City Council voted 7-0 Wednesday to authorize the board of control to settle a federal lawsuit with a company that had its property demolished without notice -- paying it $105,000 and removing a $30,000 demolition fee.
The settlement agreement with Armadillo Development LLC of Lisbon has the city admitting no liability in the demolition. The board of control is to vote today to settle the case.
Law Director Adam Buente said: "We deny any wrongdoing. Our code enforcement did what they were supposed to do. But this is going to be very costly litigation."
The legal bill is already $20,000 and climbing, Buente said.
"Reviewing all the evidence, the worst-case verdict could have been $700,000," Buente said.
So it was decided to settle.
Tokio Marine HCC, the city's insurance company, is paying the settlement with the city having to pay a $100,000 deductible, Buente said.
The city's insurance deductible was doubled earlier this year from $50,000 to $100,000.
The city filed a lawsuit May 26 seeking $30,000 from Armadillo for demolition expenses. The city voluntarily dismissed that case June 15.
As part of the settlement, the city isn't seeking the $30,000 demolition cost from the company.
Armadillo's lawsuit states the city demolished the former Italian American War Veterans Post 4 building at 113 S. Meridian Road on Sept. 16 without informing the business.
Armadillo acquired the property on April 29, 2021, from the Mahoning County Land Bank and spent more than $200,000 toward improving the site into a planned commercial space, according to the lawsuit.
Then-fire Chief Barry Finley issued an emergency demolition order on Aug. 22, 2025, stating: "This structure is vacant and structurally unsound. This building is a danger to firefighters who may enter in the event of a fire. I am advising that this structure presents an actual and immediate danger of failure and/or collapse in the event of a fire. This is an immediate emergency situation and it creates an imminent threat to the public health and safety according to Youngstown codes."
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Douglas Ross of Warren on behalf of Armadillo, contends from the time the company acquired the property until the Sept. 16 demolition, the business "did not receive any correspondence, notices, letters, violations or complaints from the fire chief, the code enforcement office or any other representative of (the city) alleging the property or the improvement was in violation of defendant's codified ordinances or the improvement was structurally unsound, a danger to firefighters, presented an actual and immediate danger of failure, and/or collapse in the event of fire."
Ross wrote: "The allegations in the order were meritless" as Armadillo spent more than $200,000 in improvements, which "were structurally sound, secure and watertight. With this order signed by the fire chief, the defendant falsely, pretextually or unreasonably asserted that an emergency existed."
Ross added the city waited 25 days from Finley's emergency order to demolish, which "further demonstrates that no real or actual emergency existed."
In the lawsuit, Ross states the city has "improperly used the ordinance and so-called emergency demolition orders to unlawfully demolish numerous properties in the city of Youngstown without notice to the property owner."