WARREN Leaders incite citizen action

Get involved in community affairs, coalition leaders urge.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- To affect change, citizens of this city need to take an active interest in their local government and school board activities and make their views known, community leaders said here Thursday.
"We have to show strength, and we have to voice our opinion," said Thomas Conley, chief executive officer of the Warren Trumbull Urban League.
Conley spoke at a public forum organized by the Warren Coalition, which has called for a change in leadership in the city police department. The forum was attended by an interracial audience of about 40 at New Jerusalem Fellowship Church.
City council and school board meetings may seem boring, but they are decisive, Conley said.
"At those meetings, our lives are controlled," he said. "We need to be part of that."
Although a capacity crowd packed council chambers for a marathon meeting last month, which was dominated by a discussion of flooding issues, council has engaged in little or no discussion on incidents of reported police misconduct, which have brought negative national attention to the city, he noted.
"He made national news acting like a fool, and he's representing our city," Conley said of Police Chief John Mandopoulos, who was videotaped putting his face up to the camera and making fun of the cameraman at the 77 Soul nightclub.
Protest rally
Conley also urged the audience to attend election forums and query the mayoral candidates as to where they stand on the leadership of the police department.
Conley also said he has spoken to Ron Daniels, a Youngstown native and executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, and to Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil-rights leader, as to next steps that might be taken by the coalition. Conley said the league is considering a large protest rally.
"If a rally is planned, it's going to be all-inclusive. Everyone's going to have to participate," he told the audience.
If the mayor wanted the police chief removed, he could make that recommendation to the three-member civil service commission, which could then act on it, said the Rev. Alton Merrell Sr., pastor of the church and president of the Trumbull County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. "I believe the power of the people can put pressure on the powers that be when there's something unjust."
Accountability
The well-publicized incidents where police misconduct has been alleged are hurting the city and its people economically because they're discouraging businesses from locating in the city, he said.
Tom Bator of Larchmont Avenue, a lifelong city resident, said he believes citizens could make city leaders more accountable "in a heartbeat" if the city were to switch to a charter form of government. With a charter, "You create your own structure as far as you can governmentally," he said. He said he foresees no problem in getting the 1,282 signatures he needs to put the question of a charter on the ballot.
Since July, four lawsuits have been filed against the city by people contending they were illegally strip-searched when they were arrested.
Earlier this year, a videotape of three white officers arresting Lyndal Kimble, who is black, on a cocaine possession charge was broadcast nationally. Kimble said police beat him. Mandopoulos has said a preliminary review shows the officers acted properly.