Monday, November 22, 2010
WARREN
Doug Franklin stressed his experience above all else in announcing Monday that he’ll seek the Democratic nomination for mayor.
“Our city is facing the worst economic times since the Great Depression. There has never been a time where experience in dealing with these challenges is more vital,” Franklin said.
Franklin, who has served as safety-service director under Mayor Michael O’Brien for seven years and was a city council member 14 years before that, mentioned that he’s worked with and under three different mayors during that time. O’Brien said he would not seek re-election.
“I have watched as mayors dealt with the challenges a community our size faces on a daily basis,” he said.
Many of his other remarks, delivered at the Comfort Inn on North Park Avenue downtown, focused on his belief that a mayor “should never have a big ego.”
Franklin, who started out by thanking his mother, son, brothers and sisters, fiance and her son, said mayors who are successful “learn very early that the job of mayor is to uplift everyone so that they can work harder. His only special interests are, and should be, the families of Warren.”
Franklin said, “We can achieve anything if we don’t care who gets the credit, and a great mayor knows that the city cannot be a good place for any of us until it is a good place for all of us.”
Franklin becomes the second person to announce his intent to run for mayor; Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at General Motors Lordstown, announced his plans to run last week. Former mayor Dan Sferra, now an at-large councilman, said he’s considering a run also.