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2 vie to lead Warren Council
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Two longtime council members face off May 3 for the position of president of Warren City Council, while four people are vying for three at-large council seats.
Three of the seven city- council ward positions are being contested.
Incumbent council president Bob Marchese, who has held the position since 2003, has served on council for 18 years.
Marchese says the problems Warren faces as a result of dropping population could be addressed if more city and county departments were combined, such as the health department and community development.
He also formed a committee that looked at the possibility of giving Warren a charter form of government. Officials have said a charter would allow the city to become more efficient.
The committee still is likely to put a charter proposal on the November ballot, Marchese said.
Marchese, 58, who is director of operations for RMS of Ohio, a for-profit mental-health and developmental-disability service-provider in Cleveland, says he is an “aggressive, responsive and proactive leader,” and supports Jim Graham for mayor.
His challenger is Bob Dean, 69, who has served as councilman-at-large since 2004.
Dean spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, worked in the mayor’s office in Houston 10 years and was diversity manager for the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority from 1993 until his retirement in 2007.
Dean believes ones of his greatest accomplishments was introducing Trumbull County Commissioner James Tsagaris to the Cleveland port authority in 2004, which he says led to the formation of an economic development office at the Western Reserve Port Authority.
The four candidates for three at-large positions on Warren City Council are incumbents Helen Rucker and Dan Sferra and newcomers James Valesky Jr. and Bill Kruppa.
Rucker has served three two-year terms as a ward council member and the last three terms as at-large council member.
Sferra has served as Warren councilman 10 years dating back to 1972 and also served as mayor 16 years and state representative four years.
Valesky, a salesman at Klaben Ford Lincoln Mercury in Warren, was founder of the Perkins Neighborhood Association in 2006 and served on council’s Downtown Revitalization Committee.
Kruppa did not provide The Vindicator with any information about himself.
Incumbent 1st Ward councilman Fiore Dippolito has two opponents in the election, Ronald E. White Sr. and Clyde Wilson. None of the three provided The Vindicator with any information.
In the 4th Ward, incumbent Marti Morn faces a challenge from Greg Bartholomew.
Morn has served on council for three years and says her main priority in the past three years has been to address blight and safety.
Bartholomew has owned All-American Comics and Cards for 18 years. The business has locations in Warren and Boardman.
Bartholomew says he will be “accessible and proactive” and wants to get rid of the stigma that downtown Warren is not friendly to business.
Incumbent 6th Ward Councilman Eddie Colbert is receiving a challenge from the woman who held the position before Colbert won it in 2009, Susan Hartman.