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Warren official holds out hope for charter vote
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
John Brown, one of the Warren City Council members who advocated putting a question before Warren voters that could have led to the writing of a charter form of government for the city, said the proposal still could have a future.
In August 2010, Brown and Councilman Al Novak attended a press conference where they said they were gathering signatures and making plans to place a measure before voters at the May 2011 primary.
If approved, that measure would have caused a committee to be formed to write a charter, which the public would have approved or rejected at the March primary this year.
A charter form of government, advocates say, allows a city to create the type of government it wants instead of the “statutory” form of government such as Warren’s. The statutory form of government was designed by the Ohio Legislature about 100 years ago.
Brown says a charter form of government would make Warren’s government more efficient by allowing consolidation of administrative and council positions, for example.
The signature-gathering effort stalled in 2010, Brown said recently, because he discovered there was a problem with the petitions they had circulated, requiring organizers to start the petition campaign over.
Brown said it wouldn’t be hard to get the necessary signatures again if enough people want that to happen. “It was like shooting fish in a barrell,” Brown said of gathering signatures in 2010. State law requires 1,300 valid signatures.
But a more likely first step, Brown said, would be to poll city council now that it has two new members and see how council feels about putting the charter issue on the ballot.
A charter question can be placed on the ballot by a vote of council or a successful petition drive.
The last time council voted on the question of whether to put a charter measure on the ballot was July 2010, and it failed 6-3. However, one of those who voted against it, Marti Morn, has been replaced on council by Greg Bartholomew.
Another “no” vote came from Councilman Bob Dean, who is now council president and only votes to break a tie. James Valesky took Dean’s former seat as a councilman at-large.
Councilman Dan Sferra, who was a supporter of a charter during his election campaign in 2009, didn’t attend the July 2010 meeting when the vote was taken.
The “yes” votes came from Brown, Novak and Fiore Dippolito.
“I’d like to poll my fellow council members and see if there is a change of heart with the new council members,” Brown said.
Brown said people inevitably look at a charter as an indication of dissatisfaction with the current mayor, but Brown said it should not be viewed like that.
“It’s been talked about in Warren for a decade,” he said.
Brown said he still feels the public deserves an opportunity to decide whether its city should be reorganized.
“My vote was a vote to put it in the people’s hands, and nothing has changed my mind about that,” Brown said.
Former city Councilman Dan Crouse chaired a 13-member committee that spent several months in 2010 learning about charters from professors at Kent State University and Hiram College and people in other communities with charters.
The committee unanimously recommended in May 2010 that council place the charter question on the ballot.