Staff file photo Dan Sferra sits on his desk at Warren City Hall after winning his fourth term as mayor in 1991. Sferra’s 48-year political career ends Dec. 31 after he decided not to run again for Warren City Council. Sferra has served as councilman, mayor and state representative.

WARREN — Dan Sferra’s 48-year political career began in 1971 when Sferra, then 21, became angry that his then-councilman, Bill Muir, voted to support a federal housing project on the city’s north end.

Sferra thought it was a bad idea, so he ran against the councilman.

“If he did not support that project, I would not have run,” Sferra said.

Sferra won that primary race, 492 votes to Muir’s 431 votes. He was unopposed in the general election.

In recent years, the longtime councilman, four-term mayor and two-term member of the Ohio House is known best for walking around council chambers chatting up other members and quickly calling the council meeting to an end.

During council caucus meetings, Sferra often listens to debates and then, with witty quips and a little perspective from his long career, steers conversations back to the topics at hand. If the conversation takes too long, Sferra will get up and leave.

Admitting that he was not very politically active in the early 1970s when he first decided to run for office, Sferra’s early support came from his family, friends and the people who knew him in the neighborhoods.

Sferra would talk to anyone back then — just like today. He was filled with personality, energy and a willingness to knock on every door in the ward.

Since that time, Sferra has run in 16 elections, losing only two. He was defeated in the 1973 general election by William H. Shank Jr., 971 votes to 941. In 1989, while still serving as mayor, Sferra ran in the primary to unseat treasurer Patricia Leon-Games. It was no contest, as Leon-Games earned the right to run in the general election by a vote of 6,514 to Sferra’s 4,943.

He initially served as a member of Warren’s City Council as a 5th Ward councilman.

“When I was first assigned to the council finance committee, there were council members that were presidents of major corporations on it,” Sferra said. “Those guys did not have political ambitions. They served for the good of the community. So I did not talk much. I listened and did what they did.”

Sferra already had begun thinking about running for mayor, but could not judge how deep his support was outside his ward.

In 1979, Sferra won the mayor’s seat in a contest on which he focused on the city’s garbage pickup being terrible.

“You take the garbage out on Tuesday, and it would not be picked up until Thursday,” Sferra said. “I made it a pillar of my campaign.”

He ran against William H. Shank, the man who defeated him in his second council race. Sferra won the mayoral election 8,389 votes to Shank’s 7,065.

As promised, one of his first actions was to straighten out the garbage pickup.

As mayor, Sferra said he worked to surround himself with people who were very capable in getting their jobs done.

“I told people I wanted the jobs they were supposed to do done,” he said. “I didn’t get in their way. I told them I did not want things to come back to me when I was out in the community.”

Sferra defeated Dan Polivka, then a longtime councilman and now a longtime Trumbull County Commissioner, in two primary races for the mayor’s seat in 1987 and in 1991. In the first race, Polivka, who was then 24 years old, received 5,164 votes to Sferra’s 5,813.

“I was young and brash,” Polivka said. “Looking back on it, I’m surprised I was that close to beating him. We had a good economy, there were jobs and the administration was providing the services people wanted.”

Polivka now says he respected Sferra, but felt he could do a better job when he ran against him.

“What I learn from him is being responsive to your residents and, when necessary, be willing to fight for issues you believe in,” Polivka said. “Even when people disagree with you, they’ll respect you.”

Sferra admits that the four terms he served as mayor — 1980 to 1995 — were, in some ways, much easier financially than what those that followed him had to endure.

“We had jobs,” Sferra said. “We had Van Huffel, Republic Steel, Packard Electric, General Electric and other companies hiring people right out of high school. People were making $20 per hour in 1979. It was good money.”

Stores, club and bars were open from the early morning to late at night to accommodate the shift workers.

One of his toughest battles for the mayor’s seat occurred in 1991’s general election in a campaign against former fire Chief Robert Hernon, who Sferra defeated by a 34-vote margin.

Legislatively, Sferra’s toughest campaign was convincing residents to support having Trumbull Correctional Institution built on the city’s west side.

“I know I caught a lot of hell when we built the prison out in Leavittsburg. People wanted to kill me,” he said.

Michael Keys, the city’s Community Development director, covered the city of Warren as a radio broadcaster.

“There were times I was critical of him,” Keys said. “There were times when I would beat up on him, but he recognized that I was just doing my job. It was his mother who would come up to me to tell me to stop picking on her son.”

Keys said what most impressed him about Sferra was he would allow his department heads to do their jobs.

“He was not a micro manager,” Keys said. “He trusted his people. He had faith in them.”

Anthony Iannucci, who served as the city’s auditor for 12 of Sferra’s 16 years as mayor, said Sferra’s greatest ability was being open to the ideas of others, as well as letting them do their jobs.

“He gave people a lot of responsibility,” Iannucci said. “He expected them to do their jobs. If we came him with a well-thought-out idea, he would support it. He loved people to express themselves. It was just his style.”

After leaving the mayor’s seat, beginning in 2000, Sferra served two terms in the Ohio House of Representatives through 2004. While he enjoyed providing service, Sferra admits it was not the same as leading the city.

“We did not get to do things that directly affected peoples’ lives, like you do at the city level,” Sferra said. “Republicans were in control and basically told us Democrats, ‘Shut up and sit down.'”

Sferra returned to his roots on city council in 2009, serving under Mayors Michael J. O’Brien and Doug Franklin, both of whom entered politics while he was mayor.

Sferra gladly has given advice to councilmen and others, if asked.

Councilman Eddie Colbert, D-at Large, said the biggest thing he learned from Sferra is sometimes things are simple.

“Danny would break things down and make people get to the point,” he said.

Colbert emphasized that Sferra was always a man of his word.

“If he made a promise to you, he would keep it,” Colbert said.

Sferra smiles when people walk up to him and call him mayor.

“That’s what people know me as,” Sferra said. “I’ve had people walk up to me, give me hugs and talk about meeting me and what was done when I was mayor. It is gratifying.”

During his last meeting earlier this month, Sferra read the names of all of the councilmen and women, council presidents and mayors he has served with and under.

“Everyone was a good person, who were looking toward the best interests of the city,” Sferra said.

Just as youthful vigor and energy propelled him into office, Sferra knew it was time to leave because he no longer had the passion and energy that sparked his career.

“It is time to move on,” he said.