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WARREN -- City voters soundly defeated an effort to change the city's statutory form of government.
A city charter question lost by 58 percent to 42 percent, according to incomplete and unofficial results from the Trumbull County Board of Elections.
Supporters and organizers of the charter effort were disappointed but also pleased to begin the discussion about ways to improve the operation of Warren for its residents.
"I learned a lot in this campaign," said Tina Milner, who leads Warren Deserves Better, which spearheaded the charter education and effort to pass a charter. "Change takes time. It is difficult for people to step out of their comfort zone."
Milner described listening to people in the community wanting change but being afraid to make change.
"I think it was a miracle to get enough residents to put it on the ballot for the first time," she said. "We got a discussion to happen that did not happen 12 years ago when there was a previous effort for a charter."
Mayor Doug Franklin questioned whether the charter vote was a reflection on how well his administration has led the city.
"It was an ill-timed movement by small group of people who really did not take the time to educate the public," he said. "It was the wrong time to have the discussion while you had all municipal seats and the mayoral election on the ballot.
"You can't have a nonpolitical discussion in that atmosphere," he said. "I think that's why it went down."
Milner emphasized Tuesday's loss will not end the effort for a charter.
"We intend to continue to have meetings," Milner said. "We already put things in place to start a podcast. We plan to do a lot of educating."
Former Mayor Henry J. Angelo, who ran for the commission, said it was discouraging to see people who did not support the charter.
"We wanted to find out what's best for the city," Angelo said.
MacPherson, who attended many of the charter commission meetings, described it being difficult to get the message about charter across when there were many elected officials providing false information about the charter.
"We expected all of that," he said. "We got a lot more people with knowledge about charter."
At-Large Councilman Kenneth MacPherson, who lost his mayoral bid, said the people who supported the charter effort had Warren's best interests at heart.
"These things are a marathon," he said. "It usually takes two or three times to get something like this passed."
Milner and a group of other supporters spent more than a year attempting to educate voters about having a charter in the city. The group hosted a series of weekly meetings discussing the difference between a statutory and a proposed charter, in which a committee would have spent up to a year discussing what type of government they would like, and then writing a charter to present to voters.
Statutory governments must follow rules established by state law. Charter governments can provide greater control for residents to determine how their local governments are formed and operated.
The move to change city government from statutory to charter has been pushed since January 2022 by the Warren Deserves Better group.