Trending
WARREN -- A letter providing notice of a potential appeal was sent to the Trumbull County Board of Elections and signed by Councilman Ken MacPherson, D-at Large, regarding the effort to reverse pay raises recently approved for city officials.
MacPherson's petition came in 49 signatures short of the number needed to get on the ballot.
Only 901 of the required 950 -- 10% of the number of voters that participated in the last governor election -- were certified. The referendum movement submitted a total of 1,122 signatures.
In the letter sent to officials both at the board of elections and city, MacPherson now argues that "many electors," in excess of the 49 additional needed, were "erroneously excluded for certification," for various reasons.
Board of Elections Executive Director Stephanie Penrose on Wednesday sent a letter to Warren Auditor Vincent Flask stating the petitions had 901 valid signatures of Warren voters.
Penrose's letter noted the petitions the board of elections reviewed would be returned to Flask's office within the next 10 days.
"Individually they have a claim for disenfranchisement with the Board of Elections, one of whom attempted to turn in her affidavit directly to the Board of Elections and was refused," MacPherson said in his letter.
Councilman Greg Greathouse, D-3rd Ward, said when he reached out to Penrose after the series of signatures were rejected, Penrose told him if MacPherson were to present an appeal, the board of elections would forward it to legal counsel.
Greathouse, the council's finance committee chair, questioned whether MacPherson's appeal is valid.
"There's no mechanism in the (Ohio Revised Code) for that," Greathouse said.
Warren City Council voted on Nov. 8 to approve pay raises for the mayor, some other elected members of the administration and city council members.
Under the legislation, the mayor's salary must be 1% higher than the base salary of the highest-paid, wage-earning employee in the city. At no time will the mayor's salary be lower than 1% above the base pay of the city's highest paid official, the legislation states.
Other salaries of city officials then would be based on a percentage of the mayor's salary.
The ordinance increases council members' salaries by 89% to $20,974 per year over their current salary of $11,109 per year.
The pay raises will increase the salaries by more than $260,145 in 2024.
City council members voted 8-2 to give pay increases to city officials, including themselves.
Voting in favor of the pay adjustment legislation were Todd Johnson, I-1st Ward; Greg Greathouse, D-3rd Ward; James Shaffer, D-4th Ward; Ashley McBride, D-5th Ward; Cheryl Saffold, D-6th Ward; Ron White, D-7th Ward; and at-Large Democrats Helen Rucker and Gary Steinbeck.
Andrew Herman, D-2nd Ward and Ken MacPherson voted no.
MacPherson, who has been leading efforts to give voters an opportunity to vote on whether these elected officials should get these raises, vows to continue the fight for a city-wide vote.
"We are currently notifying electors of their exclusion and about how to correct it via an Affidavit," MacPherson said.
MacPherson said those pushing the referendum are seeking an expedited process due to the compressed nature of the circumstances of the ordinance and the holiday season.
Greathouse said he is not surprised by the protest.
"This doesn't surprise me, it was anticipated that he would try some sort of legal maneuvering. It'll have to be decided by authorities," Greathouse said.