Warren Mayor Jim Fouts says he will run again in the city elections next year. Last year voters approved extending term limits for the office of mayor from 3 to 5 terms.
But a new petition drive could put a repeal of that on the November Ballot.
“People have a right to collect petitions. We’ll see where it goes,” said Mayor Fouts.
Mark Liss is an attorney and former member of the Warren City Council and one of the people organizing the petition drive.
“I guess we’ll see, come the end of the month. He should be worried,” Liss said.
Mayor Fouts has been in office 11 years. He tells 7 Investigator Jim Kiertzner he wants four more years and could run again for another four years for a total of 20 years.
Liss says they are doing this now because Fouts won’t own up to secretly recorded comments demeaning to African Americans, older women and disabled people.
Fouts has repeatedly denied the recordings are him.
Liss says they need 5,000 signatures of registered voters by the end of July to get the repeal on the November ballot. He also expects some challenging of the effort in the City Clerk’s office or court.
