The city charter ordinance is headed back to City Council after the Legislation, Codes & Regulations committee voted 2-1 to send it to the full council. It’s possible City Council will vote on the ordinance July 28.
Mike Neff, chair of the committee and at-large City Council member, and Thaddaeus Smith, Ward 5, voted in favor of sending the ordinance to council with a recommendation to approve. Jason Schaber, Ward 3, voted no.
The ordinance was sent back to the committee July 14 after questions arose from the public and the Marion County Board of Elections during the third reading of the legislation. At the time, the legislation had more than a dozen amendments, which City Council attempted to vote on individually before voting to send the ordinance back to committee.
During the July 21 committee meeting, members voted unanimously to approve the amendments suggested by Gary Hunter, legal counsel for the Ohio Municipal League., and amendments made to clarify points for the Board of Elections.
The amendments included eliminating slates, lowering the signatures required for charter commission petitions to five and allowing City Council to nominate electors for the charter commission if 15 candidates are not certified by the Board of Elections.
The amended legislation also changed the dates for when petitions are due for charter commission candidates to account for the legislation being sent back down to the committee. Petitions are due by 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 11.
The Board of Elections must have petitions certified by Aug. 18 with the Secretary of State’s Office. The Marion County Board of Elections plans to meet Aug. 13 to certify its petitions.
If the board is inundated with petitions with large numbers of signatures, it’s possible workers will have to work overtime to certify the signatures. Marion County Board of Elections Director Cindy Price said it’s possible if extra costs are incurred due to the charter, the board could charge that back to the city.
Will City Council vote on the ordinance on July 28?
Neff said he “fully expects” council will suspend the three-readings rule at its July 28 meeting. Typically a piece of legislation must be read at a City Council meeting three times before its voted on, however, City Council can vote to suspend that rule to vote on the rule earlier.
“I fully expect us to send this back to council with the amendments being made and send that back tonight,” Neff said before the vote. “And I fully expect the question to be resolved on July 28.”
Schaber said he had expected to send the legislation out of committee until Neff mentioned suspending the rules. He said he’d hoped to have the first reading on July 28, but then schedule additional special meetings to allow for the three reads.
“I don’t know if I like the idea of dropping it Monday and rolling with it,” Schaber said.
Law Director Mark Russell jumped in to say the content of the legislation had been discussed “many times” before.
“I don’t know what meeting this is, the sixth, seventh or eighth meeting that we’ve talked about this subject matter, probably in the double digits,” Russell said. “There’s nothing on this proposed document, for the committee’s action tonight, that is new, that is different than has been discussed at the last double-digit meetings.”
The charter ordinance has been discussed in City Council and committee meetings since April.
“The simple question is, does council want to give voters the opportunity to write a charter,” Neff said.
The ordinance will be read for a first time with the approved amendments at 6:30 p.m July 28 by City Council.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Committee sends charter ordinance back to council – will it pass scrutiny this time?
Reporting by Abby Bammerlin, Marion Star / Marion Star
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