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The Nelsonville City Council is being sued over its alternative proposal to change the city’s government
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The city of Nelsonville has been sued again over an effort to change its form of government.
This amendment would return the city to having an elected mayor running day-to-day operations instead of a city manager. It also would make some changes to the City Council.
And it would repeal an initiative, known as Issue 23, the city’s voters passed overwhelmingly in November that calls for similar changes to city government.
Nelsonville resident Greg Smith, who sued the City Council last year to force it to put Issue 23 on the ballot, is now suing the city to keep its proposed charter amendment off the ballot.
Smith accuses council members of trying to make an end run around the initiative by proposing the charter amendment. Issue 23 calls for abolishing the city charter at the end of this year and returning the city to the form of government it had before the charter was adopted 30 years ago.
“They’re coming up with any damn reason in the world not to do what the voters wanted them to do,” Smith said.
Smith’s lawsuit claims the ordinance the council passed two weeks ago to place the proposed charter amendment on the ballot is flawed because it violates a rule that limits ordinances to a single subject.
If the council wants to take steps to both amend the charter and repeal Issue 23, it needs to do so with separate ordinances, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit also alleges the council did not follow the proper procedure when it approved the ordinance.
An ordinance intended to repeal another ordinance should include the language of that ordinance, the lawsuit says. The ordinance passed by the council did not include the language of Issue 23.
The ordinance was not properly read at the council meeting before it was passed, the lawsuit alleges. The reading should have included the language of the proposed charter amendment, according to the lawsuit, but that was not read at the meeting.
The ordinance directs the city attorney to “prepare language for the complete charter amendment” for placement on the ballot. But that didn’t happen, the lawsuit alleges.
Instead, the proposed amendment was submitted to the Board of Elections as written by the acting city manager, who suggested the idea of amending the charter.
The lawsuit is asking the court to order the City Council to withdraw the proposed charter amendment from the ballot, and in case the council refuses, to order the Board of Elections to not place it on the ballot.
Nelsonville City Attorney Jonathan Robe said he could not comment on Smith’s lawsuit because it is pending litigation.
The council will likely discuss the lawsuit during executive session at its meeting Monday night.