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Ohio’s Supreme Court declines to take up Nelsonville’s appeal over a ballot initiative calling for a new government

By: David Forster
Posted on: Tuesday, February 18, 2025

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The Ohio Supreme Court has declined to take up an appeal challenging a ballot initiative that calls for a new government in Nelsonville.

The City Council knew the appeal was a long shot. The city attorney said it was unlikely the court would want to get involved given the initiative has already passed.

The initiative, known as Issue 23, will repeal the city charter at the end of this year and return Nelsonville to the form of government it had 30 years ago, with power shared between the City Council and an elected mayor.

The council fought and lost a monthslong legal battle to keep Issue 23 off the ballot last year. The initiative passed in November with more than 70 percent of the vote.

The council is now placing on the May ballot a proposed charter amendment that would repeal Issue 23 and set in motion its own process for creating a new government. If that passes, it could face a legal challenge.

Had the state Supreme Court taken up the City Council’s appeal, the issue before it would have been whether the backers of Issue 23 followed the right procedure to get it on the ballot.

Issue 23 was proposed under a section of the city charter that allows citizens to put initiatives on the ballot.

The City Council argued the city charter does not allow initiatives that call for the dissolution of the charter itself. The council said the initiative should have been pursued under a section of the state constitution that provides for amending charters.

Ultimately, the county Board of Elections voted to place the initiative on the ballot under the terms of the constitution. In other words, while the proponents had pursued the initiative under the city charter, the board determined they had met the conditions spelled out in the constitution for amending a charter.

It was for this reason the attorney representing proponents of Issue 23 argued the Supreme Court should not take up the city’s appeal. He said there was nothing left for the court to decide since the initiative ended up on the ballot under the procedure the council argued was the proper one.

The whole process has put the city of Nelsonville in some uncharted legal territory. There is no specific guidance in state law for how to abolish a city charter, only how to adopt or amend one. And it appears that no city has before gone from being a charter city back to a statutory city, where the structure of government is determined by state law, not a charter drawn up by the city itself.