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With Tuesday’s vote, Nelsonville remains on track to a new form of government next year
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Nelsonville voters on Tuesday rejected a proposal to follow an alternative path to creating a new city government.
And it would have repealed a ballot initiative approved by the city’s voters in November that seeks to do the same thing.
The difference between the two is the initiative, known as Issue 23, will abolish the city charter at the end of this year and revert the city back to the form of government it had before the charter was adopted 30 years ago.
But there are some complications in this approach. The initiative was sparse on details regarding the transition.
One of them was the creation of the wards that some council members will represent under the new government.
Under the city charter, all of the council seats are at large, meaning council members each represent the entire city.
But before the charter was adopted, four of the seven council members represented wards and were elected by the members of those wards.
The initiative didn’t mention anything about drawing up new wards, and the city’s attorney said the City Council has no explicit authority under the charter, which is still in effect until the end of the year, to create wards.
This meant the city faced the possibility of starting next year with only the three at large council members.
Because of this and other concerns about the transition, city leaders floated an alternative plan. It would preserve the charter and keep all council members at large but still create the position of mayor, who would be elected and independent of the council.
This alternative was rejected Tuesday by a vote of 235-201.
This means the city is moving forward under Issue 23, and the few people who ran in the primary to fill positions in the new Nelsonville government created under this initiative will move on to the general election in November.
Also, several others have filed petitions to run as independent candidates in November. The Athens County Board of Elections will review the petitions and determine whether to certify these candidates in mid-July.
But as of now, the city will still fall short of a full government come January.
No one is yet running for treasurer or law director. It’s too late to file a petition to get on the ballot in November. But there’s still time for people to submit petitions to be a write-in candidate. That deadline is Aug. 25.
Also, there’s still the ward problem. On the advice of its attorney, the city has asked the League of Women Voters to facilitate the creation of new wards. The goal is to have a ward map to present to the council by July.
At that point, the only people who could run for those wards would be write-in candidates. If there are still vacant ward seats after the November election, the elected council president would presumably have the authority to fill these vacancies after the new government takes over in January.