News
Nelsonville may soon be seeking candidates to run for office — for one month
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The city of Nelsonville may soon be looking for candidates to run for office for a term lasting one month: December.
This is to address a problem as the city transitions to a new form of government: The terms of current office holders end Nov. 30, but the new city leaders elected in November won’t take office until Jan. 1.
This leaves a one-month gap during which there may be no elected officials to conduct city business, such as paying the bills, approving next year’s budget and overseeing the city’s day-to-day operations.
Or almost no one.
The City Council will have one remaining member: Nancy Sonick, the only one whose term doesn’t end this November.
She could remain on the council by herself through December until the newly elected council members take office in January. But if she opts to step down, there will be no City Council come December.
“For me that’s my DEFCON 1 one right now,” said Reid Courtney, using a military term for the highest threat level. “That’s the biggest problem I see with this whole transition.”
Courtney is part of a citizen commission created by the City Council to identify complications with the transition to a new government and suggest solutions.
The commission has proposed a solution to the December problem: Voters in November could elect two slates of candidates for City Council, auditor and treasurer.
One group would take office Dec. 1 and serve until the end of the month. The other would take office Jan. 1 and serve a full term.
“Obviously that is not an ideal solution,” Courtney told the council at its meeting Monday night. “That is the least bad option we have right now.”
The December gap is a result of a ballot initiative that abolishes the city charter at the end of this year and returns Nelsonville to the form of government it had 30 years ago, before the charter was adopted.
The initiative, known as Issue 23, passed with overwhelming support last November following a monthslong legal battle by the City Council to keep it off the ballot.
Under the charter, the city’s day-to-day operations are run by a city manager who is appointed by the council. Under Issue 23, the city will return to a system in which power is split between the council and an elected mayor independent of the council who will run the administration.
Courtney acknowledged that having what amounts to two elections for the same offices on the same ballot “opens a lot of ground for confusion.”
Voters may not understand they need to vote for two candidates for each office: one for December, one for January and after. Candidates may get confused about which position they’re running for.
This assumes, of course, that people will be interested in going to the effort of running for office for a one-month term.
What seems clear is the current elected officials cannot simply stay in their roles for another month until their replacements take office in January.
Ohio law anticipates a situation like this. Section 3.01 of the Ohio Revised Code says: “A person holding an office of public trust shall continue therein until his successor is elected or appointed and qualified, unless otherwise provided in the constitution or laws of this state.”
The problem for Nelsonville is that like other charter cities, the terms of its charter determine how its government operates, not necessarily state law. And the charter doesn’t contemplate its own demise and plan for a transition.
One option is the current council members could file petitions to run for the December term.
Councilmember Cory Taylor said he’s not interested.
“Why would I want to subject myself to another month when I’ve been drug through the mud and lied about sitting in this seat?” he said, referencing the simmering tensions between different factions on the council that sometimes spill over into very public feuds. “Why would I want to stick around for another month? What for?”
It’s also possible candidates running for the full terms starting in January could file petitions to run for the December term as well, which might help reduce ballot confusion, make the transition more seamless, and allow the new council members to adopt the budget in December that they’ll be operating under in January.
The council may take up the commission’s proposal for solving the December problem in the form of a resolution at its next meeting.