News
November’s election could result in competing claims over who are the rightful leaders of Nelsonville’s government
By: David Forster
Posted on:
ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — A decision Wednesday by the Ohio Supreme Court leaves Nelsonville residents with no clarity when it comes to what form of government they will have starting next year or who will represent them.
What is certain is that as of now, seven candidates are running for City Council seats under Issue 23, a citizen initiative passed by voters last November that would change the city’s form of government.
Because there are seven council seats to fill, there’s no question these seven candidates will win in November, even if the only vote they get is their own votes for themselves. It only takes one vote to win an election.
The question is whether they will actually be able to take their seats at the first council meeting in January. This is because there could be seven other people who also claim those council seats.
The reason for this is because the City Council voted to repeal Issue 23 last month.
Under Issue 23, the city’s charter, which established its current form of government, was to be abolished at the end of this year. The city would then transition on Jan. 1 back to a statutory form of government, which it had before the charter was adopted 31 years ago.
As far as the council is concerned, with its repeal of Issue 23 there will be no transition to a new form of government in January and the charter will remain in force.
This is why, after the repeal, the council asked the Ohio Supreme Court to order that all candidates running under Issue 23 be removed from the ballot.
The court refused to do that, but in its decision did not address the underlying issue of whether the council’s repeal of Issue 23 was valid.
The competing claims for council seats come from an attempt to repeal Issue 23
Meanwhile, four candidates are running for a seat on the council that would last only for the month of December. This one-month position was created by the council, before it voted to repeal Issue 23, in an effort to address an anticipated gap in government: All the current council members’ terms end Nov. 30, but the new council elected under Issue 23 would not take office until Jan. 1.
These four candidates are also certain to win provided they at least vote for themselves. And once they take office Dec. 1, they could appoint three other people to fill out the seven council seats.
These three appointed council members could then take the position that the charter remains in effect after Dec. 31, and therefore they are entitled to keep their seats come Jan 1. And they could then immediately appoint four other people to replace the December-only council members.
This would lead to the situation where seven people, all elected under Issue 23, are laying claim to the council seats, arguing the repeal was invalid, and seven people, all appointed, are laying claim to the same seats, arguing the repeal was valid.
Nelsonville City Attorney Jonathan Robe acknowledged this possibility. If it were to happen, he said, “there would be chaos.” It could result in dueling councils that meet at different times and make different decisions.
Ultimately, a court will have to decide who the rightful members of council are. The question is when this would happen.
It’s still possible a legal action could be filed before the election challenging the repeal of Issue 23. The argument could be that by repealing the initiative, the council in effect overturned the citizens’ constitutional right to choose their own form of government. The council’s position is that the charter gives it the right to repeal citizen initiatives.
It’s also possible a legal action could be filed right after the election asking a court to order the Athens County Board of Elections not to certify the candidates who ran under Issue 23, which would prevent them from taking office.
Whatever happens will affect not just the candidates for council under Issue 23, but also the candidates running for mayor — a position that does not exist under the charter government but would under the new government called for in the initiative — as well as candidates for council president, auditor and treasurer, and whether they are able to claim the offices they have been elected to.