News
Nelsonville council repeals a citizen initiative that called for a change in the city’s government
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The Nelsonville City Council voted late Monday night to repeal a citizen initiative that called for a change in the city’s form of government.
The decision will likely land the city in court again. The council fought and lost a monthslong legal battle last year to keep the initiative off the ballot last November.
Greg Smith, a former City Council member and one of the residents who sued the council to keep the initiative on the ballot, said he now plans on filing a lawsuit to overturn the council’s decision Monday to repeal it.
The initiative, known as Issue 23, passed with overwhelming support last November. It calls for abolishing the city’s 30-year-old charter and returning the city to the form of government it had before. The city then had a council and an independent, elected mayor who ran the city’s administration.
The council’s decision to repeal Issue 23 comes as several candidates have already declared their candidacy for positions in the new government that was set to take over Jan. 1 following the upcoming November election.
But if the city is now no longer moving forward under Issue 23 and instead sticking with the charter, there still needs to be a new council elected in November.
It’s too late at this point for any candidates running under the charter to get their names on the ballot. But anyone wanting to run as a write-in candidate has until Aug. 25 to submit the required paperwork with the Athens County Board of Elections.
WOUB was unable to reach the elections board in time for this story to find out what it plans to do regarding the election that was supposed to happen under Issue 23. It’s also unclear at this point how a new lawsuit would affect the board’s decision.
“The plan moving forward is to continue to govern. I believe all charter elections should be held, but ultimately that is up to the BOE,” Councilmember Cameron Peck told WOUB.
The ordinance repealing Issue 23 said the initiative did not provide sufficient guidance for a transition to the new form of government, putting the city at risk of significant disruption. And because of this, the ordinance said, the council had the right to use its authority under the charter to repeal it.
Several council members have complained from the beginning that Issue 23 lacked a sufficient transition plan. For example, under the new government, four of the council members would represent wards. But the city has no wards under the charter, and the city’s attorney told the council it had no authority to create them.
The elections board addressed this issue by deciding that all the candidates for council would run as at-large members. The newly elected council could then establish wards to be used in the next election.
Another issue is that under the charter, the terms of all of the members now on council expire Nov. 30. But under Issue 23, the new council members elected in November would not take office until Jan. 1.
This created what became known as the “December problem”: The city would have no government for that month.
The council appointed an ad hoc committee that has been meeting for several months to address this and other transition-related issues. The committee recommended holding a separate election in November to elect council members who would serve for the month of December only to bridge the gap.
So far, no one is running for the one-month terms.
The state constitution guarantees Ohio citizens the right to choose their own form of government. The ordinance repealing Issue 23 acknowledges this.
But it also says the initiative process under the city charter does not provide for abolition of the charter itself. And it says the state constitution does not provide guidance on how to abolish a charter.
This raises the question of how Nelsonville residents can choose a new form of government if there seems to be no method for abolishing the charter. This is an issue that likely will be raised in any legal battles over the council’s decision.
“The government is supposed to be by the people and for the people,” Smith said. “In my opinion the City Council does not recognize that people have the right to choose their own government.”
Councilmember Peck told WOUB he believes the problem is language in the charter that says it will exist “in perpetuity.”
“This language makes the existence of the document permanent legally and the charter cannot be undone while that language exists in the charter,” he said.
Once that language is amended, Peck said, the city can move forward with plans for a new form of government.
Peck, who is running for a council seat under Issue 23, said the main reason he voted to repeal the initiative is because of his concern about a potential lapse in government in December.
“I’m comfortable legally and morally with my decision,” he said. “I won’t apologize to doing what was appropriate legally, only that it took so long to whip the votes to execute it.”
Nelsonville City Attorney Jonathan Robe had this to say about the legal confrontation he is anticipating: “I think the courts are going to very closely scrutinize the ordinance.”
Jonathan Flowers, who is running for mayor under Issue 23, was the only council member who voted against the repeal. He made reference to the residents who supported the initiative last November.
“I don’t want to throw their votes away,” he said.