Cincinnati voters this November will consider Issue 23, amending the city charter to create new rules for citizens who want to put their own amendment on the ballot, plus several other "clean-up" measures.
Councilmember Liz Keating says she reached out to dozens of people and organizations about the proposed changes, including groups that have led citizen petitions and members of the former Charter Review Task Force.
"We talked to all three parties — Republicans, Democrats and Charter — to make sure that we had all questions answered and make sure we were transparent in what we were trying to do," Keating told WVXU. "We really didn't have any pushback, and I think this might be the least divisive, least controversial issue on the ballot this year. Because at the end of the day, this is just cleaning up our charter to mirror state law, fix that ambiguous language and create new government efficiencies and save taxpayer dollars."
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Cincinnati doesn’t have any specific rules for proposing a charter amendment, and the lack of clarity has caused some recent headaches.
Readers might remember a heated council meeting about two years ago, when then-State Representative Tom Brinkman accused city officials of sabotage and corruption.
"We weren’t messed up!" Brinkman yelled. "You guys were messed up! This building is what's messed up!"
At issue was an error in the ballot summary of his proposed charter amendment. All evidence points to a simple mistake, one Council Member Liz Keating says could be avoided under her proposed changes.
Keating says the charter amendment she proposed for the November ballot has been in the works for at least two years.
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"We asked the question: How can we make this easier on the administration, on our law department?" she said. "So that's where it started, and then it just led to more discussions about what else can we clean up in our charter to make it more transparent, more efficient and save tax dollars?"
Here are all the elements of Issue 23, explained.
Related to ballot initiatives, referenda, and charter amendments
The amendment requires a copy of any initiative, referendum, or charter amendment petition to be filed with the Clerk of Council before any signatures can be collected. Keating says this mirrors Ohio law for statewide ballot measures.
"It does not make it harder to collect signatures, it doesn't raise the number of signatures you have to collect, it simply just requires you to file it publicly so the public can be aware of what is being circulated," Keating said.
The amendment would also limit citizen-led ballot measures to one proposal, "which shall not address multiple or unrelated subject matters or questions of law."
And the amendment would also add a "cure period" for ballot measures and candidates for mayor and council. If petitions are submitted without the required number of valid signatures, the candidate or ballot measure petitioner could collect more to add to the total, as long as they're submitted by the deadline. Currently, you have to start over from scratch.
Related to official City Council voting
The measure would give council permission to vote electronically instead of only by voice vote.
Keating says the city law department has always interpreted the charter's "yay or nay vote" requirement to mean a vocal vote is required. That means the Clerk of Council has to call all nine council members by name to record each vote, for every single agenda item.
Sometimes a single ordinance requires three separate votes, if the measure is passed as an emergency (allowing it to go into effect immediately instead of in 30 days), and/or if council suspends the rule requiring three separate readings before a final vote.
"So what this does is it clarifies that council can vote on these legislation by any public means," Keating said. "It doesn't mean that we could vote remotely ... all this does is just allow us to push a button that could do a green light [or] red light or put our name on a board under yes or no. There's many different ways to do this."
This change in the city charter doesn't establish a particular method, only makes that option a possibility.
Related to candidates in city elections
As described above, the amendment would establish a "cure period" for candidates filing petitions to be a candidate for mayor or city council. If petitions are submitted without the required number of valid signatures, the candidate could collect more to add to the total, as long as they're submitted by the deadline. Currently, you have to start over from scratch.
The charter amendment also clarifies that candidate petitions circulators must sign a statement rather than provide a notarized affidavit with their petitions.
The amendment slightly modifies the process for what happens if a mayor leaves office early enough in the term to trigger a special election. The charter currently says candidates must submit petitions at least 50 days before the special election; separately, state law requires the Hamilton County Board of Elections to mail ballots to overseas voters at least 46 days before the election. That leaves only four days for the BOE to certify signatures and determine whether a candidate has met the threshold to be on the ballot.
"So the Board of Elections actually asked the city to add to this charter amendment ... We pushed it back to 60 days ahead of time to build in an extra 10 days to give Board of Elections a little bit more time," Keating said.
Related to council terms
Lastly, the charter amendment would change all references to four-year city council terms within the charter.
City voters first approved four-year council terms in 2012, then decided to go back to two-year terms in the 2018 election. Not all relevant portions of the charter were updated when they should have been.
What you'll see on the ballot
Shall the charter of the City of Cincinnati be amended to clarify the process for citizens to initiate charter amendments, ordinances, and referenda by providing a process and timeline for submitting petitions for initiatives, referenda, and Charter amendments to the Clerk of Council to allow a reasonable time for verification of signatures and drafting necessary ordinances and an opportunity for citizens to collect additional signatures on petitions; requiring petition circulators to submit a certified copy of any initiative, referendum, or Charter amendment petition to the Clerk of Council before collecting signatures on the petitions; permitting City Council to cast their votes by any method that publicly announces their vote, including voice, electronic, or other mechanical method; clarifying throughout the Charter that Council terms are two years; clarifying that candidate petition circulators must sign a statement rather than provide a notarized affidavit on candidate petitions; aligning the timeline for filing a nominating petition for an election to an unexpired term of Office of Mayor with state and federal requirements; and providing an opportunity for candidates for Council and Mayor to collect additional signatures on their petitions by amending existing Sections 3 and 5 of Article II, "Legislative Power," and existing sections 1, 2, and 4 of Article IX, "Nominations and Elections," and by enacting new Section 8 of Article II, "Legislative Power"?
Read the full amendment below:
