Elections are an important way for Cincinnatians to have some influence over how government is conducted, but the city charter also empowers residents to take direct action.
With enough signatures from city residents who are registered to vote, Cincinnatians can ask voters to approve a new ordinance or to repeal an ordinance that City Council passed. Voters also are tasked with considering any proposed changes to the charter itself. City Council could propose a charter amendment, or a group of residents could propose one, but either way, it’s voters who get the final say.
The power for residents of Cincinnati to initiate an ordinance, a referendum or a charter amendment is laid out in Article II, Section 8 of the city charter.
Defining terms
An ordinance is a city law. If passed, it becomes part of Cincinnati’s Municipal Code of ordinances. An ordinance can only include one subject matter.
A referendum, in this context, is an attempt to repeal an ordinance that has already been passed.
A charter amendment is a change to the city charter itself, which is sort of like Cincinnati’s constitution. While City Council can change city law with ordinances, only Cincinnati voters can change the charter.
Getting started
The process starts with any Cincinnati resident (who is a registered voter) who has an idea to change city law or the charter. That person must get support from other residents by collecting signatures on a petition.
Petition format is prescribed by the Ohio Secretary of State.
The charter requires each petition to have a committee of at least five “electors of the city of Cincinnati,” (aka, registered voters). The committee must file a certified copy of the full language of the ordinance, referendum or charter amendment before collecting any signatures.
Petitions are filed with the Clerk of Council, who forwards it to the City Solicitor’s Office (aka, the Law Department). City attorneys must evaluate the petition to ensure it follows all requirements, like containing only one subject matter.
Officials will also determine whether the proposed change is within Council’s authority. If, for example, something is a crime under state or federal law, that action could not be made legal within Cincinnati.
City officials can only consider the submission’s legal sufficiency, not the subject matter. In other words, city officials can’t prevent an ordinance, referendum or charter amendment from reaching the ballot simply because they disagree with it.
The Law Department will inform the committee and City Council once the legal confirmation is complete.
Collecting signatures
Just like candidates for public office, a citizen-initiated action needs a specific number of valid signatures from registered voters.
The number of signatures needed depends on the type of measure.
A petition-initiated ordinance or referendum needs to be signed by at least 10% of the votes cast within Cincinnati in the most recent election for Ohio governor.
A petition-initiated charter amendment needs to be signed by at least 10% of the total vote cast in the most recent regular municipal election.
It’s very common for petition signatures to be rejected as invalid because the signature cannot be verified, or because the person signing is not a registered voter in Cincinnati — either because they are not registered at all, or because they live outside the city. For that reason, it’s typical for petition filers to submit twice the number of required signatures to ensure enough of them are valid.
The Hamilton County Board of Elections validates the signatures.
If petition signatures are filed at least 100 days before the election, there’s a 10-day grace period during which the committee can submit additional signatures if the first filing came up short.
If the petition still doesn’t have enough valid signatures, or if the original signatures are submitted less than 100 days before the election and there are not enough, that petition fails. The committee can try again with the same topic, but would have to start again from the beginning of the process.
Who votes on a citizen-initiated action?
An ordinance or referendum submitted via citizen petition might never make it to the public ballot.
City Council could choose to vote to adopt the measure without any changes; Council could not vote it down, however.
The other option is to send the measure to the ballot for the next municipal election.
When it comes to charter amendments, Council must send it to the ballot — only city voters can amend the charter.
City Council can also initiate a charter amendment, but it still has to go before city voters. A six-vote majority is required to send a charter amendment to the ballot.
You can see a list of charter amendments approved in the past at this link.
Ballot summaries
When a measure is set for a public vote, City Council must approve an appropriate summary to appear on the ballot. This summary is very important, as it’s the only description of the proposal that many voters will ever see.
The summary “shall be accurate, shall not be misleading, and shall be without material omission or argument.”
Voter power over taxes
Because only Cincinnati voters can change the city charter, only Cincinnati voters can increase the property tax or income tax rate.
City Council does have to vote annually to set the property tax millage, but they can only go up to the maximum allowed in the charter.
Council can set the millage lower than that maximum. That was the case for many years until Council voted in late 2022 to approve the maximum millage, starting in calendar year 2024. They’ve approved the maximum consistently since then.
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