CITY OF PICKERINGTON

                                              RULES COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

                                               CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

                                                       MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005

 

                                                   SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA

                                                                      6:00 P.M.

 

1.         ROLL CALL.  Mr. O’Brien called the meeting to order at 6:10 P.M., with roll call as follows:  Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. Hackworth were present.  No members were absent.   Others present were: Judy Gilleland, Lynda Yartin, Phil Hartmann, Patti Wigington, Mike Maurer, Jack Sower, and others.

 

2.         SCHEDULED MATTERS:

 

Mr. O’Brien stated the agenda this evening contains two Charter ordinances that have been discussed, one that is in Council, and one that is still in Rules Committee.  Mr. O’Brien stated he would like to dispense with item B on the agenda at this time.  Mr. O’Brien stated he would like to amend that ordinance to remove Section 1, the section that deals with emergency rezonings and annexations.  Mr. Hartmann stated he felt amending the ordinance to remove that section would not have an effect on the other sections of the ordinance.  Mr. Hackworth inquired how Rules Committee could amend an ordinance that is on Council floor.  Mr. Hartmann stated an amended ordinance would be prepared and submitted to Council and if the majority of Council concurs, the ordinance that is currently on the floor could be amended by substitution.  Mr. O’Brien stated he would like to have the amended ordinance distributed with Council packets so all of Council would have it and have time to review it prior to the Council meeting.  Mr. Sabatino stated he was not sure if any Charter amendments had ever come directly from Council and not as a result of an initiative petition or the Charter Review Commission.  Mr. Hackworth stated Council had proposed the legislation that put the Charter change for the Consent Agenda before the electors.  Mr. Sabatino stated he felt we should think about having a Charter Review Commission review the entire Charter so all of the issues could be dealt with at one time.  Mr. O’Brien stated he had discussed that possibility with Mr. Hartmann and the City Manager, and because of the fact that we do not have a full time law director as yet he thought we should look at a full Charter review next summer. 

 

            A.        Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending Pickerington’s Charter, Section 2.01 entitled “Number and Term,” Section 2.04 entitled “Role of the Mayor and Veto Powers,” Section 2.05 entitled “Powers,” Section 4.06 entitled “Manager; Powers and Duties,” Section 8.04 entitled “Qualifications,” Section 8.07 entitled “Initiative, referendum, Recall,” and enacting Section 8.08 entitled “Wards and Boundaries.”  Mr. O’Brien stated he had several questions on this draft legislation.  Mr. Hartmann stated he had provided the Committee members a draft this evening that indicates what the changes are.  Mr. O’Brien stated with regard to the section dealing with the Manager reporting to Council rather than the Mayor, he has done some research and there are some cities that do this.  He stated, however, in those cities the Mayor is elected by Council from among their own ranks and is still a voting member of Council.  Mr. O’Brien stated if we change our Charter to have the Manager report to Council he felt we needed to define a majority of Council.  He stated in the other cities a majority is defined by the group that elects the Mayor from their own ranks.  He stated the only way we have to define majority is by vote counts.  Mr. Hartmann clarified that Mr. O’Brien’s concern was that the Mayor is elected and in this situation we would be taking the power of the Manager, who reports to the Mayor, to report directly to Council.  Mr. Hartmann stated he is familiar with other communities that have this same situation, and a majority is the majority vote of Council.  Mr. Sabatino stated he would like to know how this worked in the past when the Manager did report to Council.  Mr. Hackworth stated he understood the Charter, prior to 1990, stated the electors voted for seven council members and the Council elected a Mayor and Vice Mayor.  Mr. Sabatino stated he did not recall that being the way it was done in the 80’s.  Mr. Hartmann stated he would like to look at this issue more in depth as he had not had a chance to review the information packet the Committee had received.  Mr. Sabatino stated he thought the Mayor had always been elected by the citizens, and in the past, the Mayor was a ceremonial position and the Manager dealt with the day-to-day business of the City.  Mr. Hackworth stated the material provided to the Committee shows an initiative petition to amend Ordinance 80-77, The Charter of the Village of Pickerington in accordance with the Charter.  Mr. Sabatino stated it would stand to reason that if it were changed in 1990 to accommodate the Mayor supervising the Manager, that pre-1990 that wasn’t the case.  Mr. O’Brien stated he would request Mr. Hartmann provide the Committee members with a synopsis of this issue.  Mr. Hartmann stated when Mr. Sabatino called he requested two changes to the Charter, one taking away the Mayor’s power to oversee the City Manager and giving it to Council, and to create four Wards.  He stated he went through the Charter and where there were sections that related to Council having power over the Manager or vice versa the Mayor having power over the Manager, they changed them, and it was not a situation of presenting an analysis of whether it was good or bad.  He stated he could certainly go through it and provide a legal analysis of whether it is good or bad for the City, based on your structure and what other cities do.  Mr. O’Brien stated he was interested in a synopsis of the history of the chain of events that occurred in 1990.  He stated if there was a reason for the change, he would like to know what that reason was to make sure it is something that would not be contradicted today.  Mr. O’Brien stated further in the section regarding Council having the right to discipline the Manager, he felt that training would be necessary in order to conduct proper disciplinary actions, and he would like to know if there are training sessions available that would be acceptable under the terms of our personnel manual, the cost, who would pay for it, who should go, if all of council should go, etc.  He stated further if Council were to conduct disciplinary actions he would also assume they would conduct annual performance appraisals.  Mr. Hartmann stated if Council were to oversee the Manager, they would oversee everything relating to compensation, annual reviews, and all that kind of thing.  Mr. Hackworth stated his concern would be that with at least four members of Council being the Manager’s supervisor, that would blur the lines of authority in the city’s government.  He stated every ordinance or resolution directs the Manager and city staff to carry those out now, and what would happen in the times between Council meetings, who would the Manager confer with.  Mr. Sabatino stated he did not see that being an issue, and he did not see it being the insurmountable task that Mr. Hackworth seemed to want to make it.  He stated he did not see how the other communities existed with the same type of thing he was proposing.  Mr. Sabatino stated his request to Mr. Hartmann was to “put it back the way it was,” and the way it was worked in the past for quite some time.  Mr. Sabatino stated if it was done with electing the Mayor from within council, then fine, but to his understanding that is not the way it was.  Mr. Hartmann stated to his recollection the question directed to him was the taking away of the oversight of the Manager, moving it currently from the Mayor to Council, that is what he was asked to do.  Mr. Hartmann stated Mr. Sabatino had referenced the idea that this was something that was done in the past, and this was the first time it was brought to his attention that Mr. Sabatino thought what he had done was different than what he was asked to do.  Mr. Sabatino stated what he had requested was to be able to have an election based on Wards, with no definition of how to get there, and to put the supervision of the Manager back with Council the way it was before, once again with no definition on how to get there.  He stated if it needs to be changed in a different format than what it is, and obviously there are some differences of opinion on the way it was before, then he thought that was what we need to deal with.  Mr. Hackworth questioned why Mr. Sabatino wanted to change it, what was wrong with the current system.  Mr. Sabatino stated if Mr. Hackworth thought it was fine, then that was his opinion, but he, personally, did not think it was working that well.  Mr. Hackworth stated if we were going to change it, it should have some logical sequence that the Manager has a central voice.  Mr. Sabatino stated what was to say that the change to put it back the way it was is the ultimate way it should be.  Mr. Sabatino stated he did not recall there ever being a Vice Mayor as Mr. Hackworth had indicated.  Mr. O’Brien stated that may have been changed at another time.  Mr. Sabatino stated he had never seen the Charter as it was before the change was made.  Mr. O’Brien stated Mr. Hartmann was going to provide a synopsis and give the Committee an overview of what transpired in a chronological order so they can make more sense out of this.  Mr. Hartmann stated this is the reason a Charter Review Commission might be a good idea, because when you start piecemealing, you end up with a lot of different things.  However, when you have a group of people who sit down over a period of time and review the entire Charter as a whole, they get a flavor for what it is.  He stated a lot of the questions he is being asked are not things he had thought of, such as would the Manager have to have numerous motions at each Council meeting directing the City Manager on what to do.  He stated that is why it is better to have a full group sit down with an attorney over a period of time to address major issues like this.  Mr. Sabatino stated he agreed with 99 percent of what Mr. Hartmann said, however, you do not have to pass any other ordinances or take any other votes.  The Manager is hired to carry out the votes of Council as they happen, and if an issue has four votes, then that is what is to be done.  Mr. Sabatino stated again he felt a Charter Review might be the way to go and if we go in that direction then we should look at doing all the Charter changes proposed at one time.  Mr. O’Brien questioned how the majority of Council would communicate something to the Manager that they wanted her to do, in an effective way, without violating the Sunshine Law, and Mr. Sabatino stated he thought good planning would prevent that.  Mr. Sabatino stated if the Manager called the Mayor and asked what he wanted to do, that may or may not represent what the majority of Council wanted to do anyway, so he did not see where that was a valid issue.  Mr. O’Brien stated this is making something unnecessarily complicated.  Ms Gilleland stated she will not comment on this issue, however, if the Committee is interested in receiving more information about the Council/Manager form of government, the Mayor/Council/Manager form of government, or any other form, she can have experts come in and talk to the Committee.  Mr. O’Brien stated if he understood there was a defined chain of events that led us to this point, then he could understand it.  He stated he is not seeing where we are trying to change something that was broken.  Mr. Sabatino stated he did not see where it was broken before.  Mr. O’Brien stated the packet of information the Committee received had letters from citizens in it and questioned if Mr. Sabatino had read those carefully.  Mr. Sabatino stated he had not.  Mr. O’Brien stated a lot of the answers are in there as to why they did it.  Mr. Sabatino stated it appeared Mr. O’Brien’s concern was the potential for something to be politicized and it is far more likely to be politicized with one person than it would be with seven. Mr. O’Brien stated he was not mentioning politicizing with anything current, he was reading from the package.  Mr. Sabatino stated neither was he, he was just making a statement that it was far more likely to happen with one than it was with seven.  Mr. Hackworth stated the Mayor would still have veto power, so he can veto any legislation within 48 hours and it would take five council members to override the veto, even though the majority is four.  Mr. Hartmann stated the Mayor would still have veto power.  Mr. Sabatino stated there is a perfectly easy way to deal with this, and as he said, if you want to wait and deal with this and the Charter changes Mr. O’Brien proposed, and turn them over to a Charter Review Commission, he would be happy to acquiesce to that if Mr. O’Brien was.  Mr. Hackworth stated with regard to the emergency language to prohibit zoning and annexation by emergency, in 2002 he circulated a petition and had over 500 signatures on it.  He stated it came to Council and they refused to put it on the ballot because four words were not capitalized.  Mr. Hackworth continued the other part of that, which was regarding emergency legislation, passed by the citizens by over 85 percent.  He stated there was a historical, documented path, of why we came to that.  He further stated the same thing went for the help of the law director, because petitions were rejected because of the form.  He stated the only time the law director would talk to the citizens on this was if he was directed by Council.  Mr. O’Brien stated his last question was, if this was passed, when would it take effect.  Mr. Hartmann stated the best way would probably be to have it effective at the beginning of the next year if it passed in the November election, and he could put that into the ordinance.  Mr. O’Brien stated then if this passed at the election, they would have from that time until January 1st to define a majority of Council, after an election with four seats up on Council, then all those people should be trained in disciplinary and performance appraisal processes.  Mr. Hackworth stated he felt they had an obligation as Council, if they were going to put something on the ballot, they should at least understand it; it should be simple and something the voter’s can understand.  Mr. Hartmann stated with regard to the majority of Council issue, it is easily defined as just four people as a majority of Council and it is defined in your rules that a majority is four.  Mr. O’Brien questioned how would you pick the four, and Mr. Hartmann stated it is a random four.  Mr. O’Brien stated he felt it was unrealistic to expect the Manager to do her job, and do it well, with a floating scale of bosses that could change on a whim.  Mr. Sabatino stated it was very simple, whatever the decision of the majority is. 

 

Mr. O’Brien stated with regard to the issue of Wards, as he understood it Ward members must be residents of the Ward for the entire term of their office.  Mr. O’Brien stated you would then be restricted from moving about freely in the City.  Mr. Sabatino stated that would be an individual judgment if you wanted to move somewhere else in the City or represent your Ward.  Mr. Sabatino stated citizens who have spoken to him feel it would be enhancing their rights because they would have someone that would be directly responsible to them.  Mr. Hackworth stated you would also have three members of Council that would have no responsibility to the other 75 percent.  Mr. Sabatino stated that was exactly right, just the way it is now.  Mr. Hackworth stated he receives calls from every corner of this City and he responds to every one of them.  Mr. Hackworth stated the problem would be on how you established these boundaries, and we are a small city.  Mr. O’Brien stated it is not necessarily the number of citizens in the Wards, it is the geography, and we are only eight square miles.  Mr. O’Brien stated with this revision, 25 percent of the voters from the last election could sign a petition to recall a Councilman from their ward, and Mr. Hartmann stated that was correct, 25 percent of the amount of people voting in that ward.  Mr. Hackworth stated as he understood it, it would require 25 percent of the amount of people voting in the entire City to recall a Councilman at large.  Mr. Hartmann stated that was correct, to recall a councilman at large it would require 25 percent of the voters of the entire city, but to recall a Ward member, it would require 25 percent of that ward.  Mr. Sabatino stated the Ward system works in a lot of other communities.  Mr. Hackworth stated since we are nonpartisan, how would the boundaries for the wards be determined.  Mr. Sabatino stated he would suggest going by the total number of votes cast in the last election.  Mr. Hackworth stated there were 6,000 votes last time or was Mr. Sabatino going by census data.  Mr. Hackworth stated if you have a new neighborhood with a lot of children, and you go by census, versus an older neighborhood where the kids are grown, it will be a diluted vote out of the younger neighborhood.  Mr. Sabatino stated the logical way to break it up would be by votes cast in the previous election.  Mr. Hartmann stated the language comes right out of the Revised Code when you have a form of government that you have adopted pursuant to the Revised Code, this is how they establish Wards and boundaries and it is also pretty similar to what other municipalities use. Mr. Hartmann stated this seems to be the fairest way to do it, to try and figure out equal population areas and then have certain restrictions on how you do the boundaries, which is in Section 8.08.  Mr. Hartmann stated it doesn’t have anything to do with registered voters, it has to do with population in the last census and you would have to pass a subsequent ordinance and figure out what is the most sensible way to come up with four different Wards.  Mr. Hackworth inquired how you would prevent gerrymandering.  Mr. Hartmann stated it was up to Council to determine how to establish it, and Mr. Hackworth stated the answer is, you can’t.  Mr. Hartmann stated he represents a couple of municipalities that have Wards, and they constantly go back every census and redo them.  Mr. O’Brien stated Council has to think about of a lot of things as there is a cost associated with elections, there is a cost associated with polling places, and the Board of Elections will have a definite opinion on Council carving up the City into something that suits them.  He stated he did not feel this is something we can rush headlong into because there are some heavily populated areas in the City that historically have a very low voter turnout, and there are other areas that are less populated that have a higher voter turnout.  He stated he felt there was more than census data that should be looked at as this is a voting issue and is voter representation.  Mr. O’Brien stated he would like to see a map showing the current voting precincts in the City, maybe three proposals of how to divide it up into Wards, the number of citizens in the Wards, the number of registered voters in the Wards and the break out of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, an extrapolation overlay of all the approved subdivisions for each Ward in each scenario taking into account the growth on Diley Road and any other areas.  He stated he felt this would help us make a decision.  Mr. O’Brien stated he would also like to get concurrence and all written guidance from the Board of Elections regarding voting wards and precincts, any expense involved from the Board of Elections to convert into a Ward system, and who would pay for it.  He stated if the City had to pay for it, the funds would have to be budgeted.  Mr. O’Brien stated he also had questions about Federal and possibly State employees being prohibited from holding partisan offices, and how many federal or state employees are in each proposed ward.  Mr. O’Brien stated he would also like to know the size of the cities that have gone from an at large representation to wards, their reasons behind it such as annexations or whatever, and also the potential of having to increase the number of Council members in the future, how many and what specific cities in Ohio with populations of 13,000 have a Ward system, how you are going to set up committees, and is this the right approach when we are trying to communicate in area and regional cooperation with our neighbors do we want to turn inward upon ourselves and focus on small wards.  Mr. O’Brien further stated he had several more questions and he looked forward to continuing to discuss this.  Mr. Hackworth requested Mrs. Yartin provide the Committee with a copy of the Charter as it was originally adopted in 1980 if that was possible.  Mr. Hackworth stated he saw nothing showing why we would want to go to a Ward system, and he could see a lot of negative things happening with the Council.  Mr. Sabatino stated that was not his intention and he would hope that it would not happen.  He stated he has had residents contact him and request doing something about going to a Ward representation system, and he felt some of Mr. O’Brien’s questions were not relevant, but it was his right to ask them and to get an answer on them.  He stated it might not be a bad idea to schedule a public hearing on the Ward system and see if the residents show up to voice support or non-support.  Mr. O’Brien stated in the past there have been initiatives where the citizens were very vocal, and he has not heard anything from anyone on this issue.  Mr. Sabatino inquired if we could schedule a public hearing and Mr. O’Brien stated he was not against it, he would speak with the law director and the City Manager to see what we would need to do.  Mr. Hackworth stated Council members could be assigned to represent different areas and that would give residents someone they could go to with their problems.  Mr. Sabatino stated the residents then would not elect their representative and they may not want who was assigned to them. 

 

Mr. O’Brien stated he would like to continue this on the agenda for the next meeting and he would look forward to receiving some of the information he had requested this evening.   

 

B.         Review and discussion regarding Ordinance 2005-43, “An Ordinance providing for the submission to the electorate a revised Charter for the City of Pickerington.”  Mr. O’Brien stated this had been dealt with earlier in the meeting. 

 

4.         ADJOURNMENT: There being nothing further, Mr. O’Brien moved to adjourn; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion.  Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. O’Brien voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 3-0.  The Special Rules Committee meeting adjourned at 7:30 P.M., June 27, 2005.  

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

 

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk