CHARTER REVIEW BOARD

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2010

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 P.M., with roll call was follows: Mrs. Chapman, Mr. McKinney, Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Gray, Mr. Holstine, Mr. Kramer, and Mr. Donathan were present. No members were absent. Others present were: Phil Hartmann, Lynda Yartin, Mayor O’Brien, and Gavin Blair.

2. SCHEDULED MATTERS:

A. Motion to elect Chairperson and Vice Chairperson. Mr. Gray moved to elect Mr. Hackworth as Board Chairperson; Mrs. Chapman seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Kramer voting “Nay,” and Mr. McKinney, Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Donathan, Mr. Gray, Mr. Holstine, and Mrs. Chapman voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 6-1.

Mr. Gray moved to elect Mr. Kramer as Board Vice Chairperson; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Kramer abstaining, and Mrs. Chapman, Mr. Donathan, Mr. Hackworth, Mr. Holstine, Mr. Gray, and Mr. McKinney voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 6-0.

B. Motion to schedule meeting days and time. Mr. Hackworth ascertained that the first Thursday of each month would be the best meeting day for all Board members. Mr. Kramer inquired if 7:30 P.M. would be the preferred start time, and Mr. Gray stated he would suggest that part of the motion to schedule the meetings include language that the meetings are limited to no more than two hours unless they found an extreme circumstance. Mr. Hackworth ascertained that everyone would like the meeting to begin at 7:00 P.M. Mr. Gray moved to schedule the Charter Review Board meetings for the first Thursday of each month at 7:00 P.M., and not to exceed two hours; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion. Mr. Donathan moved to amend that to allow the ability to extend the meeting by a unanimous vote of the Board members; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion to amend. All Board members stated they agreed with the proposed amendment to the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Chapman, Mr. Hackworth, Mr. McKinney, Mr. Donathan, Mr. Kramer, Mr. Holstine, and Mr. Gray voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 7-0.

Mr. Hackworth clarified that packets will be provided to all Board members on the Friday before the scheduled meeting. Mrs. Yartin stated she would provide the packets electronically to all members. Mr. Hackworth further stated he would request that if for some reason a member will find themselves running late or unable to attend the meeting, please contact Mrs. Yartin or leave a voice mail for her so we will know if there will be a quorum.

3. OTHER BUSINESS:

A. Overview of Charter Review Board duties. Mr. Hartmann distributed a booklet prepared by the Ohio Municipal League that dealt with Municipal Charter in Ohio. He stated this booklet would provide some background and help everyone understand their role on this Board. Mr. Hartmann stated he is the law director for the City and his firm is Schottenstein, Zox & Dunn. He stated they have a public law department with 12 attorneys and they represent many cities around central Ohio, such as Pickerington, Grove City, New Albany, Marblecliff, and Dublin. He stated they also represent municipalities around Cleveland.

Mr. Hartmann further stated a handout had been provided to the Board members with general information regarding the Charter review. Mr. Hartmann stated this Board has been given the power by the current Charter to actually come up with a constitution for the City, and it has limitation. He stated you cannot remove something like a smoking ban that is considered general law through the State, so there are things like that you cannot alter. He further stated home rule power, if it does not extend beyond the boundaries, that is generally your right to government as a city. He stated that is what your council does, and what you are doing is an important facet and will guide what happens to the city for the next ten years or until another Charter Review Board is established. He stated the current Charter requires a review at least every ten years. Mr. Hartmann stated Section 1.03 describes the form of government as Mayor/Council/Manager, and what has been established by the Charter is that you have seven council members, an elected Mayor, and a City Manager who is in control of the day-to-day operations of the City. He stated this is somewhat of a hybrid and under the Ohio Revised Code if you did not have a Charter you would be obligated to have one of the three forms of government listed, and this is not one of them.

Mr. Hartmann stated he would recommend this Board review the Charter section by section and he would provide a memo for each section to be reviewed with an outline of the actual section, different types of sections from other cities that are fairly common, and a recommendation. He stated his purpose was to provide all the information he could, however, it was up to the Board to decide the appropriate way for the city to go. Mr. Hartmann stated once the Board reaches a consensus on any changes, that will be submitted to Council, and Council will approve an ordinance to forward it to the ballot for residents to vote on. Mr. Gray stated he would like to point out that the Board was convened because the Charter requires a review every ten years, but the Charter does not require the Board to make any changes. He stated although he felt there were some things in the Charter that need to be changed, theoretically, the Board could determine they did not want any changes and this would be the Board’s last meeting. Mr. Hartmann stated that was correct.

Mayor O’Brien stated he would first like to thank everyone for volunteering for this Board. He further clarified that there is no timeline to get something on the ballot; the Board was convened because of the Charter requirement. Mr. Donathan stated then any recommendations made for a change to the Charter would go before Council before going to the ballot, however, they were not subject to the approval of Council. Mr. Hartmann stated Council is required to pass an ordinance sending the recommendations to the ballot. Mayor O’Brien inquired if Council could reject the recommendations, and Mr. Hartmann stated once the Charter Review Board is seated, their recommendations must be forwarded to the ballot. Mr. Hackworth clarified if this Board wanted to get something on the November ballot, they would have to get something to Council by July or August. Mr. Hackworth further clarified there was flexibility on how this would be put on the ballot. Mr. Hartmann stated it could be split up into separate items or it could be put all together.

Mr. Hackworth questioned if for the first section they could review the form of government and the powers and relationship between Council and the City Manager so they could build on the form of government. Mr. Hartmann stated it was wide-open as to how they should proceed. Mr. Hackworth stated there seemed to be some contention about the relationship of the City Manager, the Mayor, and the Council, so if they could resolve that language, and then move on to things like checks and balances, legislative processes, etc., rather than going section by section. Mayor O’Brien stated he was not aware of any contention on the powers and he felt the Board was convened for the purpose of reviewing the Charter itself. Mr. Hackworth stated he has had people comment that the language we have for the Mayor, Council, Manager type of government is kind of odd. Mr. Hartmann stated he had stated it was a hybrid, but your form of government is pretty common. He stated the only thing he mentioned that was a little different was that the Mayor actually has the authority to discipline the City Manager. Mr. Donathan stated he did not care which part they started with, but he liked Mr. Hartmann’s recommendation that they look at it one piece at a time. He stated Mr. Hartmann has the experience and if he feels that is the easiest way to go about it he would lean toward that. Mr. Gray stated he is familiar with the Charter, however, he would be able to mark and manage it more if they were not hopping around. He stated as they got further into the document they would then be able to determine is something should be moved from one section to another. Mr. Hackworth stated if everyone wanted to section by section he was fine with that. Mr. Gray stated the Board could ask people to come in and talk about their forms of government and look at the sites with different charters. He stated they were not tied to just reading what is in the Charter.

Mr. Hartmann stated if the Board wanted to review Sections 1 and 2 at their next meeting he would have the memo prepared to include in the packet, and if anyone had any questions they could contact him by e-mail or phone. Mr. Gray stated he would also like to point out to everyone that now that they are seated on this Board if something is sent to Mr. Hartmann it does become a public record. Mr. Hartmann stated that would also apply to any e-mails between members. Mr. Gray stated the Board should also have a procedure as to how to handle public input because there may be people from the public who would like to come and speak to the Board. Mrs. Yartin stated that in the future the second item on the agenda would be Public Input, it was not included on tonight’s agenda as it was the organizational meeting for the Board. Mr. Hackworth stated he would like to have that included on the agenda in the future.

Mr. Donathan asked if Mr. Hartmann could provide the Board with the links to look up Charters from other communities and he stated he would provide that to Mrs. Yartin and she would forward it to the Board members.

4. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Kramer moved to adjourn; Mr. McKinney seconded the motion. Mr. McKinney, Mr. Donathan, Ms Chapman, Mr. Holstine, Mr. Kramer, Mr. Gray, and Mr. Hackworth voting “Aye.” Motion carried, 7-0. The Charter Review Board adjourned at 8:26 P.M., January 14, 2010.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk