PICKERINGTON CITY COUNCIL
CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
TUESDAY, JULY 20, 2010
COUNCIL WORK
SESSION
6:30 P.M.
1. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor O’Brien opened the Council Work Session at 6:30 P.M., with the
following council members present: Mrs.
Sanders, Mr. Blair, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Barletta, and Mayor O’Brien. Mrs. Hammond arrived at 6:34 P.M. Mr. Fix and Mr. Wisniewski were absent as
they were on vacation. Others present
were: Bill Vance, Lynda Yartin, Phil
Hartmann, Chris
Schornack,
Chief Taylor, Ed
Drobina, Susan Crotty, Greg Bachman, Tory Kramer,
Ted Hackworth, and others.
2. SCHEDULED MATTERS:
A. Review of proposed
replacement Charter for the City of Pickerington. Mr.
Hartmann stated he would defer to the Chairman of the Charter Review Board, Mr.
Hackworth, but he would answer any questions.
Mr.
Hackworth stated the Charter Review Board was convened in January of this year
and have met monthly since that time. He
stated the Board reviewed the complete Charter and covered every Section and
Article. Mr. Hackworth stated they
reorganized Article II, Council’s
responsibilities and powers, Article III, the Mayor’s powers and
responsibilities, and Article IV, the City Manager’s responsibilities. He stated they recommend the City Clerk be
an appointee of City Council
and a clarification in the qualifications for elected officials. Mr. Hackworth stated the current Charter
requires you be a registered voter in the City for one year prior to filing to
run for office, but there was no requirement you live in the City after
elected, so language was added in for that.
He stated in Article II they had redefined ordinances, resolutions, and
motions, and they were recommending that resolutions would require two readings
and would become effective immediately.
Mr. Hackworth stated Mr. Schornack had provided input in Section VII
regarding appropriations and they had corrected some issues in that
section. Mr. Hackworth further stated
with regard to the consent agenda, Council would set the dollar amount that would be
allowed on the consent agenda, but the safe guard that anyone in the community
could request an item be removed from the consent agenda would remain. Mr. Kramer stated he felt a part of their
mission was to clear up some of the perceived ambiguities in the Charter to
make it as clear as possible. He stated
he felt they had addressed that very well and had made it as clear as they
possibly could with regard to the reporting relationship of the City Manager to
the Mayor and where the Charter formerly referred to the number of votes
required for passage of legislation as a fraction, those have now been made
hard numbers so it is clear as to how many votes are required. Mr. Hartmann stated in some areas where it
would be voting of just the people voting, then it is still a fraction. Mr. Kramer stated the point was they did not
want to allow passage of something with only two or three votes, and he felt
they accomplished that goal.
Mr.
Hackworth stated they had also addressed the issue of a vacancy in the City
Manager’s position. He stated they had
added language that would allow the Mayor to appoint an Interim City Manager
for 60 days. He further stated in Article
X that requires the Charter be reviewed at least every ten years, they had
added the language that Council
would appoint seven electors of the City to the Board so it would be consistent
each time.
Mrs.
Sanders stated she would like to thank the Board for all of their work on this
project, and Mayor O’Brien stated he would like to echo that. Mayor O’Brien stated he had attended the
first couple of meetings and he felt everyone was very engaged in the
process. He stated he felt it was a
balanced group of individuals some with experience in city government and some
with fresh new ideas. Mr. Sauer stated
he would also like to thank the Board for volunteering their time for this
Board and he appreciated citizens getting involved and being concerned enough
about the city to want to be a part of it.
Mr. Barletta stated he would add his thanks to the Board and he
appreciated their dedication.
Mayor
O’Brien stated we are talking about a Charter replacement and that is something
that needs to be explained to the voters, it cannot just show up on the ballot
without any sort of explanation so we are going to have to think about how we
want to promote or publicize this to explain it to the voters. Mayor O’Brien stated further Council is obligated to take whatever measures they
can to get this onto the ballot in time, and that deadline is August 4th. Mr. Hartmann stated in order to make the
ballot this will need to be passed as an emergency, which requires six votes,
and to suspend the rules also requires six votes. Mayor O’Brien stated two special meetings
have been scheduled, however, we will not have six members able to attend
either of those. He stated he could
start scheduling special meetings every day and see how many we can get to
attend or it could be determined when six members would be able to be
here. Mayor O’Brien stated we need to
get this into the Board of Elections hands on August 4th, and right
now it appears Council will be at full strength for the meeting on
August 3rd. He questioned if
Council wanted to wait for that meeting or did they
want to schedule another meeting. Mayor
O’Brien questioned what the options would be if six members were not present at
the August 3rd meeting and Mr. Hartmann stated he would have to
figure it out then. Mr. Hartmann stated
he felt we should not have the special meeting because we wouldn’t have six
members, and if you know you are not going to be here on August 3rd,
let us know ahead of time so we can figure something out. Mayor O’Brien stated he was willing to do
whatever scheduling was necessary. Mr.
Hartmann stated the only option he could think of right now was to submit it to
the Board of Elections with the 30 days running because there is no real
referendum, it is putting it on the ballot anyway. He stated there is some case law where the
Board of Elections might accept it early, but he did not want to rely on that
because it would then be up to the Board of Elections and not the City as to
whether it is on the ballot. Mayor
O’Brien stated then he would cancel the two special meetings and we would have
this on the agenda for the August 3rd meeting. Mr. Hackworth clarified the first reading
would be done this evening.
Mr.
Sauer stated he did not know that it was Council’s spot to take a position on this one way or
the other, it would be best to let the voter’s have their say. He stated he did feel it was important that
the City highlight if there are any changes and have those bullet pointed so
citizens can understand what is in there.
Mr. Sauer stated his feeling was that the Charter is the governing
document of the City and he felt the ones who make the legislative action
should not take a position on the document that is governing them. Mayor O’Brien stated he agreed that as a body
they should not, but he would like to assure that the explanation is there in
some form. Mr. Vance stated he felt the
City’s job at this point in time is to educate the citizens as to the facts,
essentially where they can get specific information and take a specific
position on any specific items that are included, just all the related
facts. Mayor O’Brien stated we could put
this on the website with an e-mail link if they have questions. He stated if we start getting feedback that
people want to know more about it, then a public meeting could be
scheduled. Mr. Hartmann stated he would
put together a bullet point paper for educational purposes that would basically
outline what the major changes were. He
stated he felt that would probably be helpful to educate the residents. Mr. Hartmann stated he would be happy to talk
to any residents that had questions as well.
3. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mayor O’Brien
closed the Council Work Session closed at 6:55 P.M., July 20,
2010.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
______________________________
Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk
ATTEST:
_______________________________
Mitch O’Brien, Mayor