City charter discussion back on the table for Marion City Council

The debate about whether the City of Marion should adopt a charter is back on the table for city council.

After failing to secure enough support to place a charter ordinance on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, Marion City Council's ad hoc charter committee met on Monday of this week to reopen discussions about the charter concept. The committee was first convened in February of this year. Its membership includes at-large councilmen Brett Cornelius, Mike Thomas, and Aaron Rollins, and 6th Ward Councilman Mike Neff.

The fifth seat on the committee was previously filled by Kai Meade, 1st Ward, but Meade resigned from city council in July after his family moved out of the city. The Marion County Democratic Party Central Committee is tasked with appointing a replacement for Meade.

Marion is currently a statutory municipality, which means the city enjoys home rule like any other Ohio municipality. However, according to Ohio Municipal League legal counsel Garry E. Hunter, that form of "statutory Home Rule is for the most part dictated by actions of the State Legislature, while Charter municipalities decide for themselves what version of Home Rule works best for its citizens and the form can be changed by future votes of the citizens."

Thomas has been vocal in his opposition to the idea of Marion becoming a charter city. He reiterated that stance during Monday's meeting.

"Since we've started this conversation, and I've been around for quite a few years, this is not the first time charter city's come up," Thomas explained. "It's never went very far. People don't understand what a charter is as opposed to what we do. Most of the people that I deal with are perfectly happy with us having elected city council people and the mayor and everything the way it is right now. My personal opinion right now, I'm not in favor of proceeding on with it."

Thomas pointed out that he hasn't received any feedback from Marion residents about the charter discussion thus far.

Cornelius, Rollins, and Neff are in favor of Marion becoming a charter city. Cornelius even made the issue part of his platform while running for office in 2021.

Rollins said he would like see a charter form of government that doesn't include either the auditor or treasurer as elected officials in city government, but instead have those be appointed positions with specific qualifications for each office outlined in the charter.

"Primarily, I think it would do good for the financial offices in the city to have qualified individuals in those positions, not savvy politicians," Rollins explained. "So that's a big reason I'm in favor of a charter form of government. I'd also like to see political (party) affiliation removed from city offices. Quite honestly, I don't think there's a need. Those are two of the big reasons I'm in favor of a charter form of government."

Neff noted that he is "1,000% in favor of a city charter," citing changes he'd like to see in how city council elections operate as one of the reasons.

"Me, personally, I feel that a city manager (instead of an elected mayor) is 100% the way to go," Neff explained. "I feel that there needs to be serious, serious city council reform in the way of term limits, in the way of staggered terms. Going from two years to four years so every municipal election we can only turn over half of council and not potentially all of council. I'd just like to say, that's my feeling. The great thing about a charter is, we're (city council) not going to write the charter; the (charter) commission is going to write the charter."

Neff added that he would be in favor of the charter commission writing "a basic charter" that doesn't entirely change the current form of government.

"I'd be in favor of the charter commission coming back with a charter that looks exactly like the government we have right now, with an elected mayor and still have that separation of government that way," he said. "Because what we can do with the charter process going forward, we can bring those separate issues to the charter. But without the charter, we can't even have those discussions."

Mayor Scott Schertzer issued a "polite challenge" to Neff's comments regarding changing the formation of city council and the election process.

"You can do that now under a statutory form of government," Schertzer stated. "I might suggest that this committee look at reforming city council. Yes, it would have to go to the voters, but if the voters choose to allow you (to have city council elections) every four years with staggered terms, then that might be an indication from the voters of Marion that they're interested in a full-blown charter."

Schertzer also noted that depending on how a charter is written, it could "dramatically change" the form of government and actually result in "less of a representative democracy in Marion city government." The mayor also said having a charter form of government, in his opinion, would not necessarily decrease the influence of political parties in recruiting or even choosing candidates to run for local offices.

Cornelius said one of his goals during the coming months is to "get a little more information out to the public" about charter cities and how they differ from the statutory cities. City resident Lois Fisher asked how the committee intended to reach people when only five city residents attended the committee meeting on Monday. Rollins suggested that the committee and interested partners in the community could host townhall-style events to provide information for residents.

Cornelius noted that the main goal is to place a charter ordinance on an election ballot in 2023 to give Marion residents the chance to decide on the issue.

Regarding placing a proposed charter ordinance on an election ballot, Councilman Jason Schaber, 3rd Ward, asked if the committee had determined which election date they wanted to target in 2023, whether it be the primary or the general election. Rollins said he believes that "in terms of the (voter) turnout, I think it's best to go for the next general election."

The Ohio Secretary of State hasn't published the 2023 election calendar yet, but the general election always falls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which would be Nov. 7, 2023.

Schaber emphasized that the committee needs to develop a calendar with all relevant meeting dates and deadlines outlined by the Secretary of State included on it. He specifically stated that he will not support the use of special meetings in an attempt pass the ordinance through city council, which happened this year.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: City charter discussion back on the table for Marion City Council