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Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 11:39 PM
Who do you think the Republicans will appoint to fill Pat DeWine's vacant seat?
By Leslie Ghiz
Leslie,
Who do you think the Republicans will appoint to fill Pat DeWine's vacant seat?
-Ty B.
Hopefully me, but I have no more of an idea than the public does.
Technically, Sam Malone appoints Pat DeWine’s replacement. Per the city charter, each year council members fill out a sheet that states who will appoint their replacement in the event they vacate the seat for any reason. The person doing the appointing must be on city council. So, the tradition has been for Republicans to name the other Republican members of council and Democrats and Charterites the same. With the current make-up of Council, there is only one other Republican member. So, Sam Malone will be the official "appointer," so to speak. However, the Republican Party will essentially determine who should be appointed and recommend this person to Sam. The party has some process in place to determine who it should be, but I am not sure what it is.
What are the necessary actions that one can take to put an issue on next year’s ballot? Also, have you ever been directly involved in this process and what is it like?
I think Cincinnati needs to catch up with the times and ban smoking in public places like the east and west coast has already done! I believe the repeal of Article XII is a start to this and perhaps the information you provide will enable me to get it on the next ballot. Thanks Leslie!
-Adam K.
Adam,
Great question in light of the election on November 2. In the city, as well as the county, to get a ballot initiative on the ballot, you can do one of two things.
1) Present the ballot initiative to city council or to the county commissioners (remember, some issues only affect the city and will go to council, some affect the entire county, and will go to the commissioners), and by a majority, they can put the initiative on the ballot.
2) Have petitions signed by voters and present those petitions to the Board of Elections. If the Board of Elections validates the requisite signatures, they are then presented to city council or the commissioners for approval.
Some caveats on initiatives:
*The ballot language must be legal, so have it checked out by attorneys.
*If council or the commission doesn't bite on the idea, you must get signatures from registered voters. These registered voters must be registered in the city or county depending on the type of initiative.
*Once signatures are validated by the Board of Elections, you must have the council or commission pass the initiative. If the signatures are valid, the council or commission doesn't really have a choice in approving the initiative. Sometimes council members have voted against them, but it is pretty silly in light of the legalities.
*Signatures needed are based upon the number of registered voters in the county or city. A city initiative takes about 7000 valid signatures, so the county will be a much higher number. FYI-signatures are taken very seriously and checked carefully, so this process should be started very early.
This leads me to whether you want to go through the governing body to get your ballot initiative approved. It really depends on the issue being presented. For instance, in this year's election, Issue 3, the repeal of the city charter's Article XII, the people heading the initiative decided it was better to get signatures for the initiative than go to council.
The reasoning was excellent for this initiative, because the repeal effort wanted to educate voters on what Article XII said and meant. The more voters that were educated on it, the greater chance the repeal would pass.
So the repeal effort began years before the election. It was a great strategy and it passed overwhelmingly.
There was another initiative on the ballot, Issue 4, which wanted to do away with the city's ability to tax property owners. The proponents for this Issue started by going to council, but council would not approve the issue for the ballot. So the proponents went out and got the requisite signatures and council had to eventually approve the initiative. This issue failed by a very slight margin, so expect to see it again in the near future.
As for the smoking ban, I don't really know what to say on that one. I think with the current make-up of council, it doesn't have a chance of going through. I can give you another ten reasons for and against, but that is a question for another day.
Contact Information
· askleslie@queencityforum.com
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