Marion City Council members split ahead of charter city issue vote

Two members of Marion City Council have stated that they do not support an ordinance to place a charter question on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, while two others have voiced their support for seeing Marion become a charter city.

Jason Schaber, 3rd Ward, and Mike Thomas, At-large, said they will not vote in favor of the ordinance when it goes before the full council. Fellow council members Karen Fosnaugh, 5th Ward, and Mike Neff, 6th Ward, are both in support of placing the ordinance on the fall ballot.

A special city council meeting to consider the charter ordinance is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Monday at Marion City Hall.

Those four were the only council members who responded to the Star's request for feedback on the issue.

The charter committee was convened in February to discuss and study the possibility of the city adopting a charter. Committee members included Republican city council members Brett Cornelius, At-large, Aaron Rollins, At-large, and Mike Neff, 6th Ward, and Democrats Kai Meade, 1st Ward, and Mike Thomas, At-large.

The charter committee met four times prior to voting to advance an ordinance to the full council for consideration. During the July 11 meeting, the committee voted 3-0 to send the ordinance to the full council. Cornelius, Meade, and Neff voted in favor of it, while Thomas and Rollins were absent.

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Schaber explained his reasoning for not supporting the ordinance to place the charter question on the fall election ballot.

"I am not in favor of a charter city because I don't believe the ad-hoc committee did its job communicating why a charter form of government is needed in Marion," Schaber said in response to a request by the Star for feedback on the issue. "When I put together the five-member committee I thought it was the 'dream team' of committees. The make up of the committee was three that I knew wanted a charter (Cornelius, Neff, Rollins), one was absolutely against changing to a charter form of government (Thomas), and one on the fence (Meade). Three Republicans and two Democrats.

"On paper, that should have brought a healthy debate on the topic. In reality, we got nothing. No debate, no discussion. They didn't even answer their own questions the ad-hoc committee came up with themselves."

Schaber said he was also frustrated that the committee only met four times before voting on the charter ordinance.

"When the committee was formed to date, there had been 12-13 committee nights they could have met and discussed a charter form of government," he said. "They chose to meet four times. One of those meetings was an organizational meeting where they developed a scope/questions for the committee to get answered. I respect Mr. Cornelius very much for following through on his campaign promise of making Marion a charter city. I am disappointed in the rest of the committee for just sitting in their chairs quietly during meetings and not moving the issue along.

"My only question was what problem does the city have that a charter will fix and or what benefits will the city realize becoming a charter city? I have yet to get an answer."

Schaber also noted that he is "not in favor of special meetings to push the charter ordinance through in a rush. I am also not going to vote to wave the three readings rule, This is too big of an issue."

Like Schaber, Thomas said he has many concerns about switching to a charter form of government that he doesn't believe have been answered.

"Number one, my understanding is the city council can't really talk about it or push it, which is what the Republicans are doing," he said. "Number two, I just feel as if it takes away a lot from the citizenry. I've been on council for well over 20 years and I really feel the constituents always had an ability to call me and I was able to at least talk to them about what they wanted. I think that takes away part of that. That's one of the concerns. The other concern is just who's going to be the 15 people who (draft the charter) and where are we going to find all those people."

Neff is a staunch supporter of Marion becoming a charter city. He noted that he has "had many intentional conversations with leaders in Central Ohio and they all seem to believe that a Charter is the best way for cities to grow."

"So even before I began my council term, I have had the notion that maybe Marion could be better served by a charter," Neff said. "The charter will allow Marion to make changes to benefit our specific needs and not just run how our State legislature decides. It should be noted that Marion residents as a whole have very limited representation at the state level. There are many benefits that the charter could specifically address right away and unlimited ways for Marion to adapt for future needs."

Neff noted that he is in favor of Marion adopting a form of government that would allow city council to hire a city manager and abandon the elected mayor model. He explained his reasons for favoring a city manager over having an elected mayor.

"Appointing a City manager would have many advantages that include professional management of the city. With this form of government, the political partisanship would immediately be removed from the executive branch of Marion's government," Neff said. "I would prefer to see the manger set a long-term vision for the city. This could include long term planning such as a five-year and 10-year plan (vision) to propel economic growth and quality of life for our residents. The city manager would work with leaders, citizens, and council to set these goals. The city manager would understand that their position is solely performance based, the manager would be motivated to work with all stakeholders to accomplish these goals."

Neff said he's also in favor of having the city auditor be an appointed official rather than an elected official. He noted that under laws regulating statutory cities, there are no set qualifications for the position.

"As a statutory city, Marion cannot require any qualifications for an elected auditor," he said. "The only qualification necessary to run for city auditor is to be a city resident. A charter could address this issue by adding qualifications to this position. Is should also be noted that the charter could remove this as an elected partisan position."

Neff said that adopting a city charter would allow Marion to reform the way city council elections are conducted.

"As a statutory city, Marion is required to have Council elections every two years. This term is too short and could lead to a complete turn over with every municipal election," he said. "I believe new council members are critically important to bring new perspectives and experience to the governing body, but do not believe that turning over all 10 seats in one election would be beneficial to the city. A charter could change council terms to four years and stagger elections so every municipal election would have half of council on the ballot. This would create continuity and also allow for new members."

Neff also believes that adopting a city charter and restructuring the local government model to eliminate political parties from the election process would be beneficial to the city.

"Removing partisan labels from council is another key change that I believe to be beneficial. Many Marion residents are not affiliated with a party and do not use those labels to make voting decisions," he said. "Party influence could be reduced and council could merely focus on the issues that the city faces. An important added benefit would be to have residents without a party affiliation have an equal chance to win a council seat. Although two council seats were won by independents in recent history, both of those winners were endorsed by a political party.

"Historically, independent candidates are at a severe disadvantage in local elections. If all candidates were without partisan labels, the playing field would be equal for all. I feel strongly that there are citizens that would like to serve the community as council members, but have no desire to be affiliated with a party."

Fosnaugh said she is in favor of putting the charter question on the ballot and allowing Marion citizens to decide on the issue.

"I have heard pros and cons and I personally haven’t decided which route is best," she said. "Everything depends on how the charter is written. As you know, sometimes the devil you know is better than the one you don’t. I feel the people should have as much control over their government as possible and a charter can help make that happen.

"A charter will also allow the city to hire administrative positions that are now a popularity position. This will allow for properly trained individuals in certain positions. This is a big change for our city, and putting it out for voters to decide is the fair way. I do hope all six precincts will participate and let their voices and ideas be a part of it."

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

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion City Council members split ahead of charter city issue vote