Right of Referendum
If
you, as a voter in the city, have a strong feeling that a recently
passed ordinance by city council is not in the
residents best interest you can take action to undo the ordinance.
Creating
an ordinance that the voters desire but council refuses to pass may
also be placed on the ballot.
As
pointed out in the previous post of 9/13, the ability to unseat an
elected official that has voted against your interests is
problematical.
If
other voters you know share your view It's time to
consider taking out a petition
in
order to exercise
your right of referendum.
The
steps required for this action
are
established in state law and published in the Ohio Revised Code (ORC)
in this instance section 731.29.
In
brief, the law states: In most cases any ordinance or resolution
passed by city council shall be subject to a referendum (ballot
issue). No ordinance passed under normal procedures shall
go into effect until 30 days after it is passed by council and
presented to the Mayor. This period allows for a petition for
referendum petition
to be filed.
When
a petition is signed by ten percent of the number of city voters that
voted in the last governor's election the
petition
is filed with city auditor within the thirty day period. The
auditor, in turn, sends the petition to the Board of Elections. The
Board shall submit the ordinance to the voters of the city.
Ordinances
that contain mandatory funding measures or that are passed as
emergency measures go into effect immediately and are exempt from the
referendum process.
The
threat of the referendum process or of a tax payer's suit, as
covered, in the 9/11 post, are tools that the activist can use to
good effect. This poster used the referendum threat to obtain
curbside recycling legislation and the threat of a taxpayer suit to
force city employees to follow rules established by city council.
In ordinances.
Paul
Hunter (copy and paste if necessary) paulhunter45177@gmail.com
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