The Republican members of the Summit County elections board question the wording of a proposed Akron charter change and whether the entire amendment should be placed on the November ballot instead.
Ray Weber, a GOP board member, said the amendment language appears to the “electioneering,” rather than a summary of the intended changes.
“We have to be protectors of voters’ rights,” he said. “With council, their interest is clear. I don’t think it behooves us to craft language just because they deem it appropriate.”
Alex Arshinkoff, the other Republican board member, suggested that perhaps the whole amendment be placed on the ballot to avoid any ambiguity about what it would do.
The board discussed the wording Monday but plans to look more into the issue and make a decision at its meeting next Tuesday.
The board, which lately has been regularly deadlocking on issues, managed Monday to have a meeting without any tie votes and one that was finished in less than three hours. More than 30 people attended, including several members of local chapters of the League of Women Voters.
The board took up the issue of the charter amendment based on a letter from Akron Councilman Bruce Kilby, who voted against putting the charter change on the ballot and questions the way it is being couched to voters.
“I don’t think ballot language should be a sales pitch,” Kilby told the board.
The amendment, which council voted 10-3 to put before voters, would increase the terms of ward council members from two to four years, eventually making it so that all council members and the mayor are elected at the same time. It also would limit the amount of raises council members and the mayor receive to the average amount awarded that year in the private sector, as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics.
Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and Council President Marco Sommerville, who proposed the amendment, say it would save money by putting all municipal elections in the same year and eliminating the cost of off-year elections.
The proposal, as it’s now worded, reads, “Shall sections 28.2 and 53 of the charter of the city of Akron be amended to eliminate the cost of an extra election, to elect all council members to a four-year term at the same election and to limit raises for members of council and the mayor?”
Nearly 62 percent of Akron voters rejected an amendment in 2006 that would have increased ward council members’ terms from two to four years.
Kilby thinks the amendment is purposely worded to emphasize the costs savings and the limitations on raises, while not fully explaining the result of ward council members’ terms increasing and of all council members and the mayor being elected at the same time.
Weber said a 1981 Ohio Supreme Court decision provided a test for elections boards to use for ballot language that includes looking at whether the wording permits the voter to understand what he or she is being asked to vote on and whether the language includes an argument either for or against the issue. He thinks Akron’s ballot language fails this test because the emphasis on savings attempts to make a persuasive argument.
Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Mike Todd, who advises the board, said the role of the elections board on charter issues is essentially administrative. He said the wording is the responsibility of the law department in the municipality proposing the amendment.
He said his job is to make sure the ballot language matches the proposed amendment and he thinks Akron’s does.
Todd said a resident could file suit challenging Akron’s ballot language.
In a tie vote in 2006, former Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, sided with Summit County’s Democratic board members to put the full text of a charter amendment to elect members to Summit County’s charter review commission on the ballot.
Arshinkoff said the board should be consistent in how it handles the wording of charter amendments, rather than sometimes including the full amendment and other times just listing a summary.
“We ought not to pick and choose,” he said. “Let’s pick a standard and follow it.”
Tim Gorbach, a Democratic board member, said the majority of Akron City Council voted to put the issue on the ballot with the summary now under discussion. He pointed out that the full amendment will be on display at polling places.
Assistant Law Director Deb Forfia told the board the language in the summary isn’t misleading and “reflects the gist of the amendment.” She asked that if the board decides to put the entire charter amendment on the ballot, it include a version that makes it clear what the changes would be.
In other business, the board, held a hearing on an allegation that Joseph Migliorini and his wife, Maureen, have been voting improperly using the address of a Macedonia house they sold in 2010. Joseph Migliorini is the former Macedonia mayor and development director under former Summit County Executive Jim Mc- Carthy.
The Migliorinis told the board they sold their house to a friend in October 2010 and then lived with one or other of their daughters, who also reside in Macedonia, while they decided on where they wanted to live next. They said they didn’t change their registration because they didn’t have a new house. They recently bought a house in Macedonia and plan to move next month. They also have a home in Palm Springs, Fla., but neither has ever voted there.
Republican board members say the Migliorinis should have changed their registration to the address where they were living. The board, as it is required to do, referred the issue to the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmith.