Tuesday, May 10, 5pm, Columbus City Hall [City Council Chambers], 90 W. Broad St.

The below text is the “official” description of this event.

Last convened as a Commission in 2014, the Charter Review Commission reviews the Columbus City Charter and may recommend changes. The Charter, originally adopted by voters in 1914, outlines the fundamental rights, powers and responsibilities of the citizens and their elected municipal officials. Any amendments to the Charter would require a vote of Council and the approval of Columbus voters during a future election.

The Commissioners are now holding a hearing to receive comments from the public on the topics and proposals discussed thus far and to come. Topics include the initiative petition process, open meetings by public bodies, and who may serve as acting mayor.

Any resident seeking to submit written testimony should submit their testimony to the Commission. Written testimony must be received two hours prior to the start of the hearing on the day of the meeting and should be emailed to John Oswalt at <CRC2022@columbus.gov>.

Any resident wishing to appear via WebEx to provide testimony during the hearing should email John Oswalt at <CRC2022@columbus.gov> the day prior to the hearing to request a WebEx panelist link. Residents wishing to provide testimony in person at City Hall must fill out and submit a speaker slip prior to the start of the hearing. Speaker slips are available at the City Hall front desk or in Council Chambers.

Each speaker will be limited to remarks lasting no longer than three minutes. The meetings will be broadcast live on CTV, the City’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Live. For more information about the 2022 Charter Review Commission, please visit Columbus.gov/charterreview2022. If you have any questions or wish to provide feedback on the commission’s work, email <CRC2022@columbus.gov>.

The below text has been prepared by Bill Lyons, a co-organizer of Columbus Community Bill of Rights, a group which has petitioned for four initiatives to protect Columbus water from toxic and radioactive frack waste. He is also the president of the Ohio Community Rights Network.

I may have previously sent you my Op-Ed that appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on April 18, 2022. I have attached it if you did not get a chance to read it. Here is the link to its online version: “City’s overreaction to ‘green’ group’s $87M plan like spraying herbicide on flowers.”

It concerns the Columbus Charter Review Commission which I have been following. It has been operating mostly under the radar. The members of this commission have been appointed by the Mayor and the City Council. There have been seven meetings so far with no public input. The commission has only heard testimony and proposed charter changes from city officials — mostly from the city attorney’s office — and they have been able to present as long as they wanted. It has been a very biased process so far. Many citizens and groups know and understand, at least, parts of the charter extremely well because they have lived by its sections and have suffered the consequences in some cases. They could have made charter recommendations for the commission to consider from the very start of this process. These could also have been used to present to the general public.

Well, I was watching the meeting on Wednesday and was shocked to hear that there is a Public Meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, May 10 at 5pm. There has been no notice of this meeting and it is still not mentioned at all on the Charter Review Commission webpage. They have also voted to accept the city’s recommendations without hearing from the public.

They now say they want to hear from the public. Something so large and consequential as our City Charter deserves more respect for the public. When will it be advertised and when will people get to register to speak, no one knows?

So, I am asking you — if you can — please show up at City Hall next Tuesday, May 10 at 5pm. You can speak, once the registration has been made available, or just show up in support. I will send out the registration details once I get them.

Below are some key facts you should know:

Our Rights are under Attack in Columbus

• The rights of initiative and referendum have been part of our Ohio constitution since 1912 and our Columbus City Charter since 1914.

• These rights were won to empower Ohioans to be co-legislators, as a check and balance when elected officials are not acting in the public’s interest.

• Currently, an appointed Charter Review Commission has been holding meetings to propose changes to the Columbus City Charter with almost no public input.

• The City Attorney’s office has crafted unjustified, anti-democracy recommendations to the commission that will make it harder for citizens to exercise their constitutional rights of initiative and referendum.

• They want to add additional requirements that petitions bear certain percentages of signatures from at least five of the nine new City Council districts.

• City council districts were not created and passed by the electorate for this purpose.

• This would be onerous to the initiative process. Most people won’t know their district, so petitioners will have to look up each address and keep count of the signatures from each district.

• This will create an extra, unnecessary, burdensome obstacle for true democracy of, by, and for the people.

• Further, it will make it even more the case that big-money interests will get proposals on the ballot, and grassroot citizen initiatives won’t.

• What the commission should do is remove the restriction which, in 2014, placed a one-year time limit for initiative and referendum in Columbus. No other city in Ohio, nor does the state, have such a restriction on initiative and referendum.

Thank you for helping Preserve and Strengthen the Peoples’ Democratic Rights of Initiative and Referendum in Columbus!

Hopefully, I will see some of you next Tuesday!

Here is a link to “City charter changes would ‘erode’ our rights,” the same article as described above but with a different headline.

Hosted by Columbus City Council.