Explanation
BACKGROUND
On March 4, 2026, petitioners Iman Shehabi, Traci Johnson, Liliana Baiman, Willis Brown, Sharon Kim, Hassan Idris, Colleen O’Connell, Russell Goodwin, Christopher Tavenor, and Traci Cottrell filed with the City Clerk a pre-circulation copy of a petition for a charter amendment, titled “To amend the City Charter to eliminate at-large voting for city council district elections and to replace it with district-based voting wherein council members are elected or recalled only by the Columbus voters who live within their respective districts.” Following this, on July 16, 2026, petitioners filed with the City Clerk a petition for said ordinance. Petitioners filed 1,141 part-petitions containing 23,211 signatures.
Pursuant to Section 42-9 of the charter, the city clerk submitted the part-petitions to the Franklin County Board of Elections to validate the signatures and to the city attorney to advise on the legal sufficiency of the petition, based upon any applicable local, state or federal laws, rules or regulations.
On July 29, 2026, the Franklin County Board of Elections certified its examination of the part-petitions, as required by Section 42-9 of the City Charter. The Board of Elections found that the total number of valid signatures exceeds the standard as defined in Section 45 of the Charter (“equal to not less than ten percent of the total vote cast at the last preceding regular municipal election”).
On July 30, 2026, the City Attorney’s office advised this Council that the subject petition complies with the single subject requirements of the City Charter, noted drafting errors that would be out of compliance with portions of Section 42-9 of Charter, but ultimately opined that the petitions satisfies Charter sufficiency requirements.
Per Section 45-1 of the charter, this council must now forthwith determine the sufficiency of the citizens’ charter amendment petition and, if it is found sufficient, forthwith by ordinance provide...
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