Explanation
BACKGROUND
On January 15, 2015, petitioners Robert J. Fitrakis, Willis E. Brown, Joseph C. Sommer, Suzanne M. Patzer, and Jonathan C. Beard filed with the City Clerk a pre-circulation copy of a petition for a proposed amendment to the Charter of the City of Columbus, titled “Columbus City Council Reform Amendment.” Following this, on July 7, 2015, petitioners filed with the City Clerk a petition for said amendment. Petitioners filed 998 part-petitions containing 28,537 signatures.
On July 21, 2015, the City Attorney’s office advised this Council that the subject petition fails to comply with the requirements of Section 42-2 of the City Charter, which governs the use of petition forms. First, the proposed amendment violates the single subject requirement of Section 42-2(d), by including separate and distinct proposals in a single petition. Secondly, the title of the proposed amendment (“Columbus City Council Reform Amendment”) does not clearly and without argument describe the amendment, as prescribed in Section 42-2(e). The City Attorney’s office had previously identified these defects upon review of the pre-circulation copy of the petitions, and advised Council of these on May 20, 2015. The petitioners were also advised of these defects, but did not take corrective action.
In addition, on July 22, 2015, 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 did not meet or exceed the standard as detailed 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”).
Based on the foregoing, this Council finds that the petitioners’ failure to comply with the requirements of Section 42-2 of the City Charter, as well as the lack of a sufficient number of valid signatures, is fatal to the petition. As such, this Co...
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