Ideas
An Alternative Form
of Butler County Government
When I ran in 2008 on
the Republican primary ballot for Ohio's 53rd
House District I wanted to make a
difference. I wanted to make positive
changes in Ohio. I won't get that chance
as I had hoped but as I was quoted
in the newspaper after the election results:
“You haven't heard the last of Paul Nenni”
Having served on the Middletown City Commission
(Council) for 8 years, Vice Chairman of the 2005 Charter Review
Committee and member of the 2009 Charter Review Committee, I have
been intricately involved in the debate about the four ward council
members, the three at-large council members and the directly elected
City Mayor. I believe we have made the right choices in allowing
everyone to be fairly represented in Middletown by a five at-large
Council.
Unfortunately, we don't
have the same type of representation in
Butler County. The county is organized under
the traditional statutory framework set
forth in the Ohio Revised Code providing for
county governments headed by eleven elected
officials, including three County
Commissioners, a Treasurer, Prosecutor,
Clerk of Courts, Engineer, Coroner, Auditor,
and Sheriff. Each elected official is
assigned specific statutory duties, which
define official responsibilities and
restrict the official’s authority to act to
powers expressly provided, or those that are
necessary to the exercise of express powers.
This structure has been
criticized by many as being out of date and
corrupt. However, despite several statutory
alternatives, it is still in place in
eighty-seven of Ohio’s eighty-eight
counties—including Butler.
Summit County was the first county to change the way it is
represented. Summit County is one of
two counties
of the 88 in Ohio that has a charter
government, as authorized by Article X of
the Ohio Constitution. Under its charter,
rather than three elected commissioners,
Summit County has an elected County
Executive and an eleven member County
Council. Summit County also has an appointed
Medical Examiner rather than an elected
Coroner, and an elected Fiscal Officer, who
exercises the powers and performs the duties
of a county auditor, treasurer and recorder.
The remaining officials are similar to the
officials in other counties. They include
the following: Clerk of the Court of Common
Pleas (elected), Prosecuting Attorney
(elected), Engineer (elected), Sheriff
(elected).
In 1979 Summit County Voters decided to replace
the Commissioner form of government with a Charter government. The
new, more responsive method of government began in 1981 with a
seven-member council replacing the three commissioners. In 1988 the
voters increased the size of council to eleven members. Eight
members represent specific districts, while three members serve
at-large
On November 4, 2008, Cuyahoga County voters
overwhelmingly approved the adoption of a county charter form of
government, which will replace the three-commissioner form of county
government with an elected county executive and a 12-person county
council.
A charter form of government allows the elected
representatives of the people to govern with more flexibility
creating a more open, progressive county government. The charter
also gives counties “home rule” (like
many Ohio cities), permitting Council to
adopt legislation more in tune with the
needs of the community.
Charter adoption is not
an instantaneous process. To get on the
ballot, either a petition signed by ten
percent of the electors and proposed charter
is submitted to the county commissioners or
the county commissioners resolve to submit
to the voters the question of whether a
charter commission should be created to
draft a charter. In the latter case, if the
majority of voters answer in the
affirmative, a fifteen-member commission is
elected to draft a proposed charter.
Finally, whether the charter has been
citizen or commission drafted, it must
garner majority support in a public election
before it can be officially adopted.
I think it is time for Butler County to take
a serious look at a more representative form
of government.
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