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| | A Municipal Charter is the equivalent of a local
Constitution. It defines the structure and rules that govern and guide how a
City functions and serves its citizens. Not unlike the Constitution of the
United States, it can be modified at any time by a vote of the citizens. Cities
without a Charter must follow Ohio Law completely and absolutely.
This proposal would amend the Brunswick Charter to change the form of
government from a "City Manager" form to a "Strong Mayor"
form. In simple terms, the City Manager form of government is equivalent to
placing the President of the United States subordinate to Congress. With a
simple majority vote Congress could pass any issue at all without having to be
concerned with a Presidential veto, because the President would also be hired and
fired by Congress, not elected by the citizens.
As you may remember from elementary school, our Founding Fathers created a
system of government with checks and balances for our protection:
 | The President can veto any measure passed by Congress. |
| Congress can override a Presidential veto with a 2/3rds vote. |
| The Supreme Court can overturn either one. |
| Congress and the President can overturn a Supreme Court decision by
modifying the appropriate law to remove the Supreme Courts objections. |
| We the People can amend the Constitution. |
| We the People directly elect the President. |
Under the Brunswick City Manager system:
| The City Manager has cannot veto or otherwise overturn an order from City
Council. |
| There is no veto possible. Citizens can overturn non-emergency ordinances
passed by City Council if they: |
1. Decide to oppose the new ordinance within 30 days and
2. Create legally acceptable petitions and
3. Collect just over 2,000 signatures from registered voters of Brunswick within
the same 30 days since it was passed!
Even Law Director Reid noted this totally unworkable procedure has only
been used once in his fourteen years.
| Emergency ordinances can never be overturned by the citizens. |
| A simple majority of four members of City Council has total reign over
Brunswick because there is no workable veto procedure except for a privately
funded legal challenge. |
| Our part time City Council is expected to supervise a full time City
Manager. It simply is not possible. |
| The citizens of Brunswick have absolutely no say in who is hired by
City Council to be the City Manager. |
| The citizens of Brunswick have absolutely no say in how long a City
Manager can remain in office. A City Manager can only be replaced if 5 of
the 7 Council Members vote to do it. As you have recently read, 4 of the
7 current members want to terminate our City Manager, but 3 of the 7 do not. 43%
of the members of City Council have effectively out-voted the other 57%! |
The proposed change to a "Strong Mayor"
form of government would give us the equivalent of a President or a State
Governor elected by the
individual citizens. He or she would be put in office directly by the citizens
and he or she would be removed the same way. This
proposed change does not raise our taxes and it makes our government more responsive to
us.
Why
might City Council oppose this change?
| It dilutes their power. Four people in a back room can no longer cut
deals to support each other because of the ever-present possibility of a mayoral veto. Remember,
at least 4 members of City Council must have approved all of the City
Manager's past actions and behavior or they would have stopped it with a 4 to 3
vote. The City Manager is a buffer and takes the heat for City Council
decisions because he implements them on their behalf. |
| A Strong Mayor directly elected by the people is more responsive to the needs of
the people and would oppose City Council when necessary. A City Manager is a
highly-compensated employee of City Council, and the people are
paying the bill. |
| Some people claim that having a City Manager causes the government to be
"run like a business." Assuming this is desirable, shouldn't the
City Manager have some real-world experience actually running a business?
The 1975 employment application of our current City Manager shows he has
never held a job in the real world, much less run a business. His only
experience in generating income is through raising taxes, not in improving
services or efficiency. An appointed official has far less
incentive to keep the citizens happy than he does in keeping the people who
hired him happy. Our City Manager's $100,000+ annual compensation is derived
solely from keeping 3 of the 7 members of City Council happy since it takes
a minimum of 5 votes to remove him from office. Yes, you read this
right. The City Manager must keep precisely 3 out of 34,000+ people happy to
keep his job. This would be an approval rating of .0009%. |
| Recently a City Council member stated in the newspaper that it
takes voters four years to remove a mayor but City Council could do it
immediately. Technically true, except City Council has never removed a City
Manager in the past twenty seven years and currently four of seven Council
members want to remove the City manager but are being blocked by the other
three, one of which is the author of this statement. She has stated that she
will never vote to remove the current City Manager. No? Not even if he is
convicted of a crime? What this Council Member also said, although she
may not have intended to say it, is that it also takes four years for the
voters to remove City Council! Two years to remove the three At-Large
members and another two years to remove the four ward members. Since
it takes five members of City Council to force the removal of a City
Manager, it also takes four years for the voters to replace enough Council
members to assure the City Manager can be removed. If citizens want
to immediately remove a Strong Mayor, all it takes is one set of recall
petitions. If citizens want to immediately remove City
Council, all it takes are seven sets of recall petitions. |
| City Council knows the next proposed amendment will be to increase the number of Council
members from 7 to 9, creating a fifth ward. Smaller wards means better
representation for our neighborhoods. More Council members means the power
of the existing 7 members is further diluted by the addition of 2 totally
new people. Non-charter cities in Ohio are required
by law to increase their Council size from 7 to 9 when their population
reaches 25,000. The 1980 census
showed Brunswick's population as 28,104. Our 2001 count is 34,094. Your neighborhood
has been under-represented for
over two decades. A larger City Council coupled with a City Manager
will allow the existing Council members to retain their power. A Strong
Mayor immediately switches the balance of power back to the people of
Brunswick. |
Paid for by the committee "Citizens for the Right to Elect", Gloria
Tews - treasurer, 3671 Ascot Dr., Brunswick, OH 44212
|
