Council Elections, Ranked Choice Voting Topics of Tuesday Town Hall Meeting

Water, Coffee on Council Agenda on Thursday

Ranked Choice Voting, 7Brew Coffee among the topics of discussion in Council Chambers this week

The Charter Review Commission would like resident input on proposed City Council term changes, the number of wards for Stow elections and Ranked Choice Voting.

On Tuesday, May 20, at 7 pm in City Council Chambers, the Commission will discuss these topics and solicit residents’ input before making final recommendations to City Council.

Convened every five years to review and make recommendations to City Council for updates to the city’s charter, the Charter Review Commission has been meeting since February and will turn over its final recommendations this summer. Any recommendations approved by City Council would then appear on November’s general election ballot for Stow voters to decide.   

Proposed Council Changes

According to commission member Rick Charles, the group is discussing whether the number of wards for Stow elections should be increased from four to six, to better align the number of residents per ward with how other like-sized communities do.

“We found that most communities of approximately our size have between 4,500-6,000 residents per ward.  With the growth of Stow over the last 30 years, our wards now have approximately 8,500 residents per ward,” he said. “Adding two additional wards would bring the wards back to sizes our city’s founders originally intended and enable better neighborhood representation by elected leaders.”

The change would add two more seats to City Council, bringing it to nine.  Other cities with six ward council members and three at-large council positions include Kent, Barberton, Massillon and North Royalton.

Charles noted that if Stow’s charter did not specify that the city would have four wards, state law would have required six wards based on the city’s size.  

Additionally, the commission has discussed changing council terms and when they’re elected. Currently, all seven members of council are elected every two years, with 8-year term limits. The Charter Review Commission would like to recommend changing council terms to four years, still with 8-year term limits, but stagger the at-large and ward position elections every two years, to guarantee that some experienced council members would remain on council after each election.

“We had one election where six new council members out of seven were elected, so it's possible that under our current system, the entire council could be replaced, leaving no one with experience to run council,” Charles said. "On top of that, our top three administrative positions for mayor, finance director and law director, while elected every four years, could all theoretically turnover at the same time. Staggering the at-large and ward council elections would ensure some continuity in leadership from one election to another.”

Ranked Choice Voting

As part of its meetings, the Charter Review Commission invited witnesses to discuss whether adopting Ranked Choice Voting in Stow would make sense. Stow At-Large City Councilman Kyle Herman and Hudson City Councilman Skylar Sutton both advocated for moving to Ranked Choice Voting.

This voting method, used by the states of Alaska and Maine as well as a number of communities around the country, also is being discussed by Hudson’s Charter Review Commission.

Sample Ranked Choice Voting ballot

The goal of Ranked Choice Voting is to ensure that the winner of an election wins by a majority of the votes, to eliminate situations where top vote-getters are chosen by a minority of voters. Proponents of Ranked Choice Voting say it improves voter turnout because voters feel their vote counts when their choice is elected and that it allows for more moderate and independent candidates to be elected because candidates must campaign across a broad spectrum of voters in the general election.

By having voters rank the candidates running for election, the election process can take into account a voter's top two choices for a position to determine the most-favored candidate.

For instance, if there are five candidates, and the top vote getter gets less than 50.1% of the vote, the process looks at the #2 choices of the least popular candidates and reassigns those votes until one candidate has achieved a majority.

Both Stow and Hudson are well-positioned to adopt Ranked Choice Voting because both communities already have non-partisan elections, where all candidates appear on the general election ballot, rather than first competing in partisan primaries.

The Charter Review Commission’s discussion about Ranked Choice Voting is particularly timely because the state legislature is considering banning it by taking away state funds from any city that uses Ranked Choice Voting. SB 63, introduced by Republican Sen. Theresa Gavarone of Bowling Green and Democratic Sen. Bill DeMora of Columbus, was passed by the State Senate on May 14 by a vote of 27-5. It goes to the State House next.

The Charter Review Commission Town Hall is open to all Stow residents.

Stow Water Rates Under Review

A consulting group hired to review the financial stability of the city’s water system will propose increases in monthly water rates at City Council’s Public Improvements Committee on Thursday, May 22, at 5:45 pm.

Stow’s current charge for 4 Ccf of water is $21.79 per month, which was the fourth lowest rate among 14 communities in the study. Cuyahoga Falls has the lowest rate of the communities compared at $18.86 per month, while Munroe Falls was the highest, at $48.68 per month.

The report, prepared by Raftelis, recommends a $4/month increase in water rates for 2026 as well as annual increases, plus modifications to stormwater rates to finance future needed improvements to water infrastructure.

The Public Improvements Committee of City Council is a public meeting with time scheduled for public comments.

7Brew Coffee Drive-Thru Gets Scrutiny  

The initial hearing for a 7Brew Coffee drive-thru to be located at 4397 Kent Rd., at the site of the former Rent-A-Center, got contentious at Council’s May 8 meeting as owners of the properties on which Midas and WingStop are located objected to the possibility that 7Brew traffic would cause patrons to block their driveways by trying to gain access to the coffee shop via an access drive behind their buildings.

The access drive is required for safety vehicle access to the buildings.

Ward 4 Councilman Mario Fiocca expressed concern about traffic at a 7Brew shop on Howe Rd. in Cuyahoga Falls that backs up onto the main road.  Ward 2 Councilwoman Kelly Coffey asked a company representative about any traffic studies that were done to justify their site plan. Council President Cyle Feldman asked how the company resolves traffic issues at other stores.  Councilman At-Large Jeremy McIntire asked where delivery trucks would go if the lanes were full.

A representative from 7Brew said the Howe Rd. site is considerably smaller than what is planned for Stow; that the Kent Rd. site would have space for 23 cars to be lined up in two lanes and that store personnel would direct traffic. He said that there was sufficient room for any delivery trucks to park and make their deliveries.

Planning Committee President Kyle Herman held the proposal in committee pending the company providing additional engineering and traffic data to address council’s concerns.

The proposal will get its next hearing at the Planning Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 22, at 6 pm., which is open to the public.

Land Swap Plan Nixed by Land Owner

Issues concerning the zoning and approval for a boarding house on the property of Steve & Deanna Cheatwood at 3691 Hudson Drive Ext. continue after Steve Cheatwood said he would withdraw a proposal presented at the May 8 City Council meeting that would have created a land swap between the city and the Cheatwoods as compensation for city land on which a cabin encroached that the Cheatwoods built without getting prior authorization.

Although the land swap proposal would have resolved the encroachment issue to the city’s satisfaction, it did not address the fact that the cabin in question also encroaches on a neighbor’s property.

After the Council of the Whole voted to move the legislation for the land swap to that night's regular council agenda, Steve Cheatwood spoke during the public comment period and disclosed that he would be withdrawing the land swap request because while he thought a land swap would be the cheapest and easiest way to resolve the encroachment issue, it turned out that there would be a large expense with the county to update the plat. He said that he would instead submit an amended plan to move the cabin several feet into his property.

The Cheatwoods originally filed for approval of a Conditional Use on May 18, 2023, but the business was put on hold as they worked through various zoning requirements.

Home Rule Resolution Collides with SB 63

A resolution to defend the city’s home rule authority as established by the State of Ohio and affirmed by the Ohio Supreme Court will be voted on by City Council on Thursday, May 22 at 7 pm.

Put forward by Councilman Herman, the resolution sets to reinforce the city’s commitment to retain its home rule powers, including the power of local self-government and elections.

At issue is SB 63, a Statehouse bill passed by the Senate last week by a 27-5 vote that would authorize the state to withhold local government funds from any city that enacts  Ranked Choice Voting. The measure now moves to the State House for vote.

If Herman’s resolution is passed by City Council, it would not require any further action of the city beyond stating its defense of home rule powers.

There will be a public comment period at the beginning of the meeting prior to council’s vote on the resolution.