City Council to Review 9 Charter Change Recommendations for the Nov. Ballot

Ranked Choice Voting, Staggered 4-Year Council Terms Among Proposals

After 12 meetings, two public Town Halls and a presentation to City Council over the past five months, the Charter Review Commission has submitted to council nine proposed changes to the city’s charter.

City Council will begin deliberation of those recommendations at its Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday, June 12, at 6:15 pm. Any recommended changes the Council approves would appear on the ballot for Stow voters to decide on Nov. 4.

The changes recommended by the citizen-led Charter Review Commission includes the fairly mundane, like how many public places the city must post special notices, to the more intriguing, like recommendations to change the term length of City Council members from two-year terms to staggered four-year terms and for the city to adopt Ranked Choice Voting.

The panel of seven Stow residents was appointed in February by Mayor John Pribonic and approved by council. Those seven residents, Dennis Mariola, Rick Charles, Dennis Campbell, Nancy Binzel, Janice Arch, Christy Staats and Amy Jones, were the only applicants for the commission, according to Pribonic.

The following Stow Charter changes were recommended by the Charter Review Commission and will be considered by council:

Modifications to Elected Terms

• Change term limits for Law Director and Finance Director from 8 years to 12 years: the commission noted that these two positions are unique among the elected positions in the city because they require people who have specialized education and experience, which creates a smaller pool of qualified candidates. Additionally, the commission noted that the pension benefits for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System vest after 10 years of service, meaning that anyone serving as Law Director or Finance Director in the current 8-year term limits would likely forego the pension benefits for those years. The commission in its accompanying memo said that changing the term limits for these two positions from two four-year terms to three four-year terms would likely help attract potential candidates.  

  
  

• Changing City Council terms and election cycles: the commission has proposed changing council terms from two-year terms to four-year terms and to stagger the elections so that Ward council members would be elected at the same time as the mayor, law director and finance director and the at-large council members would be elected two years before/later. The rationale of the Charter Review Commission was that the city should avoid the potential for all the elected positions to turn over to new representatives in the same election, which would result in the loss of significant institutional knowledge. The commission proposed a schedule for easing into staggered four-year terms, with all positions in the updated format by 2031. The change would limit council members to two four-year, elected terms or 10 years total (if they were appointed to fill a vacancy). A recommendation to change City Council terms to four-year terms was made by each of the Charter Review Commissions in 2005, 2015 and 2020, according to Steve Hooten, Stow Deputy Law Director. Council approved and put the measure to ballot in 2005, where it was defeated by voters. In 2015 and 2020, City Council did not approve the four-year term recommendations to appear on the ballot, he said.   

Adoption of Ranked Choice Voting

• An ordinance for city elections to be conducted using Ranked Choice Voting:  The commission noted that Ranked Choice Voting was the most requested change  among residents who contacted the commission or spoke at the commission’s meetings or town halls. Ranked Choice Voting also is known as an instant run-off system that ensures that elected leaders are chosen by a majority of the voters.  

  

  An example of how voters would rank multiple candidates for an office with Ranked Choice Voting. An instant run-off system would use 1st and 2nd choices of voters to determine a majority winner if there was no majority winner after tallying voters' 1st choice.

Increase the Number of Wards for Council Representation

• Increasing the number of wards from four to six and size of council from seven to nine: the commission noted in its memo to council that the City of Stow has grown “exponentially” since the Charter and the number of wards were established in 1958. In fact, the city did not become a city until after the 1960 census, when Stow had 12,104 residents. As of the 2020 census, the city had 34,483 residents, all of whom are served by councilmembers in four wards and three at-large positions. In its discussions about this issue, the commission noted that many similarly sized cities have six wards and nine councilmembers.

Acting Position Appointments

• Clarification on the appointment of an Acting Mayor: the commission cited the need to remedy confusing language in the charter that could lead to council appointing an Acting Mayor contrary to the intent of the Charter.

  
  

• Appointment of an Acting Finance Director: the commission noted that there is no provision in the Charter for the city to temporarily appoint an Acting Finance Director in the case that the Finance Director becomes incapacitated for a period of time but does not resign the position. In discussions, it was noted that there are third-party financial documents that specify only the Finance Director or an Acting Finance Director are authorized to sign on the city’s behalf.

  
  

• Appointment of an Acting Law Director: just as with the Finance Director, there is no provision in the Charter for the city to be able to appoint an Acting Law Director should the Law Director become temporarily incapacitated.

Minor Charter Changes

• Reducing the number of locations for public notices from six to three: in its accompanying memo, the commission noted that three of the public spaces at which notices must currently be posted are low-traffic sites (the Safety Building, Fire Station 2 and Fire Station 3) and that the city should use social media to post public notices.

  
  

• Changing the dates for when future Charter Review Commissions should be appointed and their deadline for submitting their recommendations to City Council: the commission noted that the current schedule allows for very little time for council to review recommendations before the deadline to submit charter changes to the Board of Elections.

  
  

Alternative Ordinances for Two Special Commissions

The Charter Review Commission offered an “out” to City Council in case it chooses not to approve the recommendations on the number of wards and Ranked Choice Voting for this year’s ballot. The commission forwarded two ordinances to create special commissions that would study these two issues.

• Commission on City Council Wards – the Charter Review Commission’s memo on the ordinance.

  
  

• Commission on Ranked Choice Voting – the Charter Review Commission’s memo on the ordinance.

  
  

A Little Charter Review Commission History

A Charter Review Commission is convened every five years to review and make recommendations for changes to the city’s charter.

In 2020, the Charter Review Commission submitted nine charter amendments to Council. All were denied by Council, according to Hooten. 

In 2015, the Charter Review Commission submitted three charter amendments to Council. Two were passed by Council and submitted to voters.  One was denied.

In 2010, the Charter Review Commission submitted nine charter amendments to Council. All were passed by Council, but then two were repealed by Council and replaced with their own version and Council also passed two competing versions of the submitted amendments. 

In other communities, like the City of Hudson, any charter change recommendations by the Charter Review Commission are automatically placed on the ballot for the residents to vote on.

City Council meetings are open to the public. The Committee of the Whole at approximately 6:15 pm on Thursday, June 12, and the regular council meeting that follows directly after will have public comment periods during which residents can offer their opinions on the proposed Charter changes.