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Issues 6, 7 And 8 Pass Easily In Columbus

An overwhelming majority of Columbus voters approved changes to the City Charter Tuesday. The changes restrict the ability of citizens to place an initiative or referendum before the voters. 

Jim Letizia reports.

More than 70 percent of voters approved Issues 6, 7 and 8, which contained 19 different changes to the charter. The changes give city council more power to declare petition signatures are valid and whether the wording of a petition or initiative is accurate and appropriate. They also require backers of a referendum or initiative to gather enough valid petition signatures to equal 5 percent of voter turnout in the last mayoral election instead of the last municipal election. Voter turnout is generally higher in mayoral election years. The changes also require petitions to contain a title and summary approved by the city attorney's office. Critics of tighter ballot access say referendums are one of the only tools citizens have to fight City Hall and powerful local interests. The Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government lead the opposition to the ballot access changes. Last year the group collected peitition signatures to ask voters to approve the public financing of municipal election campaigns and block the city from making its payments for the public purchase of Nationwide Arena. Council rejected those proposals in December and January respectively. Other charter changes include the addition of language to protect people against discrimination in benefits, employment and services, requiring a charter review commission to meet at least every 10 years beginning in the year 2022, and require a five-member city-appointed commission to set the salaries for elected officials every four years. The changes were based on recommendations from the five member Charter Review Commission, which was appointed by city council and the mayor's office. The members were a former Columbus Dispatch editor, a former Columbus School Board member, a former city council aide, a representative of the Central Ohio Transit Authority, and City Auditor Hugh Dorrian.

Jim has been with WCBE since 1996. Before that he worked as a reporter at another Columbus radio station, and for three newspapers in Southwest Florida.