Bill: Mayors would get more power in hirings

Mayors could go outside the civil service list to appoint a police or fire chief.

By MARC KOVAC

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

COLUMBUS — Proposed legislation would allow mayors in communities such as Alliance and Struthers to hire police and fire chiefs.

Sen. Kirk Schuring, a Republican from Canton, offered introductory testimony Tuesday on his SB 218 before the State and Local Government and Veterans Affairs Committee.

The legislation would give a city council the option, on a three-fourths vote, of granting the mayor authority to appoint a police or fire chief.

The provisions would cover nonchartered municipalities.

More than 60 Ohio communities could be affected, including Alliance, Massillon and Canton in Stark County; East Liverpool and Salem in Columbiana County; Struthers in Mahoning County; and Girard, Hubbard, Niles and Warren in Trumbull County, according to a list of statutory cities compiled by the Ohio Municipal League.

In urban areas, mayors are considered communities’ chief executive officers and are charged with looking out for the health, safety and welfare of residents, Schuring said.

Current state law, however, limits their ability to deal with crime — specifically, by not giving him/her “discretion in hiring police and fire chiefs.”

Currently, candidates for the head positions are considered from police and fire ranks. They take civil service exams, and the highest-scoring individual is given the nod.

“Elected officials are not involved in the process,” Schuring said.

SB 218 would maintain requirements that candidates for those positions take the requisite civil service examinations, but it would allow outside candidates to be considered and give mayors leeway in final selections, regardless of the resulting test scores.

The process still would be open to public scrutiny, Schuring said.

City councils would have to deliberate in public before granting the authority, and mayors would explain their hiring decisions.

“It’s a very transparent process,” he said.

Schuring said the legislation was bipartisan in nature and was prompted at the suggestion of the Canton mayor (a Republican) and council president (a Democrat).