Officials: Petitions on Girard meters not legal

By John w. Goodwin jr.

The law director cited two areas in which the petitioners did not follow Ohio law.

GIRARD — City officials, based on a legal opinion, have determined that a referendum to place the potential purchase of new water meters here before voters is not legally sound.

City law director Mark Standohar, in a memo last week, ordered auditor Sam Zirafi to not certify the referendum created by the 450 signatures submitted to the auditor’s office. The signatures were collected by a group of concerned citizens against the immediate purchase of the new remote water meters.

Standohar, in his opinion, said the proponents of the referendum failed to meet two critical areas of law when submitting the petitions to the city.

Standohar said the petitioners failed to file a certified copy of the proposed ordinance or measure with the city auditor prior to the circulation of the referendum petitions. He said Ohio law requires this filing before the passing of petitions so that interested individuals can examine the proposed ordinance that is the subject of the referendum petition.

Council, in deciding to purchase $1.9 million worth of remote meters, passed two ordinances. The first ordinance directed safety service director Jerry Lambert to advertise for bids concerning the meters, while the second ordinance authorized Lambert to enter into an agreement with Neptune Equipment for the purchase of the meters.

Standohar said the proponents of the referendum should have used the first ordinance passed by council for purposes of the referendum instead of the second ordinance as prescribed under Ohio law.

Dan Moadus, a former city councilman, however, collected the 450 signatures for the referendum, but only needed about 385. He said most people are disgusted by what is going on in water department.

Moadus points to nearly $650,000 in uncollected payments as proof the department is in need of an overhaul. Moadus could not be reached for comment Monday.

Mayor James Melfi said he and his administration do support the purchase of the remote water meters, in the best interest of water customers and the city. The mayor, however, said city administration had nothing to do with the legal determination issued by the law director.

“This was solely a determination made by the law director. We have nothing to do with this,” he said. “This is the best technology available and may allow us to go to monthly billing. That would allow customers to budget better and also be better for the city. This is a good piece of legislation.”

jgoodwin@vindy.com