Tuesday, February 19, 2013
City law director says ballot proposal isn’t enforceable
YOUNGSTOWN
Even though some of its members don’t agree with a citizen-organized charter-amendment proposal to ban fracking in Youngstown and the law director contends it isn’t enforceable, city council is expected today to approve an ordinance to place the initiative on the May 7 ballot.
“If you do the petition process correctly, we have no alternative but for council to pass it and send it to the [Mahoning County] Board of Elections,” said Law Director Anthony Farris. “There’s not really an alternative.”
If the ballot initiative is approved, it’s unenforceable, he said.
“It’s in conflict with a field of regulations in which the state has” control, Farris said. “It would be illegal to enforce it.”
But the state attorney general and secretary of state offices have said it still must be on the ballot if the initiative has enough valid signatures despite the legal issue, Farris said.
A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has said several times that the state has complete oversight when it comes to fracking. The state Legislature approved laws nine years ago to take control over drilling from local governments.
Members of Frack Free Mahoning Valley, the organization behind the petitions, has about 3,800 to 4,000 signatures on petitions. The group needs 1,562 valid signatures to get the issue on the May ballot.
Lynn Anderson, one of citizens involved in the petition process, said Farris “doesn’t understand” the ballot proposal.
“It’s written to circumvent state law,” she said. “It’s like starting over,” comparing what the group calls a “community bill of rights” to the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.