Newton Falls activist files legal action to get petition on November ballot

Staff report

WARREN

The circulator of a petition seeking to repeal a Newton Falls Village Council resolution has filed a mandamus action seeking to force village officials to submit the petition to the Trumbull County Board of Elections.

Werner Lange of Newton Falls filed the civil action in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Thursday.

The filing says it’s necessary to ask the court to compel the village to act because of the actions the village took in 2012, the last time citizens asked for the same issue to be placed on the ballot.

The clerk refused to submit the petition to the elections board on the advice of village legal counsel Joseph Fritz, who said the removal of a tax credit for residents of Newton Falls is an administrative act by village council and therefore not open to referendum by the citizens.

The tax credit was removed by council June 16. It allowed people living in Newton Falls to avoid paying the village’s 1 percent income tax if they already pay 1 percent or more in the place where they work.

Tracy Reimbold, Newton Falls finance director, said she doesn’t know how much revenue the removal of the credit will raise for village operations, but Mayor Lyle Waddell said he’s hopeful it can offset the $140,000 shortfall in the police department’s budget and provide additional revenue for other village operations.

Lange, filing the action without a lawyer, argued that a 2005 Ohio Supreme Court decision backs up his assertion that the village clerk does not have the authority to decide whether to submit the petition to the elections board.

The local board of elections should decide whether the petition should be allowed to go on the ballot, not the village, Lange says.

The action is assigned to Judge Ronald Rice.