Youngstown council votes to accept two charter-amendment proposals

YOUNGSTOWN

The fate of two citizen-backed charter-amendment proposals now rests with the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

Youngstown City Council voted Wednesday to accept the proposals and turn them over to the board of elections, which will consider putting them on the fall ballot.

Council’s decision was strictly procedural as its members didn’t have an option to reject the proposals as a matter of law, said Law Director Martin Hume.

Next for the proposals is a Sept. 6 vote by the elections board as to whether it will be certified to the Nov. 7 ballot.

Those who collected the needed signatures for the ballot measures said they will fight the decision in court if necessary.

A new state law requires a board of elections to invalidate a local initiative petition if it determines any part of the petition falls outside the local government’s constitutional authority to enact it.

One proposal is a fracking ban that’s been rejected six previous times by voters and the other changes how elections are run in Youngstown.

State law gives jurisdiction over fracking to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The election measure restricts political contributions to $100 per ballot measure and candidate and only permits registered city voters to contribute. That could conflict with free-speech issues and campaign-contribution court decisions.

Mayor John A. McNally said the city doesn’t plan to give an opinion on the legality of the two proposals to the board of elections at the Sept. 6 meeting and leave the decision to the board.