Four City Council members in Ohio city to keep their jobs

Voters decide to turn down effort to recall officials.

Upper Arlington City Council members are doing their jobs — and apparently will keep doing them.

That was the message sent by voters in Tuesday’s special election, where four of the City Council seats were up for recall.

All four members have kept their jobs, according to unofficial results from late Tuesday night.

Council President Deborah Johnson and Councilmen John C. Adams, David Eric DeCapua and Francis “Kip” Greenhill were subjects of the recall election.

With all 31 precincts counted — though not until about 9:45 p.m. — each of the four candidates won by double-digit percentage points.

Johnson felt validated, she said.

“The majority of the people have spoken and we’re ready to move Upper Arlington forward.”

Greenhill said he now plans to reach out and try to make sure each citizen is heard.

“I don’t want any dancing in the end zone,” Greenhill said. “We have to focus on healing. We’re not all going to agree, but we have to get to the point where we don’t feel we have to go to the nuclear option of a recall.”

Caroline Lahrmann, a leader for the recall, said, “Our point all along has been to have a vote of the people. We believe the community has won. Everyone has won because of the vote.”

The group collected more than 3,100 signatures to place the recall issue before voters.

About 36 percent of Upper Arlington’s 27,208 registered voters went to the ballot box.

The results bring some measure of resolution as to what the public thinks of issues that have sparked controversy in the upscale community over the past few years.

Some voters have complained that council won’t listen, isn’t responsive to criticism and needed to be replaced. Council countered that the small group’s complaints are unfounded and council believes it does what is best for all of the residents.

The enmity became openly apparent following the 2014 passage of Issue 23, which increased the city’s income tax to 2.5 percent from 2 percent to raise about $3.5 million annually.

Issue 23 money was to be used on street, water, sewer and other infrastructure improvements. When the city said it planned to use some of the Issue 23 money, at least $7 million, to upgrade Northam Park, some residents said they had been misled because the city never said Issue 23 money was to be used for parks. Council countered that they always said Issue 23 money would be used for parks.

Surface parking lots around COSI in Columbus will be gone by next fall, replaced by a park with a pair of fountains. Below, an underground parking garage will accommodate visitors.

That plan, whose tab comes in at $37 million, was approved Tuesday in a meeting of the Downtown Commission.

Capitol South Community Redevelopment Corp., the nonprofit organization overseeing the project, plans to begin the project next month and complete it by November 2017. The city of Columbus owns the land and is providing the funding.

A cafe and restrooms also are planned as part of the project. Commission members asked Capitol South representatives to return for a later meeting with tweaks, saying they’d like to see those structures make more of an impression as the entrance to the west side of the property.

Capitol South hopes the project will act as a catalyst for more private development in the Scioto Peninsula neighborhood bordering Franklinton, just as the Columbus Commons park helped spur investment in the Downtown core.

Capitol South also is overseeing the complete overhaul of the Veterans Memorial site across Broad Street from COSI; that project is expected to be completed in spring 2018.

COSI has been somewhat isolated since moving from its former E. Broad Street location to the former Central High School site across the Scioto River in 1999, and officials hope the park will prove an added draw for visitors.

“The Scioto Peninsula Park will give us even more opportunities to engage with our visitors and community through a wide variety of outdoor events,” said Francis Pompey, senior vice president of administration and finance for COSI.

The surface parking lots and garage will be unavailable to COSI visitors during construction, but an existing surface lot across Belle Street will be available to patrons.