Voters clearly wanted change on city council

There’s nothing ambiguous about a 75 percent majority. With emphasis, Columbus voters last week approved expanding city council from seven to nine members, and requiring each member to live in a separate district.

The charter amendment won big in each of the city’s 87 wards, with surprisingly little variation from neighborhood to neighborhood.

The landslide occurred even though no campaigns were waged for or against the issue. The Franklin County Democratic Party endorsed the issue on its sample ballot. Otherwise, voters had only the official ballot language and, perhaps, their sense of the merits of several years of debate over council’s structure.

The resounding vote surprised for another reason: In the past, Columbus voters showed scant interest in changing council. Proposals to create a hybrid council, with some members elected at large and some by district, went down handily in 1968, 1975 and 2016.

Over the years, solid arguments were advanced for keeping the traditional council structure, in place since 1916, and for changing it.

The best argument for the status quo was that, compared with peer cities, Columbus has thrived. The best argument for change was that a part-time, seven-member council is hard-pressed to represent an ever-growing city, now with nearly 900,000 people across 225 square miles.

Because a dogged coalition of community activists agitated for council districts over several years, in September 2016 council leaders appointed a ninemember charter-review committee to study the issue.

The committee hosted 12 poorly attended public hearings, including six at neighborhood recreation centers. The committee gathered an impressive amount of information on council structures across the United States.

In February 2017, the committee delivered its recommendation to city council, which was sent to Columbus voters as Issue 3 in last week’s election.

The proposal was a good-faith attempt to balance competing ideals: preserving the century-old tradition of keeping council members accountable to all voters, while creating a sharper focus on neighborhood representation.

By requiring council candidates to run from a district, the amendment establishes residency requirements. It will ensure a geographically diverse council.

The amendment abolishes at-large field races for council seats. It sets up head-to-head races for each of nine council seats within nine districts, but with all city voters participating in each race.

Critics of the amendment note that such a system is a rarity. Nothing like it exists in Ohio, which has 265 charter cities. One must travel to Tucson, Arizona, or Reno, Nevada, to find one.

But Columbus voters have approved this system, with uncommon intensity, so civic-minded individuals share an obligation to do their best to make it work.

There is plenty of time to plan the transition. Council districts will not be drawn until December 2022. The districts, of nearly equal population, will reflect 2020 census figures.

By March 1, 2021, council will appoint a five-member commission to draw district boundaries. The borders must be set by December 2022, allowing potential candidates time to file petitions for the 2023 elections.

It will be important for the commission to align council districts, as much as possible, with existing boundaries of area commissions, electoral wards and neighborhood associations.

There is no ideal council structure. Any system can work if citizens are motivated to make it work. Columbus deserves that.