City to appoint 9 members to Charter Review Commission

The city of Avon Lake will nominate nine residents to the Charter Review Commission.

The nine-member citizen commission will consist of five members appointed by Mayor Greg Zilka and an additional four members chosen by Avon Lake City Council to propose changes to the city’s charter.

Council is expected to announce appointees Feb. 26 and is required to take action by March 1.

It will include two representatives each from first, third and fourth wards and three representatives from the second ward.

The Charter Review Commission most likely will hold an organizational meeting by the end of March where a chairman of the body will be selected.

The Charter Review Commission is a process which takes place every five years to make recommendations on proposed changes to the city’s charter.

The body will be in place for no more than one year.

The Charter Review is self-directed by the members who will decide how often to meet and what issues to focus on before holding public hearings and submitting results to City Council.

“Depending on how deep they want to get into charter changes, it could vary,” Zilka said. “There have been different styles and formats.”

The mayor said any proposals made by the Charter Review Commission are required to appear on the ballot to be decided by voters.

However, he said it was unlikely any significant changes would appear on the November 2018 ballot.

“Some of them could be simple housekeeping type of things,” Zilka said. “Our sign ordinance is not compliance with the state Supreme Court ruling on the length of time you can have signs up and so forth.

“So that needs to be revised. We have some issues with the Board of Utilities. That may well be discussed. It depends on what the committee wants to do. They are on their own.

“It has worked well in the past and I am confident we will have a body that’s knowledgeable and a body that will serve the city well.”

The Charter Review Commission will have the support of the city’s law department for guidance in providing suggestions on the proposed modifications and putting them into proper form for submission to the voters.

“The law department’s always available for assistance if they have any questions,” said Law Director Abe Lieberman. “But we’ve found that once they get going they pretty much run with it.”

However, he said it was unlikely any significant changes would appear on the November 2018 ballot.