North Olmsted voters to decide on charter amendments

North Olmsted voters will decide Nov. 3 on four charter amendments.

Issue 19 has a section of its charter which can be considered outdated, according to the city’s website.

The issue deals with “detachment of lands,” or the legal process for property in North Olmsted to “break away” from the territorial boundaries of the city and either form a new city or township, or attach to a current township.

Issue 20 focuses on giving City Council the chance to remove the requirement to meet in Council Chambers twice a month and place the authority to select the meeting location at the hands of the City Council elected representatives.

“All of the charter amendments have been supported by all of the Council Democratic and Republicans alike,” said North Olmsted Mayor Kevin Kennedy. “They’re mostly housekeeping business.”

Issue 21 is another housekeeping issue which the Charter Commission wanted to make clear members need to be in place and ready to do the work of the Commission prior to Jan. 1.

Once in place, the members need to wrap up their work by May 31.

The change would give Council time to review the end product and then decide on what recommendations will be presented to the voters for consideration in future municipal elections.

“There’s nothing controversial with the charter amendments,” Kennedy said. “Hopefully, we can get these updated and in use for the future.”

If voters approve Issue 22, it calls for the city, as opposed to the state, to authorize public meetings in an electronic format if five of seven Council members agree.

This includes telephone conferences or a format like Zoom or GoToMeeting.

If approved, it is not to be limited to emergency situations and will allow Council flexibility today, during the pandemic and in the future when at the discretion of Council it is determined that such a meeting format would best serve the public interest.

“The state gave us permission to have meetings distanced, so we wanted to update our charter to reflect the option if something were to happen where we needed to meet like this again,” Kennedy said.