Oberlin Council puts charter changes on November ballot

Oberlin City Council has five charter amendments slated for Oberlin voters in the upcoming November election.

City Manager Eric Norenberg said it has been a decade since the ordinances were significantly amended. He cited this year’s amendments are “small changes” and “housekeeping” issues that will allow council to operate more smoothly.

Issue 23

The first amendement, or Issue 23, proposes the assistant city manager can serve as acting city manager during the city manager’s absence. Council will be asking residents to vote “yes” to remove language in the charter stating that a city manager who is dismissed will receive salary and residency allowance for three months. Because city managers are provided at least six months severance salary, the council would be able to negotiate what that pay would be.

In addition, council is looking to add a new subsection stating they may provide for the electronic casting and tabulation of its votes. Norenberg explained although council does not plan to implement electronic voting at council anytime soon, council believed it would be a “good idea” if they decide to incorporate voting through buttons or keypads in the future.

Issue 24

Oberlin Council’s Issue 24 focuses on legislation efficency. Current charter language requires all ordinances and resolutions to be read in full at meetings unless the majority determines to read it in a shorter format. Council is proposing ordinances are only read by number, title and substantive portions unless four council members vote to have them read in full.

“It takes over a half hour to read a whole ordinance,” Norenberg said. “If it’s a long item and everyone knows what’s going on... this will give council a chance by unanimous vote to dispense with that reading.” Issue 25

This charter amendment pertains to emergency ordinances and resolutions, proposing that these ordinances can be elevated to emergency status only be an “affirmative” vote of at least five council members.

If an emergency ordinance on final passage only gets four votes, it will lose its emergency status and go into effect in 30 days, rather than taking effect immediately upon passage.

“The majority of the council felt that should be fixed so there’s no question (about an ordinance’s passage),” Norenberg noted. “We don’t want any of our future legislations to be questioned or challenged.”

Issue 26

Issue 26 explores amending the language in the charter regarding removing a board or commission member. According to Norenberg, the current language calls for council to hold a public hearing before removing someone from the board. If Issue 26 passes, a board member may request a public hearing prior to his or her removal if they choose.

“It helps put the ownage and responsibility on the Board of Commission to advise council if they have a problem going on with attendants, and they can make that request,” Norenberg explained. “If need be, we can remove somebody who is not attending or has other issues.”

Council may also remove a board or commission member by a vote of five or more members, and a board or commission member who has missed three consecutive meetings is subject to removal by a majority request to council from remaining board members.

Issue 27

Considered to be the most controversial of council’s five charter amendments, Issue 27 proposes changes to the civil service process, impacting the hiring process of parttime employees.

The charter currently states all part-time positions are part of the unclassified service, with the exception of part-time firefighters and police officer positions.

With the proposed charter language, council would have authority to determine whether part-time firefighters and police officers are classified or unclassified service.

The designation pertains to how part-time applicants go through the testing process. Civil service would not have jurisdiction over it in the unclassified service. Norenberg said the current process for firefighters and police officers may be a barrier to applicants who don’t necessarily test well, but prove they are fully equipped through other forms of testing, like interviews. This would allow for a larger and more diverse pool of candidates, he said.

There would continue to be agility testing, however the aptitude tests would be replaced with interviews, which council believes is a better way to assess applicants’ knowledge and ability. Handwritten tests prepared by a testing service may not always apply to Oberlin positions, Norenberg said, or properly gauge other skills needed to do the jobs.

“In most cases, firefighters do a lot of other things besides fighting fires. They’re EMTs, they rescue people from vehicles,” he said. “(There are some) skills that really don’t test well on a multiple choice test. We’re very confident we’re going to get a better result in terms of quantity and quality of candidates, and I think it will be a good thing for the fire department for years to come.”