"SUBSTITUTE" the who

Found a story on Galion Live and after reading it I thought if the resident's of Painesville would like to do the same thing with Painesville's Charter. Reading the story I almost get the impression that these two cities are close to a mirror image of each other.
Although I am not presently advocating this plan for Painesville I wonder how some of you view it.

Painesville will soon be reviewing the city charter . Guess who picks the reviewers?

Also it was refreshing to see that the powers to be have decided to reduce Galions electric rates.
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On Friday afternoon, GalionLive received the following update from the Galion City Charter Amendment Petition Committee. It is repeated here in its entirety and without changes of any kind.




August 3, 2012

Dear GalionLive,

Our Charter Amendment Petition Committee wants to take this opportunity to explain to the citizens of Galion, where we are at this point and what happens next.

The Amendment to abolish the Charter and return to a statutory (mayor) form of government will be on the November 6th General Election ballot. The Charter itself and the Ohio Constitution required City Council to put the Amendment on the ballot. Tuesday night (July 24), only Council Member Cathy George voted against the ballot legislation. George openly violated her oath of office, even after being informed by Council Member Wade, Council President Baldinger, and the Law Director (Reese Mills) that the Ohio Constitution required City Council to put the Amendment on the ballot.

The enthusiasm that our Charter Amendment Petition effort has received has been inspiring. We organized our group in May, started circulating Petitions in June, and now (in July) have the Charter Amendment to abolish the Charter on the November ballot. So many citizens have come forward to help with this effort. We have all received phone calls from citizens wanting to sign the Petition and others wanting to circulate a Petition. We obtained 830 signatures, and 676 of those were certified as valid. We only needed 267 valid signatures.

In November, only the Charter Amendment (i.e. abolishing the Charter) will be on the ballot, not the election of City officials. If we are successful in getting the Amendment passed, then the City government will continue in a ‘transitional phase’ while candidates circulate petitions to run for all of statutory offices (e.g. Mayor, Auditor, Treasurer, Law Director) with the election to be held next May. Instead of a City Manager as our City’s leader, a City Manager who now hires the Finance Director and the Law Director, Galion will now have a leadership team who have each been elected by the citizens and are each responsible to the citizens. And with this overlapping authority, the City will have better decisionmaking and a better ‘checks and balances’.

The statutory form of government will return the power to ‘hire and fire’ City officials to the citizens themselves; and thus, make City officials more accountable to the citizens of Galion. With the Charter, the City Manager is not elected by the citizens and it should be no surprise that the City Manager has not been responsive to the citizens of Galion. Furthermore, somehow the City Manager’s ‘you’re not my boss’ attitude concerning the citizens has also been adopted by some Council Members. Regularly, citizens with basic questions or valid complaints are treated poorly at City Council Meetings. Once a citizen has experienced that poor treatment or seen that happen to others, they recognize that their City government just does not care about its citizens. The Charter/City Manager form of government is just not a government of ‘the people’; the citizens have just lost control of their City government to a less responsive, less accountable City Manager form of government. When you approach your City government with a simple question, and you can’t get a straight answer, there is something seriously wrong; likewise, when you have a complaint, and your government leaders try to browbeat and intimidate you instead of listening to your concerns, there is something seriously wrong.

Our Charter Amendment to abolish the Charter is not a vendetta against the current City Manager. In the history of the Galion Charter, we have not had any City Manager who provided leadership for the City of Galion. Remember that goals of the Charter included providing professional leadership that would use consultants less, run the City better, and save the City money — that just never happened. And in the process a ‘good old boys club’ was created that just didn’t care about the citizens. The City Manager/Charter form of government lost sight of the fact that ‘they’ work for the citizens of Galion.

Now, we are definitely in the political back-stabbing phase. And we caution the voters not to get distracted by the personal attacks and intimidation tactics. Politics is like baseball; you need to keep your eye on the ball — in this case, keep your focus on the issue that the City Manager/Charter form of government has just been a failure for the City of Galion.

And, it is truly time for a change. This change back to a statutory (mayor) form of government puts control back in the hands of the citizens, requires City officials to live in the City of Galion, and has overlapping authority of officials (a better checks and balances). The Charter Amendment (to abolish the Charter) has been a “grass roots” effort of the citizens of Galion. As many people have said, we should have done this a long time ago.

Now that our Charter Amendment will be on the November election ballot, our Committee members are being contacted about yard signs, bumper stickers, and making donations. We want the public to know that we are in the process of setting up the required “ballot issue committee” and filing the necessary paperwork with the Board of Elections; all of that has to be done before we can accept donations and make expenditures in support of the Charter Amendment ballot issue. We will keep the public updated, as we should have all of this done very soon.

Lastly, we want to thank everyone who has helped to get the Charter Amendment on the ballot. And we look forward to working with all of the supporters on the campaign to pass the Amendment this November 6th. Be sure to mark your calendars.

Charter Amendment Committee:


Gina M. Powell

Donald P. Faulds

Shirley A. Clark

E. Roberta Wade