You might ask what the Euclid City Charter is. Think of it as Euclid's Constitution, the very document upon which our entire government rests. Adopted in 1951, this governing Charter has served the City extremely well. The original charter called for City Council to have two year terms with all members standing for election at the same time. Two year terms were clearly patterned after the State and Federal House of Representatives. Each of these bodies still have two year terms.
At the time of adoption, Council was composed of 9 members: one Council President, 4 at large members and 4 ward councilperson. Now, our system is composed of 1 Council President
and 8 ward councilpersons. The change was ordered by the Federal Court to settle the Department of Justice complaint against Euclid. The Federal Court decision did not mandate
a change of the length of terms
The Charter Review Commission is exactly that: a commission made up of citizens appointed by the Mayor to review the Charter of the City of Euclid. Meeting every 8 years, this group can
propose changes to the Charter.
Last fall the citizens voted for one of these proposed changes: changing council terms from 2 years to four. This change will go into effect for 2011
I opposed this change: 4 year terms are great for politicians, bad for the average citizen. Four year terms leads to less accountability. The Founders of the nation felt that the legislative branch, the peoples branch needed to stay as close to those they represent as possible. Two year terms are the way to achieve that.
Now, on May 4th, you will again be presented with changes to City Council:
#25: "Shall Council Members and the Council President, and the Mayor be elected to terms
ending on December 31 and beginning on January 1st
Currently, the Council term ends on Nov 30th. This gives the outgoing Council one more meeting. Under the proposed change, you will have a lame duck council for 3 meetings. This can invite political mischief.
#26 "Shall the Charter of the City of Euclid be amended to increase the number of signatures
needed to file such recall petitions to 25% of the electors voting in the most recent general election?
Currently, the Charter requires only signatures of 15% for those voting in the last election.
It is interesting that the Charter Review Commission in lobbying for passage of 4 year terms
stated that if people were dissatisfied with their council person, they could recall them.
Yet, this proposal makes it harder to recall. So on one hand, we have longer council terms, a longer time that Council DOES NOT have to stand before you. On the other, we now have a proposal to make a recall attempt even harder. This results in even less accountability to you, the citizen.
#27 "Shall the Charter be amended to require a declaration of intent to petition for the removal of any elected officer of the City; and, to impose a 45 day time limit on the filing of recall petitions after the declaration has been filed.
Currently, there is no time limit on the gathering of signatures for recall.
Much like #26, this amendment will make recalling any official that much harder. The result will be a council and government much less accountable to you, the citizen.
There has only been one recall attempt since the Charter was adopted in 1951. From what I know of that attempt, the gathering of enough signatures (15%) could not have been done
within the 45 day time frame. We must remember that public service at the local level, is a decidedly a part time job. Gathering signatures to appear on any ballot, let alone a recall is a time consuming process. We should not make the process so difficult as to make it impossible.
I believe that these three Charter proposals, while good for politicians and political parties, is a bad deal for the citizens of Euclid. Keep your voice, and your options, Vote "No" on #25, #26 and #27
Let me know what you think.
Also, please take a moment to fill out the poll on the Euclid Public Library Levy.
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