By Lucas Sullivan and Doug Caruso, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, at the urging of a new and younger city council and some residents, will appoint a seven-member committee to determine whether the city should change the way it is governed.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Ginther and Councilman Shannon G. Hardin announced Wednesday at the Westgate Community Center that the mayor and council members will choose a committee to consider “modernizing” the city council beginning in September with a goal of completing its work in February.
“We have this conversation every 30 years in this city and wards have been voted down a couple of times,” Ginther said. “But as I am out and about people are asking what is this wards issue about, so I thought let’s have a conversation about it and what’s working and what can we do better.”
The commission will not be appointed until after voters decide whether to increase the size of the council and add district representatives in a special election Aug. 2, the mayor’s spokeswoman, Robin Davis, said. The charter amendment would change council to a 13-member body, with 10 members elected from districts and three at-large if it is approved, or keep the council at seven at-large members if voters reject it.
“Issue One is wrong for Columbus. We want to evaluate the structure of the Council in a thorough, thoughtful and public way. We will do it right,” Ginther said.
Whitney Smith, one of the co-chairs of the political-action committee Represent Columbus that brought forward the ballot issue, called the move to form a review committee a political tactic to suppress voter turnout.
“Now they want to have this conversation to address concerns, but not until after the Aug. 2 election,” she said. “I think the voters will see right through this.”
All seven council members and Ginther oppose Issue 1. But privately, some council members have discussed the need to modernize the city’s government structure.
No elected officials or city employees will be part of the committee, which will hold at least seven public meetings and will study how successful cities across the country structure their city council and how vacancies are filled, said Davis.