Columbus City Council will hold a public hearing Monday to discuss the Our City Our Say ballot initiative to change how council members are elected.
Negotiations between the council and the coalition failed, and now advocates are warning council may put forth a dueling ballot issue. The public hearing is set for 5 p.m. at City Hall and council is set to vote Monday Aug. 24 to put the Our City Our Say initiative on the November ballot.
"We plan to be there, and we encourage you to join us as we share about the conversations we’ve had and why we thought public hearings were necessary to move forward. We also expect to learn then what City Council is proposing (if anything)," the group said in an email message to supporters this week.
The Our City Our Say coalition wants only voters within each of Columbus' nine city council districts to be able to vote for their representative. Currently, every Columbus voter gets to vote for each council member.
Grassroots groups like Our City Our Say have tried to push this type of reform in the past, but nothing came to fruition. Voters approved an initiative that was supported by city council.
This system, where council members must reside within one of nine city council districts, had every voter in the entire city vote for each council member. In November, this resulted in District 7 Council member Tiara Ross narrowly winning the election citywide, but losing District 7 handily to challenger Jesse Vogel.
The Our City Our Say coalition said that after no deal was reached with city council after the members of the group's leadership and some city council members met repeatedly to negotiate and considered terms expanding city council by adding several at-large seats alongside nine true ward seats, campaign finance reform and even redrawing the current city council map.
In its message, the coalition said it won't rescind the charter amendment under any circumstances.
The group also warned council will propose its own ballot issue that contradicts the Our City Our Say effort. The message said it hopes that if council does propose something, that it is "complimentary" to this ballot issue.
Columbus City Councilmember Rob Dorans said in a statement to WOSU on Friday that at the public hearing, there will be proposals presented that address concerns such as racial representation in the council districts.
"While it’s unfortunate we couldn’t reach a final agreement on a single ballot measure, I appreciate their support for a potential second charter amendment proposal to address additional issues theirs does not," Dorans said.
Some advocates pushing to reform city council, like Johnathan Beard, said the borders for districts in the current map don't provide adequate representation to the city's Black population. The current ballot issue keeps the current map in place until after the 2030 U.S. Census triggers redistricting.
Dorans and Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin addressed the upcoming public hearing in a statement earlier this week. Dorans, who previously called the current system "stupid," reiterated that he believed council's current structure is in need of reform.
“The Our City, Our Say coalition has helped move this debate forward with an impressive organizing campaign. Over the past several months various members of the City Council, including myself, have met repeatedly with representatives from the Our City, Our Say coalition. These discussions identified important common ground on potential reforms to Council’s structure. Now is the time to bring more community voices to this discussion as Council considers the best approach towards putting these reforms before voters this fall," Dorans said.
Hardin said he believes issues of governance, representation and democracy are foundational for how the city can address all the other issued facing the city like housing.
“I appreciate the candid, good faith conversations that we’ve been having with advocates about how we can work together for comprehensive reform. This hearing is an opportunity to share some of those concepts with the public, receive additional feedback and allow Council to deliberate openly about them," Hardin said.
