Columbus voters will decide two issues on the November that could reshape city council.
At Monday’s meeting, city council read the Our City Our Say charter amendment into record, which will be put in front of voters to ask whether all the nine existing council seats will switch from at-large voting to true district voting.
Council submitted what it described as a “complimentary” charter amendment, which would create a hybrid model, It would expand council to 13 seats, four of would be at-large seats and the nine others district seats. The council’s charter amendment would also call for the council district map to be redrawn in 2028.
Council member Rob Dorans praised the Our City Our Say coalition and local labor leaders. He said while negotiations to agree on a single amendment failed, he would support both amendments on the ballot.”
“I'm proud that all of those voices have come together really to rally around these two different ideas, to make sure that these two ideas can be submitted to voters and compliment one another to build something bigger and better that we can end this decades and decades and decades long debate once and for all here,” Dorans said at the meeting.
City Council President Shannon Hardin and Dorans both said they would support both amendments in November.
The council meeting was also interrupted by activists from the Safety Not Surveillance coalition. They came to submit nearly 700 signatures to council, which calls for the immediate removal of Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader cameras in the city.
One of the coalition members, Joey McQueen, said the city council’s public hearing addressing Flock cameras felt more like a way to try and placate Columbus residents than actually address their concerns.
“A lot of what we heard during that hearing was disheartening, to know that they didn't understand the magnitude of the flock cameras. The representatives for Flock did not have good answers to our concerns,” said McQueen.
No decision on the city’s Flock contract has been made. The contract is up for renewal in December.