A Newton Falls Charter Commission was formed to review and recommended changes to the village's charter.

 

Typically council appoints a commission every five years, but the council decided to appoint members to a commission and have the review about a year early. 

 

Members appointed to a charter review commission took their oaths of office.

 

One member resigned ahead of the meeting.

 

"City council felt they ought to have a special charter commission because we had a bunch of unworkable charter provisions. Some of them make no sense. Some of them are unconstitutional," said Newton Falls Acting Law Director Alfred Schrader.

 

The Law Director recommended around 20 changes including considering whether the mayor's salary of $4,800 a year is enough considering the amount of time required to do the job.

 

He also wants the review board to determine whether they want the Mayor to have more authority than he has.

 

The acting law director believes the salaries are low and wants members of the review board to consider whether the city council's salaries of 

$3,600 a year should be increased due to the amount of time required to do the job. 

 

The process to remove an elected officer shall be made only upon charges brought and signed by at least three Council Members.  The council shall use this Power to Remove Members sparingly and only for the most serious of offenses. ... For lesser offenses, that should be the decision of the voters.

 

He suggests broadening rules to remove a council member.

 

Your charter requires the Manager to be a resident of the city. That is completely unconstitutional. I will present to you a decision of the Ohio Supreme Court that declares that cities cannot have residency requirements for their employees. This should be eliminated from the Charter entirely.

 

The charter states that the Law Director shall serve under the supervision of the City Manager. Schrader says this violates Ohio Rules of Professional Practice.  Attorneys are at no time to be controlled by non-attorneys. He would say "Shall serve at the pleasure of City Council."

"He shall represent the City in all legal proceedings unless otherwise authorized b City Council, necessitated by contractual obligations or as required by law." ...

 

He suggests adding language stating that the Police Chief is in charge of assuring that all officers meet requirements of the Ohio Peace Officer's Training Academy and shall provide at least once per year opportunity for continuing police education to the officers.

 

 

Shaffer recommends removing power from boards to reprimand or remove board members and giving that power to council members. 

 

He suggests the line "The Zoning Administrator shall be chosen solely on the basis of technical and administrative qualifications" that you remove the word "solely." That would allow other qualifications to be used as may become necessary or advisable in the future. 

 

"The Charter Commission should consider whether there is a need to set forth a procedure to remove, reprimand, or suspend members of those boards and Commissions for particularly serious offenses. Right now, several of them apparently police themselves, which means they may not police themselves at all. Others have by-laws that cover this sort of thing," wrote Shaffer.

 

He suggested adding she, and her, since the Charter only uses the male term of him and his. 

 

The acting law director also recommended changing the charter review from five to every three years.

 

Charter Review Commission members are expected to review the entire charter over the next four months.

 

Julie Lemon, a Charter Commission member said, "People can come and listen to what is going on at our meetings."

 

The meetings will take place on Mondays at 6:00 pm. Please check the Newton Falls website or commission members to keep up with any schedule changes. 

 

"There's a lot of things that have some grey area in it, that needs some clarification in order to help our city run more efficiently," added Lemon. 

 

Some however say this is a power grab meant to silence board members and a council who didn't agree with the mayor and other council members. They say expect opposition. 

 

A public hearing will be scheduled after suggested changes are made and reviewed. 

 

Then voters will have the final say during the November 2022 election.