Petitions Held Hostage

[Bill Call]

Day 5

[Michael Deneen]

You may want to add some text here.
Most people don't know what this means.

[Matthew Lee]

Please do. I have no idea what this post means.

[Brian Essi]

Day 6

[Matthew Lee]

Could someone please elaborate on this? I can use context clues but imagine it doesn't tell the whole story.

[Lori Allen _]

Where are the SLH attorneys?

[Bill Call]

Could someone please elaborate on this? I can use context clues but imagine it doesn't tell the whole story.

In the past the City would forward petitions in three days. It is now 6 working days since the petitions were submitted to the City.

Some suspect that the Mayor has ordered the law director to sit on the petitions until it is to late for the Issue to appear on the ballot.

The issue is straight forward: are you FOR or AGAINST the City's agreement with the Cleveland Clinic. There is a good chance that a majority of the voters will vote against the agreement.

[Matthew Lee]

Thank you, Bill. Appreciate the information.

Whether one supports or is against the agreement, IMHO it is bad form not to forward on the petitions (assuming there is nothing wrong with them). Has anyone talked to City Hall to find out what the issue is with the hold up?

[cameron karslake]

I have no idea what Kevin Butler, our cities law director, is doing with the petitions but it is his duty to get them down to the Board of Elections so they can confirm or deny the signatures. As far as I know, they only people who decide if there are any problems with the petitions is the BOE. Here is the chain of command as I understand it:

SLH volunteers collect signatures on petitions
SLH officers collect petitions and notarize them
SLH hands over petitions to Mary Hagan, Clerk of Council, SLH is given a receipt for petitions handed over
Hagan hands petitions over to City law director Kevin Butler
Butler is supposed to get them down to the BOE in timely fashion, but someone is dragging their feet it seems.

Nothing like efficient government, huh folks?

[Bill Call]

It all seems a little fishy.

The spokesman for the Board of Elections said last week the issue would not be on the ballot even though the petitions were filed in time for the BOE to review them.

Is there collusion between the Mayor and BOE?

[Lori Allen _]

Bill,
If Summers might have a special connection to the BOE, that is a county office. Who is in charge of the county? Budish. When I ran for Ward 3 Council, although the persons at the BOE were very nice to me, I found that I could not always get a clear answer. Therefore, I contacted the Ohio Secretary of State's office, Jon Husted. His office over sees all the Boards of Elections in the entire state. They have a special division that may be able to answer questions about the referendum. They will inform you whether or not they feel that the city or county is in violation of the laws.

I suggest all of you contact the Secretary of State's Office and ask them for direction. The more calls they get, the more focused they will be on our particular subject. Remember, it takes a village!

Jon Husted
Secretary of State for the State of Ohio
180 East broad Street, 16th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
telephone #614-466-2655, 1-877-767-6446
TTY toll free 1-877-644-6889

[Dan Alaimo]

Any update?

[Bill Call]

The petitions may make it to the Board Of Elections today or Monday. The Board said they will have the review completed in three days. Council then has to vote to reaffirm their decision to close the Hospital. They could have the vote at a special Council meeting. If they don't have a special meeting then the Council vote will take place in the middle of February.

That leaves barely enough time to have the language approved and translated into Spanish.

I have been told that the BOE will act as quickly as possible.

I am assuming that the Council will not.

If the City sent the petitions to the BOE in three days as it did in the past, Council would be voting next week.

[Michael Deneen]

Petitions were delivered to the Board of Elections today (Friday).

[Dan Alaimo]

Thanks.