The meeting consisted of a Zoom video conference with Mr. Warren Mendenhall and Mr. Logan Trombley of Mendenhall Law Group out of Akron, OH.
Mr. Mendenhall has significant experience in dealing with constitutional issues all across Ohio and in a few other states as well. His goal is to give control back to the people in the community rather than in the hands of a few people in power. He believes in local power and the ability to hold our leaders in check. Mr. Mendenhall has worked in many places fighting against all the Covid regulations – vaccines, school closures, etc. We need to fight back against all of the control and surveillance over our private lives. We need to push power back to the communities, not centralized.
Tom Ross summarized what’s going on in Findlay with the Strategic Plan. They’re going to keep coming after us, so we’ll need to keep fighting the same fight each time. They try and pass it under the emergency clause. Almost 90% of the city’s legislation is passed under emergency measures. They pass everything as an emergency so that it cannot be subject to a referendum, per state law. Normal legislation can be subject to a referendum. There is a process to fight “emergency” legislation, involving petitions and getting signatures within a tight 30-day time period.
We want initiatives that stop them from passing laws or doing things unless they put them before the people. We’re fighting everything reactionary, and we want to pass initiatives to prevent this, and we also want referendums to fight things that are already on the books.
There are two types of municipalities in Ohio: statutory and charter. Findlay is statutory. We have much less power in a statutory system.
It is possible to convert to a charter system, but that is a very long-term solution – it’s a huge project that likely takes at least 5-10 years. To do this, a commission is appointed to write a constitution. That allows the city to create laws that are different from the general state law. Through that, we can make things more or less strict, including how things go to referendum. Referendums typically only need 7% of voters from the last election, but you could set it even less than that.
For the short term, we can work on creating initiatives. Mr. Mendenhall’s office can help us vet that initiative and clean up the language. They can also help defend our effort to make sure that’s on the ballot. The process is fairly simple:
They can help us vet that initiative and clean up the language. They can also help defend our effort to make sure that’s on the ballot.The process is simple:
- Get a good idea (or a list of them).
- Rank which idea(s) are most important.
- Narrow it down to 4-5 initiatives.
- We come up with the initial language, then let them clean it up and put it in the right format.
- Then signatures (10% of the turnout of the last governor’s election). It’s on our time schedule to get signatures.
- Get it on the ballot.
- Initiatives can go on any election, as long as it is ready 60 days prior to the election.
- If you miss the time frame, it goes to the next election.
The city can work to oppose an initiative. If it’s an issue campaign, the city can spend some money to defend its position. We can prepare for that by analyzing the city and generating a grassroots effort – big social media effort, call people, knock on doors, etc. Get the message out to everyone in the city that we can, reminding them to go vote and get to the polls.
- Remember to pay your 2023 dues! These can be done via cash, check, or PayPal by creating an account on our website FindlayAreaRentals.org. Dues can be mailed to us at PO Box 221, Findlay, OH 45839. See interim treasurer Katie Erickson for any questions on that.
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