City Council Improvises a Ballot Issue

For the past week I’ve been asking the Columbus City Council a simple question and still have not gotten an answer. Multiple phone calls and text messages.

I am concerned about  two similar issues on this year's city of Columbus ballot - Issue 8 and Issue 9.

Issue 8 is the result of the Our City, Our Say citizen initiative making the nine Columbus City Council true ward-based seats. Each city district would have candidates running who live in the district, and only the people living in that district can vote for them. The ward-based voting is in contrast to the current system where you must live in the district to run to represent that district – but the voting is “at large” and the whole city votes for every seat. 

What happens if both Issue 8 and Issue 9 earn more YES than NO votes?

Members of City Council have been telling you:

* “Vote Yes on Both Issues,” without any clear explanation.

* “If both issues pass then Issue 9 becomes law,” although there’s nothing in the City Charter that makes this true.

I’ve called the Franklin County Board of Elections and after getting transferred multiple times I was finally told that, “Yeah, if both issues pass it will probably end up in pleas court.” At least somebody gave me some kind of answer.

But that’s the problem.

City Council has evolved into an organization that is not able to clearly communicate with the public. They only exist to manipulate the existing system for their own benefit. Is it any surprise that a diverse coalition formed Our City Our Say?

For starters, most people accept that City Council has stopped serving anyone other than the rich and powerful. Be it Zone In favoring the desires of developers instead of people, or the sheer insult to giving McCoy Park and 25 million tax dollars to a billionaire. They did that, and now won’t talk about it.

It is absurd to think that anyone on City Council still cares about anything other than their upcoming 32 percent salary increase or campaign donations.

I challenge you to vote as if your own democracy is under threat; because it is. If Issue 9 is passed, those 4 at-large seats on city council will be given away to the rich and powerful; those that can be easily controlled; those that are proficient at Instagram posts. Without all district representation Columbus will continue to fail the needs of the people.