NELSONVILLE, Ohio — Following an executive session, Nelsonville City Council engaged in lively discussion Oct. 14 about legal issues that could arise from language in a proposed ballot initiative to abolish the city charter — which city officials say was added without the city’s consent.
The complications arise, in part, through a murky timeline, according to City Law Director Jonathan Robe.
With a nod to the Athens County Independent’s reporting, Robe explained that initiative’s language says there’s a one-year transition period — but, in actuality, that period is “compressed to nine months.”
“It can’t be a year,” he explained. “Everything’s [the government transition] going to have to be done before August [2025] … when people who want to run for … office have to submit the nomination petitions. How are they going to know what office to submit those?”
The proposed ballot initiative also includes language that would allow the state of Ohio certain legal authorities “by which they could sue the city after the election to have this measure declared to be invalid,” Robe said.
The language of note within the proposed ballot initiative reads, “Shall the proposed ordinance to abolish the Charter and return to the same form of government as it had prior been adopted?” Robe said the clause was added by mandate of the Ohio Secretary of State, not Nelsonville City Council.
“I was not called, the city didn’t suggest that language,” Robe said. “That gives me deep concern about untangling these issues.”
It is problematic, Robe said, because “an ordinance — whether it’s passed by initiative or passed by council — is ineffective, legally, to abolish city charter.” It took “some investigation” to determine by whom the section was penned, he said.
“I’m not the Attorney General’s office so I can’t definitively tell you what they will or will not do,” Robe continued. “But what I can do is tell you what my legal analysis concerns me, in terms of the risks to the city. If the state of Ohio does [file the case], it would likely be in April [2025] — that’s halfway through the effective transition period.”
“If they file it, they’re going to ask the judge to pause the transition period,” he said, which “will be put on a judicial hold until that case is resolved.” Robe said it would then take three years to climb its way up the legal system to the Ohio Supreme Court, which has never decided on such a measure.
“Even if, at the end of the day, the Ohio Supreme Court upholds the ballot measure, it’s going to be years after the ballot measure’s one-year transition period,” Robe said. “In other words, it won’t be when the transitional elections will be held—it’s probably actually going to be 2027.”
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In other business, Nelsonville Police Department Chief Devon Tolliver reported that for the month of September, the Nelsonville Police department “had 342 calls for service, made 58 traffic stops and issued citations, investigated five traffic crashes, made 22 criminal arrests, and nine warrant arrests.”
A community member asked for a count of recent overdoses, which the chief did not have on hand but said will be available at the next meeting.
“In the last three years since I’ve been here, they’re definitely down,” Tolliver said. After serving as interim police chief for nearly a year, Tolliver became permanent chief of the Nelsonville City Police Department in November 2023.
Nelsonville City Council meets every other Monday of each month, at Nelsonville City Council Chambers, 211 Lake Hope Drive. Its next regular meeting will be Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. Meetings are live streamed on YouTube. Find more at cityofnelsonville.com.
Disclosure: Robe completed and filed incorporation papers for Southeast Ohio Independent News, the nonprofit that publishes the Athens County Independent. He also has provided the Independent with legal advice.
