CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — An appellate court has once again declined to decide which body rightfully governs Nelsonville.
In its decision issued Wednesday, June 10, the Ohio Fourth District Court of Appeals said that because the constitutionality of an August 2025 city ordinance remains in question, it could not decide whether the statutory or charter-based council should govern the city.
Currently, two groups claim they are the rightful governing body of the city. One group meets at city hall every other Monday and has control over city finances and personnel. The other meets at The Lodge at Hocking College, on the first and third Mondays of each month; its decisions will be largely symbolic until a court rules otherwise.
The group that meets at city hall is operating off the Nelsonville City Charter that residents voted to abolish via a ballot initiative, Issue 23, in November 2024. The abolition was to take effect Jan. 1 of this year and revert the city back to a form of government determined by state statute.
In August 2025, the charter council passed Ordinance 54-25, repealing passage of Issue 23. The council said the city charter allowed it to repeal the voter-passed initiative. However, by then it was too late for the Athens County Board of Elections, which had already approved offices based on Issue 23 to appear on ballots for the November 2025 general election.
Elections for mayor, city auditor, city treasurer, city law director, seven city council members, and council president took place in November 2025.
Nonetheless, the government based on the city charter continued to govern out of the city hall.
In February, those elected based on Issue 23 filed a memorandum in the appellate court to support their quo warranto action, arguing that Ordinance 54-25 was unconstitutional and that they are the rightful officeholders.
The court agreed that those elected to statutory positions have a right to their positions:
They are the duly elected statutory officeholders for mayor, president of city council, and council members at large and are entitled to hold those offices. The official election results from the November 2025 election, the subsequent certificates of elections issued by the board of elections, and the official oaths of office all establish beyond doubt that the relators are entitled to hold their respective public offices.
But whether those operating under the charter “are unlawfully holding office depends
on whether Ordinance 54-25 is procedurally and or constitutionally invalid,” which the court declined to determine, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
The decision concludes that if a court with jurisdiction were to issue a judgment rendering Ordinance 54-25 invalid, then the elected individuals “would have the requisite authority to come before us and show that the respondents are unlawfully holding office.”
Without that judgement, “we find that relators have failed to meet their burden of proof that respondents are unlawfully holding office.”
Greg Smith, clerk of the statutory council that meets at Hocking College, told the Independent he doesn’t see the decision as a failure, but rather a redirection — to file again in the Athens County Court of Common Pleas.
“I don’t think that’s a loss,” Smith said. “It’s just an extra two or three months in court.”
Nelsonville City Council President Cameron Peck told the Independent Friday afternoon regarding the decision, “I wish that it meant more did change. As for now, it means that nothing has … I had a really high hope that we would get something out of the Fourth District that was final, or very close to final.”
Peck agreed with Smith’s assessment that a clear answer on the question around Nelsonville’s governments will likely come from a local judge in another few months. He believes that the Nelsonville City Council lawfully overturned Issue 23 via Ordinance 54-25.
Peck is opposed to abolishing the charter, but not to changes within the city administration, he said.
“There’s no reason that if people from Nelsonville wanted a mayor, that we couldn’t, through the charter, make alterations in the position, and have that,” Peck said. “I just think that Issue 23, specifically, was the wrong way … to go about abolishing a charter.”
Smith’s daughter, Andrea Nicole Thompson-Hashman, also has a case in the appellate court. Declaratory judgement in that case has been on hold pending judgement in the case that just concluded.
Thompson-Hashman ran for and was elected as the statutory city auditor.
Note: We updated this story around 4 p.m. Friday to include comment from a phone interview with Peck. It was updated shortly after to clarify and specify Peck’s comments on Issue 23.
