BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- After considerable debate and some revisions, city council agreed Wednesday to put four charter amendments on the Nov. 3 ballot -- but two that failed are being reconsidered at a special meeting today.
"These are things we're sending to the voters, and we can't even agree on them!" exasperated Councilman Danny Crank exclaimed Wednesday. "Let's vote it down and start all over again."
That suggestion, however, fell by the wayside -- and council plowed through four amendments, each containing multiple, unrelated provisions.
Council intends to ask voters to approve four amendments that would restructure departments overseeing city personnel, allow city council members to increase their $300-per-year salary, allow council members to campaign for another elected office without forfeiting their council seats, provide additional compensation to the city manager under certain conditions, and regulate the initiative and referendum processes.
"The patchwork quilt of changes and amendments and revisions dating back to 1928" is difficult to understand, Vice Mayor Adolf Olivas said. "It sometimes befuddles the imagination to determine what indeed we mean by our own words."
City council should have instead revamped the entire charter as a whole, he said, adding, "We missed the boat, the opportunity to present a new charter for the city of Hamilton."
Mayor Tom Nye countered, "This may not be the best product in the world, (but) I think it's moving forward."
The main provisions of the two amendments being discussed today would:
Take away the city clerk's ability to hire and fire the clerk's own employees and give that power to council; change the number of votes needed to adopt legislation; and add a procedure allowing council members to sanction each other with a civil penalty if they interfere with appointments or removals of city employees.
Allow council to make payments as a moral obligation if a majority of council agrees; and give the finance director sole responsibility over bond retirement funds, a responsibility now shared among the finance director, law director and mayor.
The deadline for presenting the proposed charter amendments to the Butler County Board of Elections is Aug. 20.
