This story is part of Worthington Pulse's coverage of the July 13 City Council meeting.
Worthington voters will face four separate charter questions on the November 3 ballot, and Monday night's City Council meeting laid out what each one does and why they arrive as a package of four. Council heard a full walkthrough from the Charter Review Commission's chairperson, took public comment on both sides of the most contested changes, and passed the resolution that formally calls the special election. The ordinances that place the questions on the ballot get their public hearing and final vote on July 20.
How the four questions break down
The city charter requires a review commission at least every ten years; the last one convened in 2016. This year's 11-member commission met six times from April through June and worked through the charter article by article. Commission chairperson Rebecca Princehorn told council most of what it recommended is cleanup: practices that evolved over a decade, technology changes, and places where the charter and Ohio law have drifted apart.
Three recommendations go beyond cleanup, and the commission deliberately split them across separate ballot questions:
- The batch. Dozens of cleanup amendments bundled into one question, including the commission's plan to consolidate the Municipal Planning Commission, Architectural Review Board, and Board of Zoning Appeals into a single Municipal Development Commission with seven voting members. The batch also includes a provision that resolves conflicts between competing measures: if two conflicting amendments both pass, the one with more votes wins.
- The referendum window. A standalone question to shorten the time residents have to collect referendum signatures from 60 days to 30. Voters set the 60-day window in 2015 through Issue 38, which one council member recalled passed by roughly 250 votes.
- The signature threshold. A standalone question returning the number of signatures a referendum needs to 10 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, applied to ordinances only. State law had long used that 10 percent standard before jumping to 35 percent last year.
- The resident petition. A separate citizen-led amendment, circulated by the group Our City Our Vote, that has already been certified for the ballot. Law Director Tom Lindsey explained that council's role on this one is ministerial. The courts require council to submit a certified petition to the Board of Elections as proposed, while council retains full authority to amend or withhold the three commission ordinances.
Princehorn said the commission bundled its cleanup work deliberately, to avoid "loading it down with controversial aspects". Later in the discussion, a commission representative added that keeping the "two hot button ones out of the mix" protects the rest of the commission's work from sinking with them.
Two competing signature proposals
The most intricate part of the November ballot is that voters will see two different answers to the same question: how many signatures a referendum should require.
The commission's version returns to 10 percent of the last gubernatorial election, applied to ordinances only. The resident petition also uses 10 percent, but calculated from the last municipal election, a difference Princehorn estimated at roughly 300 signatures since municipal elections draw fewer voters. The petition also applies to "other measures" beyond ordinances.
Lindsey told council the petition's combination of "notwithstanding anything else in the Charter" with "ordinances and other measures" could be interpreted to broaden the right of referendum beyond what the charter has traditionally allowed. Princehorn put the concern bluntly, arguing that a low signature bar paired with a long collection window would let a small fraction of voters override council decisions: "Do you really want a minority [voting population] to run the city?".
Commission members described the balance they sought: a threshold low enough that a referendum is realistically achievable, but not so low that "a vocal minority" can stall city business. The resident petition itself, one noted, proved that 10 percent is a reachable bar.
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Residents pushed back
Two residents spoke, both critical of the referendum changes. One called the 60-to-30-day reduction "an egregious neglection of the will of the citizens" who set the 60-day window in 2015, and challenged the commission's stated concern that the longer window deters investment, stating: "Where are the facts to back this up?".
A second resident, the treasurer of Our City Our Vote, urged council to drop both referendum-related amendments entirely. The group's petition, the resident argued, simply reverts to what state law was before last year's change, and no referendum has actually been run under the 2015 rules: "We haven't seen any referenda".
Council leans toward letting voters sort it out
No council member proposed changing the commission's recommendations. Several said the decision belongs with voters. One noted that much of Ohio operates on a 30-day window, and another said 30 days "puts us back into the mainstream" among Central Ohio communities. Council Member Maria Ramirez said the 35 percent state threshold felt "out of reach" and "really anti-democratic," and that returning to a standard with a track record "makes a lot of sense".
On the board consolidation, Planning and Building Director Lee Brown told council the change is functionally a name change; all duties stay the same. He shared the numbers behind the streamlining argument: 30 to 35 percent of Architectural Review Board cases also require a Board of Zoning Appeals hearing, and 86 percent of BZA items are residential. The consolidation, he said, mostly spares homeowners repeat trips rather than benefiting developers.
What happens next
Council also passed the resolution ordering a special election for November 3. It's a procedural requirement, Lindsey explained, because the Ohio Constitution would otherwise push charter amendments to the 2027 municipal election. The special election happens on the same day, at the same polls, as this year's general election.
The four ordinances get a public hearing and council vote on Monday, July 20. The Franklin County Board of Elections and the Ohio Secretary of State set the final ballot language and assign issue numbers, which the city expects in the later part of August. Worthington voters have the final say November 3.
This is one of 3 Worthington Pulse stories from the July 13 meeting recap.