Barberton City Council on Monday approved a broad set of amendments to the city charter that change appointment rules for several department positions, require recorded meetings for boards in Article 6, add qualification language for some department heads and move several administrative updates toward voters on the November ballot.

The measures matter because they alter who appoints key city positions, adjust procedural requirements for boards and commissions and change how council-presented charter changes will appear to voters. Council members said the updates are intended to modernize language that has become outdated.

Councilwoman Gerhardt, chair of the Rules, Marking and Development Committee, presented the package and guided council through amendments and corrections introduced during the committee process. Dozens of separate draft amendments (ordinances 105 through 123 and related drafts) were considered and adopted individually by council during the meeting and then combined into a single package to submit to the county Board of Elections. Councilman Heideck moved to combine the charter amendments into one package; the motion was seconded by Councilwoman Gearhart and passed on roll call.

Among the changes adopted: amendments to Article 4 adding minimum qualifications for certain administrative positions (safety director, finance director, law director, service director and others); striking obsolete language that created or referenced a local Board of Health; adding a requirement that Planning Commission review the official master plan every five years instead of the previous “periodically” language; and creating a new Section 6.09 (as amended during the meeting) that requires boards and commissions listed in Article 6 to be video and/or audio recorded and the recordings posted. The council clarified on the record that the recording requirement was limited to boards and commissions called out in Article 6, not every body or panel referenced elsewhere in the charter.

Council members debated the merits of placing multiple amendments together. Councilman Heideck said adding qualifications to the charter for appointed positions could limit future flexibility, while Councilwoman Thompson warned that bundling controversial items—she specifically cited the move to nonpartisan elections—might cause voters to reject the entire package. After discussion, the council approved the combining motion, and the package will be forwarded to the Board of Elections for placement on the November ballot.

The council made several technical corrections to ballot language at the meeting after staff and council members identified inconsistencies between the ordinance text and the proposed ballot summary. Those corrections were made before final adoption of the relevant draft ordinances.

What happens next: the consolidated charter amendment package will be sent to the Summit County Board of Elections for inclusion on the November ballot. Voters will decide on the combined package; council members said they expect additional public outreach ahead of the election.