Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Charter Amendments topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Charter Review Commission asks Hudson voters to decide eight amendments, council accepts referral
Summary
The Charter Review Commission presented eight proposed amendments — including term limits for elected officials and boards, a recall threshold change, and rules for expenditure accountability — and council will forward the package to the ballot after required readings and a July 7 submission deadline was noted.
Rob Kagler, chairman of the 2025 Charter Review Commission, told Hudson City Council on July 15 that the commission had spent seven months drafting a 27-page ordinance proposing eight charter changes and prepared a 20-slide summary and individual fact sheets for each ballot issue. "The charter is like your local constitution," Kagler said as he described the package and the materials the city can use to explain the measures to voters.
The proposals include a broad group of general administrative edits (ballot issue 1) and seven individually numbered issues covering: term limits for mayor and council (three full four-year terms or a 12-year cumulative cap, effective after the 2029 elections); clarified or tightened term-limit language for boards and commissions; changing the recall petition denominator from ‘gubernatorial’ to ‘municipal’ turnout while keeping the 25% threshold; converting council pay from $80 per meeting to a monthly amount tied to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System minimum service-credit threshold; adding the Military and Veterans Commission to the charter; consolidating the park board, cemetery board and tree commission (and folding in the Environmental Awareness Committee duties) into a Park and Natural Resource Board; and a new charter section that would require entities that seek public money via city-referred levies to meet one of four accountability options for their governing board.
Kagler said the commission met 11 times for a total of 21 hours and 42 minutes, solicited 71 suggestions and offered two public-comment opportunities at each meeting; 15 people spoke to the commission. The commission approved all ballot issues unanimously except ballot issue 8, which passed with one dissenting vote.
Council members pressed for clarification on particular items. One council member asked why the draft removed the phrase "just cause" from Section 5.02 (the suspension standard for the city manager); the solicitor, Marshall Pitchford, said the change was intended as a clarification to align the charter language with Ohio employment-law terminology and not to lower the legal standard: "the phraseology that exists in employment law in general is simply 'for cause,' as opposed to 'for just cause.'"
Councilmember Aparna and others asked that the city provide a single public-facing source of accurate information before voters decide in November. Pitchford and staff confirmed Ohio law requires the city to prepare an objective summary of proposals and make it available to the electorate; staff said they will develop public materials and fact sheets the commission has produced.
Solicitor Pitchford also reminded council that the commission had submitted its final recommendations on July 3 and that the charter requires final commission recommendations at least 120 days before an election. That deadline means council cannot alter the commission’s proposals for the coming ballot, Pitchford said, though council could place a competing question on the ballot with five council votes. He noted a submission deadline to the Board of Elections of Wednesday, Aug. 6 at 4 p.m.
The ordinance submitting the charter changes (Item C25-111) was read into the record as a first reading. Council recorded no action to modify the commission's package during this meeting; next steps include continued public information work and three required readings before referral to the Board of Elections.
