Reviewers question charter’s mayoral judicial powers and consider term limits

Charter reviewers spent a portion of the meeting examining Section 2.05’s judicial powers and whether Norton should retain language permitting a mayor’s court. Mayor Zeta joined the meeting to recount the city’s former mayor’s court and recommended removing or qualifying those powers in the charter.

Mayor Zeta described the historical setup: a magistrate, full‑time court clerk and prosecutors attended mayor’s court, and when those costs were tallied the city determined the practice was a net budgetary loss and ceased holding mayor’s court. "When I first became mayor, we had mayor's court... it was costing us as a city money," he said, and noted Ohio law later required magistrates with specific training, increasing the expense.

Members agreed to research what would be required to reenact mayor’s court and whether the charter should keep, remove or more narrowly qualify the mayor’s judicial authority. The group also agreed to update archaic statutory language — replacing terms such as “state militia” with "Ohio Organized Militia" and the federally accurate "reserve components of the United States armed forces," with a staff member citing Ohio Revised Code section 5923.01 for reference.

Separately, Michael (a committee member) proposed adding a lifetime term limit for mayor — five terms (20 years) — to prevent entrenchment. Several members pushed back, noting Norton’s small size and recurring unopposed races mean term limits could unintentionally reduce available candidates; others said limits encourage turnover and new leadership. The committee did not adopt term limits and asked for further research and drafting options.