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Reynoldsburg council adopts rewritten municipal code in unanimous emergency vote to switch publishers
Summary
The council unanimously approved a single-read emergency ordinance to adopt a reorganized municipal code and move the city’s online publication from American Legal to Municode, a change city attorneys said is largely cosmetic and intended to avoid extra contract costs.
Reynoldsburg City Council on Sept. 8 voted 7–0 to adopt an updated, codified municipal code as an emergency measure and to move the city’s online code publication from American Legal to Municode.
City Attorney Shook told the Public Safety, Law and Courts Committee that the rewrite—covering Titles 1 through 17 and incorporating codified changes through Dec. 16, 2024—is primarily a cosmetic reformatting intended to make the code more readable for citizens. Shook said there are no substantive legal changes except targeted updates in the traffic and criminal code to mirror state law where appropriate. He described the work as an initiative of Clerk Molly Prasher and noted the city had worked with CivicPlus on the conversion.
The administration asked council to approve the code as a single-read emergency to avoid renewing or extending the city’s contract with American Legal, saving the city the cost of publication during the transition. Shook said Municode’s publisher relationship would allow the city approximately one month for publication and alignment with the contract expiration.
Committee and council discussion focused on transparency and timing. Council members expressed an interest in reviewing the detailed list of cosmetic edits; Shook said a lengthy itemized list is available for review and that subsequent changes after Dec. 16, 2024, will be incorporated in annual publications.
Why it matters: Adopting the reorganized code as an emergency lets Reynoldsburg avoid the immediate cost of extending its existing publication contract and puts the updated, user-friendly code online more quickly. The council’s unanimous vote sent the new codified ordinance into effect immediately as an emergency measure.
