Charter review commission recommends keeping Medina charter largely unchanged

Norbert Mance, a member of the Charter Review Commission, told the Medina City Council finance committee the commission met three times in April to review the municipal charter and recommended leaving most provisions unchanged.

"I'm Norbert Mance, member of the Charter Review Commission," Mance said, summarizing the commission's work. He said the charter "was written in 1954," and noted its age when he added, "So it's 72 years old." The commission reviewed the document section by section and "accepted as is" most articles that the members felt had "withstood the test of time."

The commission discussed recurring, practical questions about how to determine a council member's residence in a ward if that member moves or faces a personal change. Mance described the commission's informal approach: members expect an elected official to "step forward and say that they no longer live in that ward and that they're resigning," because the group could not agree on a single fair, administrable test (for example, driver's license, utility bills, or where a person sleeps).

Mance said the commission also treated quorum for the commission itself as 10 members (out of 13) after review, reviewed provisions on mayoral powers and compensation and left those elements unchanged because mayoral compensation is "kind of...determined by the state of Ohio" for public elected officials. The commission reviewed nomination, initiative, referendum and recall sections and generally recommended maintaining current language. He said the group voted to accept the charter "as is" and planned to reconvene the commission in five years.

President (presiding officer) thanked Mance and other commission members for the work and the finance committee moved on to the listed agenda items.