March 6, 2024 I am James R. Stallard, husband of Joan B. Stallard, Trustee, owner of 202 South Edgewood Road, where we have resided 49 years. That property is served underground by Columbia Gas, AEP Ohio, Brightspeed and public sewer.
Three points on Resolution 2024-23:
1. The Resolution concerns an Agreement. The purpose of the AGREEMENT is “widening … Edgewood Road from Gambier Road … to … [Coshocton Road].” This has been a controversial matter for more than forty-five years, as residents have strongly objected to constant destruction of their quality of life by an ever-increasing flood of traffic. No one doubts that implementation of the AGREEMENT will increase the flood of traffic still more. The information provided by the city administration on March first about altering Edgewood Road is inadequate to the point of being an elitist insult, more effort to hide than to inform. At minimum, we residents need complete information about implementation of the AGREEMENT so we can judge how our properties might be affected and how negatively the increased through traffic will affect our property values and quality of life.
2. On June 18, 1990, the City levied a $50 fee to receive a petition requesting relief from the negative impacts on our neighborhood from poor planning and ever increasing traffic through our R-1 residential neighborhood. Our petition had 439 valid signatures. Everyone who ever had a civics class knew then and knows now that Amendment I of the Bill of Rights allows for the free “petition [of] the Government for redress of
grievances.” Nevertheless, it took a visit from the American Civil Liberties Union before the City refunded our money and considered our petition. Unfortunately, the City continued to fail in planning for the impacts of the development it didn’t just allow, but heedlessly fostered on Coshocton Road, Yauger Road and Upper Gilchrist Road.
3. City Council routinely adopts legislation including the phrase “and declaring an emergency.” Resolution 2024-23 has that phrase. The Ohio Revised Code 731.30 provides that "declaring an emergency" removes the possibility otherwise allowed by ORC 731.29 for signatures to be collected to place the matter on the ballot at the next general election. "Declaring an Emergency"; is for actual matters that must be attended to at the moment; all matters before City Council cannot be such "emergencies."
a. My neighbor Don Carr, who could not be here tonight, drew the phrase to Council’s attention and detailed the fact that, as of last November, all of the “40 Ordinances and 86 Resolutions” enacted by Council in 2023 had included the phrase and that all of the “49 Ordinances and 133 Resolutions” enacted in 2022 contained the phrase. It is an abuse of the law to use “and declaring an emergency” on every piece of legislation because the phrase preemptively prohibits voters from exercising the specific right of ultimate oversight of Council that is reserved to the public in ORC 731.29. By using the phrase routinely, Council, whether intentionally or otherwise, disenfranchises voters.
b. Consequently, if Resolution 2024-23 comes to a vote, it should be amended to remove the phrase “and declaring an emergency.” Likewise, the phrase should hereafter be confined to resolutions addressing actual emergency situations, examples of which appear in ORC 731.30. Declaring an “emergency” routinely should cease. And, it should not escape notice that the American Civil Liberties Union is now and has always been especially concerned with disenfranchisement of voters.