ASHLAND — A committee of seven Ashlanders will meet on March 18 to review the city’s home-rule charter, a document that sets the governing rules of Ashland.
Ashland City Council President Steve Workman appointed the group’s members. They are set to meet at 5:30 p.m. on March 18.
- Wendy Anderson
- Lanny O’Hale
- Barb Queer
- Matt Gorrell
- Eric Abel
- Jon Walk
- Bill “BJ” Harvey, Jr.
The committee is tasked with reviewing each of the 125 sections in the document. If any amendments or additions are requested by the committee, they must be presented to the council.
Council can then choose whether those recommendations will appear on the ballot so voters can decide.
Workman said any recommendations council chooses will appear on next year’s ballot. He said it’s too late to get anything on the November ballot. The Ashland County Board of Elections certified the ballot in February.
Ashland’s charter, adopted in 1914, states a Charter Review Committee should meet every seven years. However, the last time this formally happened was 2014.
At the time, the committee’s review led to three amendments to the charter. They dealt with city council’s deposit of money, the duties of clerk of council and rules surrounding alterations made to contracts.
The charter can be updated without a formal review. In 2018, council updated the charter to allow the Ashland City Health District to unite with a “General Health District.”
Overdue
Workman first announced his intention to form a committee in early February. He cited an Ashland Source article that found it had been 11 years since the last formal charter review process, making it four years overdue.
Since then, Workman said he and Ashland Mayor Matt Miller “went through it line by line,” but they didn’t find any “glaring issues.”
He said the city’s law director, Rick Wolfe, also went through it and that he did not have any recommendations on changes.
“But if you know the people (on the committee), you know they will take it upon themselves to find something,” Workman said. “And I hope they do because it shows they’ve taken it seriously.”
The meeting on March 18 is open to the public. It will occur in city council chambers at 5:30 p.m., before council’s meeting that begins at 7 p.m.