A newly formed group made its presence known at Tuesday’s meeting of the Marysville City Council.
During the hearing of citizens portion of the meeting, resident Amy Potter Grimm informed council of the newly formed SMART coalition and its intent to file a pair of petitions to amend the city charter.
Potter Grimm explained that SMART stands for “Supporting Marysville Amending Referendums and TIFs.”
Potter Grimm, who does not live in the city but lives inside the school district, said the committee is made up of “residents, parents, grandparents, alumni, teachers and concerned citizens all working together.”
“Our goal is to petition to amend the Marysville Charter for the benefit of our community,” she said.
Potter Grimm said she has met with many residents and others connected to the school district.
“There is an abundance of pride in our community, but mixed with issues of concern,” she told council.
She said it was that concern that led to the committee formation.
Potter Grimm presented council and others with a pair of petitions.
The first petition would allow the voters to decide on a charter amendment to prohibit the creation of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts for housing without approval of the Marysville School District.
“This means that the Marysville Exempted Village School District Board of Education has a seat at the table when approving certain TIFs,” Potter Grimm said, adding that other communities have similar requirements.
A TIF is an economic development tool that diverts a property’s tax payments from things like schools, libraries, mental health and other entities that rely on property tax revenue, to the city for projects related to that property. While the property owner pays its full tax bill, the money goes to the city rather than those other entities.
The petition language specifically lists “any permanent building or portion thereof which is designated or used exclusively for residential occupancy including, but not limited to, apartments, houses, townhouses, retirement communities or condominiums.” The current city council has a moratorium on residential TIFs for at least two more years. However, an apartment complex is considered commercial not residential so it would not be part of that moratorium.
The second amendment would allow referendums to be filed within 60 days of any zoning or annexation legislation. It would also prohibit city council from passing zoning or annexation legislation as an emergency. Currently, citizens have up to 30 days to file a referendum on legislation. Emergency clauses make legislation effective immediately and remove the opportunity to referendum legislation.
Potter Grimm said she and others would be around the community gathering signatures.
According to the ORC, a referendum request would need 10% of the number of city voters casting ballots for governor in the last gubernatorial election. The petition would need 804 signatures to hit the threshold of 10% of the 2022 gubernatorial election.
Once signatures are collected, the petitions need to be filed with the city, which has at least 10 days to verify the validity of the petitions. City officials must then submit the petitions to the Union County Board of Elections for a review of the signatures. If the Board of Elections verifies the petitions have enough signatures, the issues will be placed on the ballot.
Neither Potter Grimm nor the petitions indicated when the group would like to see the initiatives on the ballot.
Council member Scott Hunter said he is “curious to read the detail” and understand how a referendum petition on the charter would work.
He said the city already has “methods to change our city charter.”
The city charter is reviewed every 10 years. A Charter Review Committee makes recommendations for changes. City voters approve or reject the amendments.
Hunter said he “sat in on” the most recent Charter Review Committee in 2021.
“Certainly when there are signatures, that is something to pay attention to,” Hunter said.
He said he wants to read the petition further.
Even so, he said that, “when we have community members that are engaged and bringing items like this forward, it deserves our attention.”