Proponents, critics debate what Issue 20 seven-district plan will mean for Lorain County

Issue 20, the so-called "seven districts" plan on the ballot in the Nov. 7 election, would alter the way Lorain County government looks and possibly how it operates. Known as the "Lorain County Appointive Executive Plan," it would create seven approximately equal representative districts of 45,000 residents based on a map created by a private political action group, the Citizens for Equal Representation. Each of the seven districts would be represented by an elected commissioner, turning the current three-member board into a seven-member board. Commissioners would each be paid $56,000, or about 60 percent of what they make now. No elected county offices would be eliminated and Issue 20 would not raise taxes, according to the ballot language. Critics, including county Democrats and unions, say the plan is drawn in a way that will create one-party rule by Republicans, whom they claim would end up with a 5-2 or 4-3 edge on a seven-member Board of Commissioners. Dr. Mark Sailing, of Cleveland State University and the Triad Research Group, used 2020 Census data to create the map at the direction of the Citizens for Equal Representation. The Lorain County Board of Commissioners held several hearings in July before voting to put the plan to voters. LC_Proposed District Map The districts are: District 1 - All of Amherst; wards 4 and 8 of Lorain; all of Brownhelm Township including the portion of Vermilion in Lorain County; Amherst Township excluding the portion of the township within South Amherst; and most of Elyria Township; District 2 - The city of Oberlin, the villages of Wellington, South Amherst, Kipton, Rochester, LaGrange, and Grafton and Henrietta, New Russia, Camden, Pittsfield, LaGrange, Grafton, Brighton, Wellington, Penfield, Rochester and Huntington townships; District 3 - Elyria Ward 3; North Ridgeville Ward 3 and precincts 4A, B, C, F, and G in North Ridgeville; most of Camden and Eaton townships; and Carlisle and Columbia townships; District 4 - Most of Elyria and a portion of Elyria Township; District 5 - Avon; wards 1, 2 and precincts 4D and 4E of North Ridgeville; District 6 - All of Avon Lake, Sheffield Lake, Sheffield and Lorain's Ward 1; and District 7 - Wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Lorain and all of Sheffield Township. After voting to put the issue on the ballot, Republican Commissioner Michelle Hung has since come out publicly against the plan. Her fellow Republican commissioners David Moore and Jeff Riddell remain firmly behind it, according to their public comments and interviews with The Chronicle-Telegram. Both have been longtime backers of the plan to increase the size of the county's governing body. Proposals for a county charter with a five-, seven-, nine- or even 11-member council have been drawn up in the past. All failed, and a subsequent ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court has made it difficult — or even impossible — to ever create a county charter form of government in Ohio again, officials have said. Eighty-six out of 88 Ohio counties have a three-member board of commissioners. Cuyahoga County and Summit County both have an 11-member council and an elected county executive, the only two Ohio counties with such a governmental structure. Supporting the plan Riddell and Moore have they plans to run for seats on the seven-member Board of Commissioners if the plan succeeds at the polls. A Henrietta Township resident, Riddell said he plans to run for the final two-years of his four-year term in District 2. He has said he isn't interested in serving more than a single four-year term on the Board of Commissioners. Moore, who served one term as commissioner from 2001-2004 and won his current four-year term in 2020, said he plans to run again for office in District 1 if the issue passes. He said Thursday that it would be a tight race. "It's the tightest district when you look at the numbers," he said. "I only won that (district) by 500 (votes). Trust me, I've already looked at all that stuff." if it doesn't pass, he plans to run again for his county-wide, at-large seat. Moore denied threatening to retaliate against any elected official who doesn't support or actively opposes Issue 20 when county budget hearings start later this year. "I never said that," he said Friday. He is being accused of what he said are "the kind of politics" his critics are accustomed to. Moore said he's been working on variations of the plan for more than a decade, and public campaign finance reports show Riddell has been a longtime financial supporter of the Citizens for Equal Representation. Moore said the plan originally was to replace the elected county treasurer and auditor, in particular, with appointed positions to prevent to stop elections that were no better than "popularity contests." Moore said the idea was to put more districts in play for election and seven seemed to be the most appropriate number in Lorain County. "We all felt that was a fair and equal way to do that," he said. Having three solidly Democratic districts and three solidly Republican districts, Moore said, mean that a seventh commissioner would have all the power to make decisions if there was a 3-3 tie. So a group of supporters approached Sailing and his Triad Research Group to design such a proposal. Moore then ran his 2020 campaign on creating that seven-district plan, while Riddell won his 2022 Republican campaign for commissioner. Moore said Friday that he believes "at least 30" people will run for election to the seven proposed seats on the Board of Commissioners if Issue 20 passes. "I know too many Democrats who are gonna run," he claimed. Asked to name them, Moore declined. "I'm not giving names," he said. "I know a lot of people are waiting until Nov. 8 to announced. There's a handful who are all ready to go. Nobody wants to spend money and run countywide. It's a hard race to run." Supporters of Issue 20 also say that running for a single district would be an easier campaign for a lot of candidates. It means more people running in primaries, more competition, "more people getting involved, more citizens getting involved," Moore said. "I want it on the ballot," he said. "I want the public to say yes or no. Whatever the public says, I'm OK with that." At Tuesday's Board of Commissioners meeting Riddell said the board can move money around in the county budget to deal with the increased salary requirements of a seven-member board. Commissioners will "take savings out of another line item" to fund the increase, he said. "I for one will work with other commissioners that the budget of the total commissioners office will not grow," Riddell said. Among the Democrats supporting the plan is Brian Hoagland, who is a member of the Citizens for Equal Representation. "I think that Lorain County is better off with more representation and two people not running the county based on political decisions," he said. "I don't care if it's Democrat or Republican, I just feel like two people making decisions is just not healthy. Right now, two members of the three-member board of commissioners can make a decision that controls what happens with taxpayer money with a 2-1 vote over their third colleague. Lorain County is "too big, too diverse" of a county to have just two commissioners needed to make a big decision, Hoagland said. He said he's not worried about critics who say the districts are drawn to favor Republicans and create a 5-2 or 4-3 Republican majority on a seven-member board of commissioners. There are too many independent voters in Lorain County for that to happen, Hoagland said. "One district might favor the Democrats, one district might favor the Republicans, but the rest are totally up for grabs," he said. "We'll get a lot of competition for those districts." One person who won't be running for commissioner is Hoagland himself. "Absolutely not," he said. "I have an extremely good job. I don't like politics. I hate the fact that this has gotten political. I don't want anything to do with politics. I'm just doing what I think is right." Critics: Issue 20 a power grab Opponents of Issue 20 include other countywide elected officials, public safety unions and associations representing county officials who claim the plan will strip them of power and responsibilities granted to them by state law. They say no one knows how much money it will cost, because no budget or proposed budget for the seven new commissioners and additional staff has been provided to the voters. Under Ohio law, the new commission could also choose to create new or duplicative departments under the appointed, not elected, county executive. The Lorain County Democratic Party is against the plan, previously calling it "gerrymandering on a local level" that will "result in bigger government and increased taxes for the residents of Lorain County." The party "is standing firm with our county officials, sheriff, labor and residents who know that Issue 20 means bigger government and higher taxes," county Democratic Party Chairwoman Sharon Sweda said. "(The) cost of those new employees will be more than salary and benefits. Payroll taxes for the seven (commissioners) and their staff will add even more." Lorain County "has been paying the price for mishandled county government since the administration change" in 2020, she wrote in a statement to the Chronicle. "Taxpayers have had enough." Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass, a Democrat, estimated the appointed executive plan would cost an additional $120,000 to $2 million for taxpayers to support the increase in the number of commissioners. Ohio Revised Code Section 302, the law behind the plan, has never been put into practice by any Ohio county is for one reason only: It's a "bad law," Snodgrass said. Snodgrass said the law would allow the seven commissioners to create new offices, such as departments of finance, law, personnel, detention and corrections that would either strip elected officials — the sheriff, auditor, treasurer, and prosecutor among them, and all of them Democrats — of their legal authority, duplicate county government responsibilities and even place hiring decisions for his office and others in the hands of the appointed county executive. Riddell countered Snodgrass' claim, saying the issue hasn't even been approved yet and there's no proof that the seven-member board of commissioners would create any of those new offices. Multiple local and statewide unions and associations of elected officials are against the plan, Issue 20 critics said. The Lorain County Deputies Association; Lorain County AFL-CIO; Ohio State Coroners Association; Ohio Recorders Association; County Engineers Association of Ohio, Ohio Clerk of Courts Association; the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio; the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association; Lorain County UAW CAP Council; Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson; Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti; and Rick Thomas and Rich Resendez, Democratic candidates for sheriff in 2024, all have come out against Issue 20. So too has the union representing Lorain County Jail staff. "In regard to Issue 20 I cannot express enough how horrid this would be to the citizens and workers of Lorain County," said David Edwards, union director of the Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association Lorain County Corrections Union in a statement provided to the Chronicle. "As the political atmosphere of the country, the state of Ohio, and Lorain County have become an unfortunate divide, it is very important for Lorain County to stand up for itself and come together against this issue." Issue 20 would "make Lorain County a fascist county, a government of authoritarian rule with no opposition to the governing body of Lorain County," Edwards wrote. "The authors of this proposal are commissioners Moore and Ridell. Commissioner Riddell is the second largest donor to Citizens for Equal Representation for Lorain County. Commissioner Hung is the only one to stand beside those of us opposing this issue and I commend her for that stance." The issue "will destroy the voice of Lorain County voters and we will never be able to change that with the passage of Issue 20. All of Lorain County will suffer with the passage of this issue. There is only one vote to save your voice in Lorain County. That vote is NO on Issue 20. Your next vote soon should be in removing Commissioner Moore and then Commissioner Riddell when that time arrives," Edwards wrote on behalf of his union members. The Lorain County Deputies Association, representing road patrol deputies in the Lorain County Sheriff's Office, also came out with a statement against Issue 20. Issue 20 "is just more bad business coming from Commissioner Moore and Riddell," LCDA President Adam Shaw -- a deputy, Ward 4 councilman on Sheffield Lake City Council and candidate for an at-large seat on Sheffield Lake Council on Nov. 7 -- said in a statement provided to the Chronicle. "So bad in fact, they won't provide any (proposed) budget numbers to anyone, even another commissioner." Hung has said she requested, but was refused, a cost analysis of the appointive executive plan by Moore and Riddell that would explain how much more money it would cost taxpayers. Moore and Riddell "seem to be hiding the truth about the proposed changes by not even talking about what the law says they 'shall' do," Shaw wrote. "Every good businessman knows what 'shall' means when it comes to contracts and legal documents, how do they (Moore and Riddell) not know?" The only thing Moore and Riddell "continually mention is how this will save money and how 'I'm willing to cut my pay and power to let other people have a seat at the table' but they won't produce numbers," Shaw wrote. "Quick math shows it does not save money right from the rip even with the reduction in salary. A little more math seems to show a potential cost of $2 million more then what is spent now," he wrote. "Maybe that's why Mr. Moore wants 'as much detail on these elected officials so that we'll decide if they are coming or not' when talking about the budget after the (Oct. 17, 2023) commissioners meeting that was caught on camera." Moore made that statement after Tuesday's (Oct. 17) Board of Commissioners meeting adjourned, at the 34:35 minute mark, in a video that can be watched on the commissioners' YouTube channel. Issue 20 is "a disaster," Shaw wrote. "It has already cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in flyers disguised as a county newsletter but clearly campaigning for the issue. Similar to how they used it to push the MARCS radio narrative! Speaking of radios, we still don't have them and our current radios have gone down a few times, but it's OK. We are not important." Commissioners seem more interested in awarding contracts to backers of Issue 20, pushing for the MARCS radio system with direct ties to campaign donors and current staff members and buying the Midway Mall, Shaw wrote. "It seems everything done by Mr. Moore and Riddell is riddled with red flags and holes. Issue 20 is no different and if passed, it will only get worse for all," he wrote. "The Lorain County taxpayers deserve to know the truth about issue 20 and I encourage Moore, Riddell and the others on the team to engage in a public debate with those against it to discuss the issue at length." Shaw then offered to "bring the beer and pizza." All Moore and Riddell "have to do is show up," he wrote. The FOP of Ohio called Issue 20 an "authority grab" that would "remove the jail from the sheriff and personnel matters from all county departments" in a post on its Facebook page on Oct. 13. Collective bargaining rights and the careers of Lorain County law enforcement officers are in hanging in the balance, the FOP wrote. Aden Fogel, a vocal critic of commissioners Moore and Riddell both at their meetings and online, is actively campaigning against Issue 20, publicly calling it an "evil plan" and handing out literature outside the Lorain County Board of Elections. He and Deb Coon, another Issue 20 opponent, have been criticizing Issue 20 on the Facebook group "Vote NO on Issue 20." The previously "public" group has since been changed to a "private" setting. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.