Summit County residents will find two proposed charter amendments on their ballots, Issue 41 and Issue 42.
Summit County’s Charter Review Commission meets every five years to discuss potential amendments to the county charter, which details the laws, structures and procedures that the county uses to govern.
Get live election updates throughout the day and results after polls close at 7:30 p.m.
Summit and Cuyahoga are the only counties in Ohio that operate under a charter government model.
Here’s what voters need to know about issues 41 and 42.
Issue 41: Preventing nepotism in county charter offices
Certain family members of classified employees who earn at least $80,000 a year are prohibited from working for the county under the existing charter.
Issue 41 proposes three changes to Article V of the charter, where that rule is codified. The first change would clarify that the rule only applies to relatives of employees in county charter offices — those include the county executive, the county fiscal officer, the county prosecutor, the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, the county engineer, the county sheriff and the members of the County Council, said Greta Johnson, a public information officer for the Summit County Executive’s office.
The rule would not affect offices that aren’t governed by the charter, such as Summit County Children Services and the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. All county-wide elected officials except for common pleas court judges are county charter offices, Johnson said.
The second change would add “aunt” and “uncle” to the list of relatives prohibited from employment. Under the current rule, spouses, siblings (including stepsiblings), children (including stepchildren), parents (including stepparents), in-laws, grandparents, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and first cousins are prohibited from employment if their relative works for the county in a number of capacities: As an elected county official, an unclassified county employee, a county employee at the level of director or a county employee whose salary exceeds $80,000 per year.
The final change would remove the $80,000 salary requirement, meaning there would be no pay floor for the nepotism prohibition.
Over the past several years, Summit County has faced hiring shortages in the sheriff’s office. Johnson described the department as “familial,” meaning multiple members of a family will often work in the sheriff’s office. The $80,000 cap was set in 2006 and at the time, covered the salary of many employees who made hiring decisions. However, because of inflation, today that salary more often applies to employees in highly skilled positions — such as those who work in the sheriff’s office and sanitary sewer services — but who do not make hiring decisions.
In the original provision, influence on the hiring process was what was being targeted, Johnson said, not salary.
“The goal is to allow for people who want to pursue a career in the same field as their brother or even perhaps their mother or father or sister, that they’re not prohibited, especially when these are jobs that require heavy training and they’re highly skilled,” Johnson said.
Here’s one potential scenario if Issue 41 passes: If a parent works for the sheriff’s office and earns $82,000 annually and does not fall under one of the other categories (as an elected county official, an unclassified county employee or a county employee at the level of director), their child would no longer be prohibited from being employed by the sheriff’s office or another county charter office.
Removing the salary cap would not change the existing charter language that prohibits the hiring of those related to an “elected County official, unclassified County employee, County employee at the level of Director.”
The proposal was brought to the charter commission by human resources, Johnson said.
Issue 42: Annual financial submissions
Issue 42 seeks to amend the county charter to require all county offices, agencies, authorities, boards and commissions to submit estimated revenues and proposed expenditures annually rather than quarterly.
Johnson said the goal of the proposed amendment is to standardize the county charter so that all financial reports are submitted yearly.
“The charter is not consistent, which happens,” Johnson said. “It happens in the Ohio Revised Code all the time. Changes get made to different sections all the time.”
Summit County’s finances — the budget, estimated revenues and proposed expenditures — can be viewed online at any time. Johnson said changing financial submissions to yearly instead of quarterly “reduces the unnecessary burden on staff.”
“I don’t want there to be any concern that there’s a lack of transparency on the county’s part,” Johnson said. “We’re just trying to standardize the practice.”