www.teachingcleveland.org
The link is here
Here is excerpt:
From Mike Curtin speech
at League of Women Voters of Ohio
Statehouse Day 4/11/18
One of the first league initiatives I learned about was one to bring fair districting to our state. That was 45 years ago. The league’s work never stopped, through Democratic governors and Republican governors. Within Democratic-controlled legislatures and Republican-controlled legislatures. Consistency. Relentlessness.
The league’s efforts – your efforts — were indispensable to securing the ballot issue of November 2015, a state constitutional amendment providing Ohioans with a historic reform of how we draw state legislative districts.
It was that success that provided the essential momentum for securing the ballot issue we face next month, giving Ohioans the opportunity to embrace a historic reform of how their state draws congressional districts as well.
Putting the voters first.
All of us have an obligation to keep working through May 8 to ensure that State Issue 1 not only gets over the finish line, but that it wins with a sizable majority – as Beth Taggart has reminded me, and Ann Henkenerhas just reminded all of us – so that all future legislators are reminded of to their moral obligation to stick to the rules when drawing congressional district lines.
The Ohio Democratic Party and the Ohio Republican Party have officially endorsed State Issue 1. Please give not only yourselves – but especially your countless predecessors – a round of applause for this historic achievement. It has only taken the entire history of our state of Ohio to get to this moment.
Michael F. Curtin
4/11/18
The districts cynically split counties, cities, villages, townships and neighborhoods. The current map splits county boundaries 54 times. Seven counties are split among three or more congressional districts.
The districts twist and turn like snakes and other creatures, none more blatantly than the 9th Congressional District, which slithers along the Lake Erie shore from Toledo to Cleveland.
Central Ohio’s three congressional districts also are geographic absurdities, needlessly dividing neighborhoods, school districts, other governmental units and their concerns. Ohioans deserve congressional districts that respect them and the communities in which they live.
Contorted, meandering districts, in Ohio and other states, are a prime reason congressional politics are poisonous — as partisan and ugly as ever in modern times. They encourage extremism, discourage bipartisanship, and sabotage efforts to find common ground.
Fortunately, Ohioans soon might have an opportunity to support a statewide ballot issue to end gerrymandering in our state.
A coalition of nonprofit organizations, called Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio, has submitted a plan to the Ohio attorney general to place an issue on the statewide ballot in November 2017 or November 2018.
Once the attorney general’s office validates the summary language as fair and truthful, it goes to the Ohio Ballot Board for certification.
The reform coalition then must gather at least 305,591 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters — 10 percent of the number voting in the most recent election for governor.
The plan should win wide acceptance, chiefly because it mirrors the reform plan for state legislative districts overwhelmingly approved by Ohio voters (71.5 percent) in November 2015. It won big in all 88 counties.
The current districts were drawn in 2011 and will stay in place until after the 2020 census. New districts must be drawn in 2021 in time for the 2022 elections.
The proposed plan would take the map-drawing job away from the state legislature and give it to the bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission. The commission would be required to draw districts that are compact, do not favor or disfavor any political party, and keep communities together as much as possible.
The League of Women Voters of Ohio, one of the coalition partners, has been working doggedly on this issue for four decades, through Democratic and Republican administrations and legislatures. The league deserves widespread support for its steadfast efforts to add Ohio to the ranks of states putting citizen interests ahead of power politics.
Details of the proposed amendment, and information on getting involved, can be found at fairdistrictsohio.org.
Fortunately, in the past year some of Ohio’s leading Republicans have challenged their party to take a lead role in ending gerrymandering. They include Gov. John Kasich, Secretary of State Jon Husted and former governors Bob Taft and (the late) George Voinovich.
Several years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy — an appointee of Ronald Reagan — said of gerrymandering: “It is unfortunate that when it comes to apportionment, we are in the business of rigging elections.”
Ohioans of every political stripe should embrace this opportunity to slay the gerrymander and end rigged elections.
“Transportation in Northeast Ohio.
Where’s the equity?”
Wednesday June 14, 2017 7:00-8:30p.m.
Cost: Free & Open to the Public
Urban Community School 4909 Lorain Avenue, Cleveland OH 44102
RSVP here Event flyer here Preview here
Panelists:
Derek Bauman, Vice Chairman, All Aboard Ohio
Grace Gallucci, Executive Director, NOACA: Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency
Hunter Morrison, Senior Fellow, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs
Akshai Singh, Member, Clevelanders for Public Transit
Moderator: Ginger Christ, Reporter, Plain Dealer
This panel will discuss the role transportation plays in creating more equitable communities. It will tackle how to offer affordable public transit and design infrastructure to meet the needs of residents throughout the region and examine the funding challenges in doing so.
Ginger Christ
Co-sponsored by the Urban Community School, Case Western Reserve University Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, League of Women Voters-Greater Cleveland, Cleveland.com plus Lakewood, Heights and Cuyahoga County Library Systems
Corporate sponsor: First Interstate Properties, Ltd.
For more information, email: teachingcleveland@earthlink.net
Edward “Ned” Hill, John Glenn College of Pub Affairs, The OH State Univ.
Moderator:
Dan Shingler, Crain’s Cleveland Business
Dan Shingler
Co-sponsored by the Case Western Reserve University Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, League of Women Voters-Greater Cleveland, Cleveland.com, Plain Dealer and Cuyahoga County Library Systems
Corporate sponsor: First Interstate Properties, Ltd.
For more information, email: teachingcleveland@earthlink.net
East Side Development: Prospects for Reinvention
Tuesday May 9, 2017
7-8:30p.m. Cost: Free & Open to the Public
Cleveland Hts/University Hts Public Library, 2345 Lee Road 44118
RSVP here Event flyer here Preview story
Panelists:
Joyce Braverman Director of Development, City of Shaker Hts.
Mansfield Frazier, Journalist, Business Owner and Hough Resident
Wayne Mortensen Director Of Design, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress
Rick Semersky Developer/CEO, VIP Restoration, Inc.
Moderator:
Terry Schwarz, Director, Cleveland Urban Design Collab., Kent State Univ.
Cleveland’s east side/west side rivalry is a tired cliché—one that’s counterproductive to our ability to move forward as a region. Major investments and new opportunities exist on both sides of the river. But there are some key differences. Some of the most exciting recent developments (Hingetown! Gordon Square! The Lakewood Solstice Steps!) are west of the river. And many of Cleveland’s most distressed neighborhoods lie to the east.
This forum will explore established development strongholds on the east side, as well as emerging neighborhoods. What are the progress indicators and how can we advance development prospects and public space investments in ways that benefit the broader community? Panelists include people directly involved in the hopeful, and sometimes frustrating work of regenerating city neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs. The forum will highlight current efforts and engage participants in a conversation about local and regional priorities.
Terry Schwarz
Co-sponsored by the Case Western Reserve University Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, League of Women Voters-Greater Cleveland, Cleveland.com plus Cleveland Hts/University Hts, Lakewood and Cuyahoga County Library Systems
Corporate sponsor: First Interstate Properties, Ltd.
For more information, email: teachingcleveland@earthlink.net
Editorial: Protect integrity of Ohio’s constitution
Columbus Dispatch 4/2/2017
The link is here
Ohio voters should be given the opportunity to ease the process of initiating state laws.
They also should be given the chance, in a separate ballot issue, to decide if initiating constitutional amendments should be more difficult.
Both would require amending the Ohio Constitution, which only voters can do.
For nearly three years, a committee of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission has studied possible changes in initiated statutes and initiated amendments.
Only 15 state constitutions give voters the right to initiate both laws and amendments. The Ohio Constitution has provided those rights since 1912.
Since then, Ohioans using their constitutional rights to engage in direct democracy overwhelmingly have favored the amendment over the statutory route.
Of 80 attempts to initiate policy, petitioners have chosen to try to amend the constitution 68 times (85 percent). Initiated laws have been adopted only three times, most recently in 2006 to restrict smoking in public places.
Statehouse Democrats and Republicans agree that petitioners usually choose the amendment route for two reasons.
First, the requirements for getting on the ballot are nearly as difficult, and therefore nearly as costly, for a proposed law as for a proposed amendment.
Qualifying a proposed law for the ballot requires petitioners, as a first step, to collect signatures equal to 3 percent of the electorate. The proposal then goes to the General Assembly, which has four months to adopt, reject or modify it.
If the legislature rejects or modifies the proposal in a way unacceptable to petitioners, they must restart the petition drive and collect an additional 3 percent, totaling 6 percent of the electorate.
Second, even if Ohioans proposing an initiated law are successful in the election, nothing prevents the legislature from later repealing or amending the voter-approved statute.
Given these disincentives, petitioners rationally choose the amendment route. Voter-approved amendments, like the rest of the constitution, can only be changed by a public vote.
As a result, over time the Ohio Constitution becomes weighted with ornaments more suited to the Ohio Revised Code, such as livestock-care standards and casinos.
That’s why the modernization commission is considering how to ease the process of initiating state laws, and how to make the amendment process more difficult.
An idea gaining momentum is to create a 5 percent signature requirement for initiated laws, eliminate the supplementary petition requirement, and prohibit the General Assembly from changing any voter-enacted law for five years, except by a two-thirds vote.
Such a proposal has merit standing alone. However, majority Republicans appear intent on marrying it to a proposal requiring proposed amendments to receive 55 percent approval to win passage. Republicans also want to restrict initiated amendments to general elections in even-numbered years.
Some states have supermajority requirements for voter-initiated constitutional amendments. Florida, for example, requires 60 percent approval. Nevada requires a majority vote in two consecutive elections.
There is much to commend efforts to make initiated laws easier and initiated amendments harder.
However, the cleanest way to present these alternatives to voters is in two separate issues, not a combined one. When dealing with proposed changes to fundamental constitutional rights, voters should have an opportunity to judge each on its own merits.
Originally appeared in Columbus Dispatch. Reprinted with permission
Cleveland Council Forums – August 2017