Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

The headline in the TWIP says, ?“City Calls Initiative petitions invalid.?” Who says they are invalid? None other than, Bob Mapes, the law Director for the city. Stop and think about something here folks. Did the Ohio General Assembly create a law that allows its citizens to circulate initiatives petitions to change the city charters? Why would someone want to run around in the middle of the winter gathering signatures? I would think the reason is that if the city government ignores it citizens and the citizens want change then this is a way of getting the change made.

If the Ohio General Assembly then allows the city to validate the petitions it makes the law useless doesn?’t it? If the City, in this case, has to hire a $200 an hour attorney and it takes him a month to find something wrong with the petitions, then that should tell you all something. You give any attorney that much time and all this money and they will find something, but will it stand up in court?

The fact here is that the city doesn?’t have the option to review these petitions. The city Auditor is allowed to hold the petitions for ten days and then they must send them to the board of elections. Our city auditor doesn?’t have any other options. She is violating the law in my opinion. Yet we have all these ?“seasoned?” city councilmen accepting the word of the law director with no effort to look out for their own citizens. Who and why were they elected? If they are our representatives then why are they not asking questions? Simply, they don?’t care about the 345 people that signed these petitions and who want these issues on the fall ballot. They fear that they will be overwhelming defeated in their policies if the three initiatives are placed before the people.

They are going to force the circulators to hire an attorney and fight this in court. What happens if the circulators win the case? Then the city has spent large amounts of your money to fight against its own citizens. The fact here is that the board of elections is the only one that determines the validity of the petitions not Bob Mapes. These folks at 100 Lockville will go to these ends to deny you your right under the Ohio Constitution.


By Dr. Pepper

Legal Beagles ?–

Compare and Contrast ?–
This Week in Pickerington (2/6/02) page #3
Law Director recommends nixing initiative petitions ?–

...?”since the petitions don?’t contain the felony language?” (a change only approved August 2001 by the legislature / Secretary of State / Board of Elections), ?“they would be invalidated by any court or board of elections.?” *information in parenthesis added for clarity.

?“Special Counsel Don McTigue helped examine the validity of the signature petitions.
Mapes (Pickerington?’s Law Director) said, McTigue is charging the city an hourly fee for
his work and estimates he is charging a normal rate of between $185 and $200 an hour.
Mapes said in a interview last Friday that steps had been taken longer than anticipated
because he, like McTigue, has other daily duties.?”

Let?’s look at someone else?’s past experiences of Mr. McTigue ---
CCATT (Citizens Caring About Their Town) ?– Plain City, Ohio
Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 6 October 2001 page #2

There is a link to the CCATT group under the Links section.

Regarding their Community Referendum ?–

?“This referendum has nothing what so ever to do with Mr. Stutzman, the property
owner, not getting his retirement money. The problem here is Mr. Stutzman hired a
lawyer .......?” ?“ in negotiating a contract with Dominion to buy his property. Mr.
McTigue, Mr. Stutzman?’s attorney, in negotiating this contract allowed Dominion Homes
so many if?’s that Dominion does not even own the property as of today.?”

?“To make matters worse, Mr. McTigue filed a protest on this Referendum .......?” ?“This
protest was about a missing comma, and acres rounded off. The Board of Elections voted
unanimously after a 40 minute hearing that this was a misuse of the intent of the law to
protest a Referendum and officially threw out this challenge.?”

Factoids ?–

1. Plain City residents passed this referendum and similar referendums plus an initiative
last November.

2. Mr. McTigue is counsel on the ?“No On State Control of Property Rights?” a group
Pickerington has financed $149,500.00 to fight the annexation reforms of Senate Bill 5.
See the details of articles posted in ?“Our Pages?”
This issue is now in a Franklin County Court......
cha ching, cha ching, cha ching.

3. Mr. McTigue is counsel on the Fairfield County Clerk of Courts Case # 2001 CV 00697 regarding the potential improper use of municipal funds case ......
See the details of articles posted in ?“Our Pages?”
cha ching, cha ching, cha ching.


So noting above information is that Referendums (and therefore Initiatives) are to be
checked by the BOARD OF ELECTIONS. No legal beagles required........

REFERENDUM ??????????????

Mr. Harding you are missing something here in your comments. First, Plain City is running referendums on zoning issues. Referendums are not allowed here in Pickerington. The City Council passes everything by emergency here so that folks that are concerned have no recourse. Other than that, you pointed out some important facts about Pickerington?’s $200 an hour attorney.

By Dr. Pepper

BY THE PEOPLE .......

Dr. Pepper,

It was not my intention to ?“miss something?” ?– but more to state the facts. Those individuals that have paid attention to the local situation would agree with your assessment of lack of ability to seek the Constitutional powers granted by the Ohio Constitution for the Pickerington citizenry.

January 2001 ?– 490 signatures collected on a zoning (R4) referendum are overturned by the 7 on Pickerington City Council via repeal of the original ordinance and passage of repetitive R4 ?“Emergency?” Ordinances.

February 2002 ?– approximately 345 signatures collected on (3) various initiative petitions and one official questions the date of the forms used.

Again, to be specific, the facts listed below are notes from the Ohio Constitution.

Ohio Constitution. Article II ?§ 1c Referendum petition;
Text of Section
The second aforestated power reserved BY THE PEOPLE is designated the referendum,

(Adopted September 3, 1912.)


Ohio Constitution, Article. II ?§ 1a Initiative petition;
Text of Section
The first aforestated power reserved BY THE PEOPLE is designated the initiative

(Adopted September 3, 1912.)