Trish Bennett, Editor
CIRCLEVILLE – City voters turned down a proposal Tuesday to reorganize the city government under a local charter.
The charter was defeated with 400 votes (35.52 percent) for the proposal and 726 votes (64.48 percent) against, according to the Pickaway County Board of Elections. The unofficial results released Tuesday will be certified by the BOE at a later date.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Jean Droste, chair of the Circleville Charter Commission that has spent the past year developing the proposal to convert city government from a statutory form to a charter form. “I think it was a good form of government, but the voters have spoken.”
The 12-member commission was elected last May and met two to three times per month to develop the proposal that would have seen a city manager hired to run the administration of Circleville, among various other changes.
The commission, which was elected to serve a one-year term, will disband now that the issue has been defeated, and officials said they believe the idea of a charter will not be revisited in the near future.
City government will now continue as usual under the statutory rules of the Ohio Revised Code.
This article originally appeared on The Pickaway News Journal
