After decades of debate over whether Columbus City Council should switch from an at-large election system to district representation, the districts question is again heading to voters.
But a second, more complicated question could also appear
on the ballot. Columbus City Council has effectively a week to decide whether to place a proposal on the ballot alongside the citizen-led Our City, Our Say coalition's "simple fix."At a hearing on Aug. 17, multiple City Council members and the vast majority of speakers expressed support for district representation, but some want to preserve a few at-large seats. Influential leaders for city labor and civil rights groups for the first time weighed in publicly and came out in support of council addressing
more complex reforms.
Two city labor union officials and Jamie Shumaker, executive director of the Central Ohio Labor Council AFL-CIO, testified in support of preserving some at-large council seats. Columbus NAACP President Sean Walton and some other Black activists testified in support of redrawing the council map, which they say was never drawn to be a voting map and has no majority-Black district.
Some Our City, Our Say coalition leaders appeared open to the council getting involved to add a few at-large seats, update maps and address campaign finance reform. Other residents, some of whom gathered signatures for Our City, Our Say, rejected a hybrid compromise and defended a district-only model where only residents of the district vote for their council representative instead of the whole city as is the current model.
No one person speaks for Our City, Our Say. The broad, grassroots coalition includes former council candidate Jesse Vogel, Columbus Stand Up, the Democratic Socialists of America, Indivisible Central Ohio and the Columbus Education Association.
A handful of leaders of the coalition have spent about two months in weekly negotiations with City Council members on a compromise ballot measure. Chris Tavenor, one of the coalition leaders who attended negotiations, said the conversations were collaborative and candid.
"Ultimately, our coalition decided to not rescind our charter amendment," said Tavenor. "We thought that doing so would do a disservice to the 23,000 people who signed [the petition to put it on the ballot] and the 250 volunteers who gathered signatures."
Tavenor said the coalition has varying opinions but they gathered signatures to put a "simple fix" on the ballot because they all believed this measure is the most strategic way to begin reforming the council, with more reform still needed.
The Our City, Our Say coalition's charter amendment that's headed for the ballot would turn Columbus into a true district system where the nine members are voted on only by their districts' voters.
Council President Shannon Hardin, President Pro Tempore Rob Dorans and at least some other members support a hybrid system with districts balanced by some at-large seats.
Dorans told The Dispatch he will draft legislation for other members to consider ahead of the council's Aug. 24 meeting, effectively the last meeting before the Franklin County Board of Elections needs ballot language for the Nov. 3 election. Seven of the nine councilmembers must vote in favor for the measure to make the ballot.
Tavenor and other coalition leaders who presented at the hearing committed to not opposing the council measure as long as it does not contradict the Our City, Our Say measure.
Dorans did not yet have firm details on the proposal after the hearing, but said it will include no more than four at-large seats, reflecting the last proposal that was being discussed between Our City, Our Say negotiators and the council before talks ended.
"I believe a true hybrid system can address the long-standing advocacy for district representation within this system while also ensuring there are council members who view the entire city as their constituency to focus on issues like housing, homelessness, public transit, infrastructure investment and other issues that concern our city as a whole and know no neighborhood boundary," Dorans said during the hearing.
Shumaker said preserving some at-large seats is a "non-negotiable" for labor.
"Without an at-large representation, the only person who speaks for everyone is the mayor," Shumaker said. "That is too much weight on one office."
Will Harmon, president of the city's largest union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1632, said in his submitted testimony that he can agree something about the system needs to change.
"When those storms hit last week, my members did not ask which district needs help first, they just went," Harmon said. "A city government only works when it can make decisions for the whole city and a council with no at-large representation loses that ability. Every vote becomes about what one neighborhood wants. Every budget conversation becomes a tug-of-war between districts."
Walton said a serious question remains regarding whether Black political power will be protected or advanced with council reforms. Under the current system, four of the nine council members are Black, four are white and one is Latina.
"There is nuance," Walton said. "I think that we can certainly achieve our goals and respect the will of the people, but also make sure we consider the fact that these districts were not created with Black representation in mind."
Adrienne Hood, a former council candidate and activist with the Our City, Our Say coalition, said she would like to see campaign finance reform and the maps redrawn with stakeholders in the room who know the city's history of how Black and brown residents have been left out.
But not everyone from the Our City, Our Say coalition wants council to step in.
"I have seen nothing to demonstrate that we deserve some sort of hybrid model," said Danielle Dillard, a Driving Park resident. "It's time for us to vote for who cares about our district, who lives in our district, who's familiar with our district, who didn't just move to our district."
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Labor, NAACP leaders weigh in on Columbus City Council overhaul
