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Politics can go beyond residency
(by Dave Lange - July 02, 2009)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Politics can go beyond residency
State Sen. Timothy Grendell, R-Chester, might have a split personality. On one side, he has been an outspoken critic of Ohio House Bill 278, the state law passed in 2006 to gut the home-rule authority of communities to regulate gas and oil wells. On another side, he is the man behind Ohio Senate Bill 82, the law passed that same year and recently upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court to gut the home-rule authority of municipal residency laws.
For the people of Mr. Grendell's Senate district, which includes Geauga and Lake counties and a small corner of northeastern Cuyahoga County, drilling for gas and oil has been a big problem, causing a home to explode, contaminating dozens of water wells, igniting fires and sending noxious fumes through neighborhoods. Their state senator has become a folk hero of sorts in supporting their rights not to be blown up, even though his efforts to restore some sensible regulations so far have gone for naught.
For the people of Cleveland, Akron and other cities who believe that their public servants should live where they draw their paychecks, residency laws were the most visible democratic right of self-determination they had remaining through home rule. The people of Ohio's big cities are not represented by Sen. Grendell. But their police and fire unions are, even though his 18th Senate District borderlines might say otherwise.
Now that the Supreme Court has agreed with the General Assembly that Ohio's municipalities are not entitled to home rule and that local voters do not have the right to expect demonstrable loyalty and commitment from public employees, the question is where, if anywhere, the line will be drawn.
For one thing, the return of local controls over gas and oil wells appears to be out of the question. No matter how clearly it is demonstrated that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is incapable of ensuring the safety of neighborhoods and how unequipped it is to respond to emergencies at well sites, the state will not relinquish this deep source of power and money.
If anything, the State of Ohio has been emboldened to exert even more control over local government, from telling county health departments what kind of septic systems must be required to telling cities and villages that concealed weapons must be permitted in their parks.
And since all three branches of state government have decided to overrule the Ohio Constitution with regard to home rule and its application to residency requirements, perhaps the line should be withdrawn altogether.
If municipal workers need not reside in the community where citizens democratically voted to require them to do so, maybe their mayor and city council members could live elsewhere as well. It may be time to give the mayor of Akron a shot at running the City of Cleveland. It couldn't turn out any worse than giving Cleveland mayors a shot at running the Cleveland School District, which happens to include areas outside the city's political boundaries.
With Sen. Grendell devoting so much attention to the affairs of Akron and Cleveland, not to mention his energy into reforming Cuyahoga County government, he might be representing the wrong district. He might even run for Cuyahoga County commissioner without moving from Geauga County.
It was legislators from Southern Ohio, where there are very few gas and oil deposits, whose votes gave the drillers free rein in Geauga County neighborhoods. Why shouldn't a senator from Geauga County decide what goes in Cuyahoga County?
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