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Bigger Village Council again up for consideration
(by Sali McSherry - February 10, 2010)
Bigger Village Council again up for consideration
By SALI McSHERRY
Increasing the number of Moreland Hills Village Council members from six to seven was reintroduced last week by Council President Stephen Richman.
He said, with new council members Monica Sturgis and Paul Stanard on the board, he thought it was useful to bring the issue up again.
Two years ago, council voted 5-1 against a recommendation by the charter review commission to increase the number of council members by one. Mr. Richman cast the single vote in favor of sending the charter amendment to the 2008 November ballot.
Mr. Richman said at last week's session that there wasn't an overwhelming response by council to increase the number. Council had more of an "inquisitive" approach, he said. Council will have an opportunity to further discuss the pros and cons in March, he said.
Chagrin Falls, Gates Mills, Orange and Pepper Pike all have seven-member councils. In Moreland Hills, the mayor breaks tie votes of council.
A case in point, Mr. Richman said, was at January's organizational meeting in which only four members attended, which wasn't enough to suspend the three-reading rule and pass an ordinance to pay the monthly bills.
In the charter review commission's report in 2008, chairman Samuel Steinhouse said there would be more flexibility for council by increasing the number of members to seven. Even with a quorum, which would be four of its six members at a meeting, the current council could not suspend the three-reading rule and pass legislation, he said. It would need five affirmative votes.
Mrs. Sturgis was a member of that commission and was one of the five of eight who recommended the increase. Mayor Susan C. Renda also had agreed with the commission's recommendation.
Mr. Richman, who has a perfect record of attending all regular council meetings since his first term in 2004 said, there were several examples in the past few years of not having enough council members at meetings to pass legislation.
One point of view, Mrs. Renda said, is that having a seven-member council would eliminate any legislative power for the mayor.
On the other hand, elections are expensive, Mrs. Renda said, with the cost of additional work by the law director and notification to village residents of the issue and the specific ballot language. In May, the village spent about $8,500 on the primary elections for Bedford Municipal Court judges, she said. The November election cost Moreland Hills about $1,500.
The last charter review commission looked at the issue in 1998, but nothing moved forward with increasing the number of council members at that point, Mrs. Renda said. Two years ago, she said it would be another six years until the next charter review.
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