A win for transparency in North Ridgeville

North Ridgeville City Council made the right call to make public a legal opinion that led its members to reject sending a citizen-led referendum to the Lorain County Board of Elections. By sharing the legal opinion that shaped their decision, Council members gave the public a better sense of why they did what they did. The referendum in question centered on Council's decision in August to sign onto the controversial "urban county" designation, which impacts how federal Community Development Block Grant program money is distributed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Enough city voters took issue with the decision that they were willing to provide the necessary signatures to force a referendum to the ballot. The problem was, according to the legal opinion written by lawyers from the Columbus-based firm of McTigue and Colombo, that there were issues with how the petitions were filled out. That was enough to persuade Council to vote 4-3 on Oct. 19 to reject sending the referendum petitions to the elections board. Although there was discussion of the legal opinion by Council last month, the full opinion had been shielded from public view by attorney-client privilege until last week. (The city agreed to release the opinion after HUD requested a copy.) The legal opinion also raised the question of whether Mayor Kevin Corcoran was legally able to sign the paperwork to join the urban county designation. The authority to join the urban county designation, the opinion concluded, lay with Council, not the mayor. (Another issue was whether the city could move ahead with joining the urban county designation while the signature-gathering phase of the referendum effort was underway.) The legal opinion noted Corcoran's signing the agreement would mean that the contract with HUD was void. City Law Director Brian Mortiarty disagreed with that conclusion. Based on the legal opinion, Robert Baumgardner, one of those behind the referendum effort, called for Corcoran to be censured. We don't believe that would be appropriate because Corcoran appears to have been operating in good faith when he signed the agreement. That the city's decision to join the urban county designation was met with such fierce opposition shouldn't have come as a surprise. Whether communities should join or opt out of the program was a matter of extensive public debate in recent months. The county commissioners argued that the designation, which HUD has granted, would increase the amount of CDBG money the county gets by between $3 million and $4 million annually. The commissioners are responsible for distributing those funds to most of the county's cities, villages and townships. (The exceptions are Elyria and Lorain, which administer their own CDBG programs.) Despite the good that the additional money would do, the urban county designation was met with intense resistance throughout the county, especially in rural areas. Several communities, including almost every township, opted out of the program, endangering the county's chances of winning approval for the designation. Critics' biggest fear appears to have been that the urban designation would somehow give the commissioners sway over local development and zoning decisions. County officials argued that wasn't the case, but it didn't appear to matter in part because the commissioners have struggled with keeping the public's trust. Trust issues were among the reasons Commissioner Jeff Riddell, a Republican, lost his reelection bid last week. Those trust issues were the result, in part, of widespread opposition to the so-called "mega site" development favored by the commissioners at and around the Lorain County Regional Airport. Many township officials argued that the county didn't do enough to communicate about what the urban county designation would do, although the commissioners insisted they had been transparent. The commissioners also noted, accurately in our view, that the use of the word "urban" in the designation appeared to have been the reason for much of the opposition. Nevertheless, opponents of the designation pushed ahead with the referendum in North Ridgeville. While we believe the urban designation will be good for the county, we also believe residents have the right to challenge government decisions they disagree with through the referendum process. However, those seeking to get a referendum on the ballot must follow the proper procedures. According to the legal opinion, that didn't happen in this case, which is why Council was right to reject sending it the elections board. Now that the public has seen the legal opinion, it could be a factor in potential legal action that those behind the referendum are considering. Perhaps a legal fight was inevitable, but at least the public now knows the legal issues that fight might be about.