Right of local control
In the Jan. 9 editorial (“For the courts to decide”), the Beacon Journal wrote that last year’s county charter initiative petitions were “not well conceived.”
What citizens want is clearly offered by the Ohio Constitution: the right to change our counties from statutory to charter, which brings with it the right of local control.
Secretary of State Jon Husted, Gov. John Kasich and other Republicans are doing all they can to stop us. Why? They want all the power, which should rest with the people, and money from rich corporations.
They are twisting the law to the point that literally no one in Ohio, lawyer or judge, can tell you how a charter petition should be written.
In his dissent in Coover vs. Husted last year, Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O’Neil wrote: “The citizens of all 88 counties have the right to choose their form of county government. The majority limits the right of the citizens of Athens, Meigs, and Portage counties to choose a charter.”
The Portage Community Rights Group will be attempting the impossible again this year.
Damen Rae
Ravenna