BEAVERCREEK — Beavercreek voters chose to pass two items that will impact their city’s charter amendment.
As of press time, more than 66 percent of votes were for the charter amendment, while more than 33 percent were against.
City Manager Pete Landrum in a previous interview broke the charter amendment decision down into two parts. The first part refers to whether or not an individual appointed to an elected position will need to run for re-election depending on the amount of time left on the term. The second part refers to the amount of signatures individuals running for an elected position must collect on the nominating petition.
“It’s two changes with one vote,” Landrum said previously. “It’s an all or nothing decision, so to speak — two [changes to] the charter amendment with one vote.”
Appointment
As it stood previously, if an individual is appointed to serve an elected position in the City of Beavercreek, they must run for re-election regardless of the amount of time left on the term. Now that the charter amendment has passed, the local legislature only requires an appointed individual to run for re-election if there are more than two years left on the term. If less than two years remain on the term, the appointed individual would serve out the remainder of the term without being required to run for re-election.
Beavercreek council members became aware of how the current legislature impacts the appointed individuals after council member Charles Curran made a run this election to serve one more year of the remaining term he is currently serving. He was appointed to serve council in January 2018 and the term expires in December 2019.
Signatures
If individuals choose to run for an elected position, they must first collect signatures from local citizens. The amount of required signatures depends on the municipality.
Before the amendment passed, Beavercreek required individuals to collect 75 signatures. The charter amendment decision lessened the amount of required signatures to 50.
Landrum pointed out that a number of neighboring communities require 50.
“It’s a more fair number,” he said. “It would encourage more people to run.”
Landrum also highlighted that Beavercreek’s charter review committee meets every five years and will begin meeting again next year.
