City Council - public_hearing

AND GET THIS PUBLIC HEARING, THE COLUMBUS CITY COUNCIL, TO ORDER AND GET US STARTED. FIRST, I WANT TO THANK MY COUNCIL COLLEAGUES, INCLUDING COUNCIL PRESIDENT HARDIN, COUNCIL MEMBERS BANKSTON, BROSA DE PADILLA, DE ACAUER, COUNCILMEMBER RIEME, COUNCILMEMBER WEITZ, AND COUNCILMEMBER ROSS, WHO I KNOW WILL BE JOINING US HERE IN A FEW MINUTES. I DID WANT TO ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT COUNCIL IS STILL IN SOME MORE RECESS, AND I KNOW THAT NOT ALL OF OUR MEMBERS ARE ABLE TO JOIN US HERE THIS EVENING. NOT EVERYONE WILL BE ABLE TO STAY FOR THE ENTIRE HEARING, MOST LIKELY. But I know the topic of tonight's hearing is one that all members of this body have been engaged with many different constituencies in this community for months. Second, I want to sincerely thank representatives from the Our City, Our State Coalition for being here with us tonight. But more importantly, even while working to put their proposal before Columbus voters, representatives of this coalition took time to engage in thoughtful and good faith dialogue with myself and many members of council on this topic over the course of the summer. So thank you for that. While these discussions did not lead to a formal agreement on a charter amendment on council structure, I believe they created the space for a pathway for council to consider placing additional amendment on this fall's ballot that would complement the coalition's proposal, not oppose their proposed reforms. I've been very clear since we started this public discussion earlier in the spring that personally, I believe a true council hybrid structure is one that would serve Columbus well. TO BE CLEAR, A TRUE HYBRID STRUCTURE TO ME MEANS THAT SOME SEATS ARE REAL DISTRICTS WHERE VOTERS ONLY IN THOSE DISTRICTS ELECT THOSE COUNCIL MEMBERS. AND THERE ARE OTHER AT LARGE SEATS THAT ARE VOTED ON BY ALL COLUMBUS VOTERS CITYWIDE. I BELIEVE THAT A TRUE HYBRID SYSTEM CAN FULLY ADDRESS THE LONGSTANDING ADVOCACY FOR DISTRICT REPRESENTATION WITHIN THIS SYSTEM. while also encouraging, while also ensuring that council members who view the city, the entire city as their constituency to focus on issues like housing, homelessness, public transit, infrastructure investments, and many other issues that confront our city as a whole and know no neighborhood boundary. The final framework that we discussed with representatives of the Our City, Our City coalition focused on this kind of hybrid model, with keeping the nine district seats from their proposal, but potentially adding up to four at-large seats over several election cycles, making changes to the way that we draw those district map to account for racial representation. Tonight's staff presentation will get more into the details on this kind of proposal, and I believe that this is a good place for Council to start as it deliberates on whether to move a charter amendment forward, and if so, what should be in that amendment. In the coming days, I plan to ask our Legislative Research Office to draft such an amendment for consideration. And I'll ask my colleagues to vote to send that concurrent charter amendment to the voters this fall at our next council meeting when we're back from recess on August 24th. Again, while I'm only one member of this body, I believe it's important for council to ensure that any proposal it puts forward to the voters adds to the Our City, Our State proposal and does not seek to preempt or contradict it. How this council's body is structured has been a community debate for decades. I don't expect every issue to be resolved here tonight or at the ballot box this fall, but I'm hopeful that we're taking a meaningful step forward to create a governance structure that's clear, durable, and most importantly, responsive to the citizens of Columbus. I want to pause and open the floor up to my council colleagues for remarks as we kick this hearing off. So with that, council president.

Thank you, Professor Tim, for your leadership, not just today, but for the last several months as we've been having this open community conversation around who we are, who we're becoming, and how we govern ourselves. I want to also thank the members of the Our City, Our State coalition. A lot of us are friends, but I think that a lot of us became closer over the last several weeks as we try to discuss different points of governance. I want to thank my colleagues who also leaned in and have been really open through this process. I want to take a minute to acknowledge how we got here. So for more than a century, Columbus City Council has been operated under a fully at large system. Over that time, voters and community leaders debated almost a dozen proposals to move to versions of a ward system, most recently in 2016. It's been one of the most hotly debated questions in Columbus for more than a decade. In 2018, voters approved a change to our city charter to move to the system we have now. I supported that amendment because at the time, it was what we had support to move forward with. City Hall and community were deadlocked between folks who wanted big changes and folks who wanted no change at all. And at a time, at that time, I saw it as a step towards a system that reflected better representation, but I always viewed it as just an interim step, not the final destination in reforming the structure of council. As Columbus grows, we talk a lot about issues like housing and transportation and zoning. But we can't address any of those issues without the foundational issues of democracy and representation and governance. The most recent council election in District 7 brought that into sharper focus. It raised a fair question about whether our current system strikes the right balance between citywide accountability and geographic representation. And now, thanks to our Say Coalition, Columbus voters will have an opportunity to consider that question directly. What they have achieved and what you have achieved, Columbus, is a big deal. The time is right for this conversation. Columbus is growing and changing faster than at any point in its history. And that growth brings enormous opportunity. But it also raises important questions about who benefits, who gets heard, and what kind of city we want to become. What I hear more and more from residents is that the way that we've always done things is now keeping Columbus from where we need to go next. So over the past several months, led by Councilmember Dorrance and many of my colleagues, we've had serious conversations with our city RSA about whether there is a way to build on their proposal. At the end of the day, Columbus has succeeded because the people of Columbus are compassionate, smart, and dope, not just because of how our system is structured. So if people want to see change, and I do, then let's just create something that can last, that people understand, and that has legitimacy. No one should be afraid of wards. The question is, is this the best model that we can design? Personally, similar to Press Pro Tem, I support a hybrid structure that can combine district-based representation so that neighborhoods have a go-to person who is accountable just to them and responsible for them with an at-large representation that can preserve a citywide perspective to tackle issues that span districts and provide representation for communities of interest that are split across districts. And I don't think we should really just stop there if we're talking about governance. I think that we must look at things like the council map, campaign finance reform, and ballot access. Democracy is not static. The government requires us to periodically step back and ask whether the structures we have created are still serving their purpose. That is what I hope that this process will do. And I want to thank our city, our say coalition for bringing this conversation forward and engaging with council in a spirit of collaboration. I especially want to thank my friend Jesse Vogel, who I know has spent 12 to 15 hours in deep conversation representing both the community, but in dialogue with council to see how we can move forward stronger and together. So I look forward to tonight's conversation. I look forward to working with my colleagues, and I look forward to this vote of the community. Thank you, Council President.

Any other opening remarks from council members? Council Member Bankston?

uh thank you um mr chair and council president really echoing i think a lot of what you said but wanted to make sure that i was on the record and say this to the folks that are here today i will have to step out i have a young kiddo who starts kindergarten on wednesday so tonight is open house at his school and so we find out who his teacher is and what classroom he's in so that's very important he is very much looking forward to it so i apologize But I just wanted to make sure I said, particularly to the Our City, Our Say Coalition, that the conversations that we had, I hope that you saw at that table that it was a group of us and this body who earnestly came there in good faith, who wanted to have honest conversations. And I think that that was on both sides of the aisle. And so for me, it's just reiterating that tonight is really an opportunity for us to talk about what we all discussed. And to just reiterate that this is not about opposition. I think that all of us on this dais understand that the current system has flaws and that it has to be changed. I also want to just point out too that the majority of us up here, we're not here when said system was introduced. And it was something that was, in fact, voted on by the voters. And I think that is simply because of this idea of having some type of person that I know represents me, but still someone who thinks about the city as a whole. And so there is still, I think, a mindset, particularly when we think of black leadership and other folks who think that having some type of balance or some type of hybrid still do our city well and so tonight i just hope that everyone joins us in this dialogue in this conversation not as simply a way for us or this body to be antagonistic or for us to simply try to placate or override the will of the people i am thankful to our city rc i'm thankful to the residents of columbus who stepped up to sign the petition to get us to this point. But I also know that in those conversations that we've had privately, both publicly in this chamber, that there are other issues that we all wanted to address as well that we can't do in a single subject effort. And so that's going to take us coming together to working collaboratively, I think, as we have to find common ground to address things like the maps and how they're drawn. And do they accurately represent the demographics of our city? Do they accurately reflect particularly the minority and black voices of our city that disproportionately don't show up in those that are registered to vote, but they are the ones that disproportionately share the burden of growth and share the burden of our city. It's also addressing things that this group has talked to us many years about around campaign finance and how do we collectively have a conversation. So I say all that to say that we are in a moment where I think that we have the ability to do something that's comprehensive. Something that will not just meet this moment, but will change election representation and change our city for the long haul, for the next generation. So I just again want to reiterate my thanks to folks that showed up in that room with us after 5 o'clock, many times going well past our designated time. but I think it was in true earnest conversation. And I hope that what you all saw, I know what I saw, but this wasn't simply about political wins. These were folks coming around a table who genuinely care about this community, care about the direction that it goes, and quite frankly, care about who represents and sits in the seats to make the decisions for the next generation. So again, I can't say how much thanks I have to you all for spending that time with us. And again, thank you to My colleagues for also being at that table, Council Member Pro Tem Dorrance, President Hardin, and Council Member Rosa de Padilla in particular, but all of my colleagues also for engaging in this dialogue because it is truly important. So thank you all again.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Rosa de Padilla.

I'll be very brief. First and foremost, and I think there are some folks here, I'm very casual because I started my day off at 1 o'clock on the south side helping to pick up debris, and I had very good intentions of maybe getting out of these wet clothes, but here we are. So I will also be leaving a little early today because I am on the other side of the spectrum from Councilmember Banks, and my daughter leaves for college tomorrow. and i love all of you very much but i do want to spend my baby's last night with her so be here for as long as i can hold off um but i did want to um i don't want to belabor and and uh i do want to echo that's what i want to say i want to echo what my colleagues um shared i want to thank um our city rsa i mean To me, this is super exciting. It's exciting when people are involved in the process. It's exciting that one of the things that I love about Columbus is that we continue to be better and we continue to make things better, right? And I remember at City Year, I used to manage a team of core members and we used to talk about feedback and we used to talk about how feedback was a gift. And one of the things I loved about sports players is that they always watch the tape. so that they could see what they did wrong, so they could figure out how they could get better, right? And so I think over the course of the conversations that we had with our city RSA, that's what we were doing was we were watching the tape and we were saying, how can we get better and what can we do that's better? And I think, you know, this hearing tonight is about ensuring that some of those other voices that, you know, for lots of reasons, people oriented to going to their elected officials and asking questions or for whatever reason, you know, were not involved in the process that have expressed concerns that we wanted to be sure that we gave folks a table for. And I think that as we continue, you know, especially being someone who is not in either minority or either majority group in the city, I do think about representation. And, you know, if it took this long for someone like me to come onto this council, I think about how it affects ensuring that people have seats at the table, especially when we look at traditional voting blocks. And so that's something that I think we all talked about and grappled with, and I appreciate that we came to this compromise of adding two at-large seats to ensure that we could give more folks, more diverse folks, a seat at the table. And so I think I appreciate folks continuing to hang in there with us so that we can have conversations back and forth so we can figure out what is the best path forward, that if folks were not involved in the process in the beginning, that they are involved in the process now, and they can continue to make their voices heard, and that we can, again, go back and watch the tapes and figure out How do we land in the best possible place for all of us? So I want to thank all of you. I want to thank you for engaging your neighbors, engaging with each other, for pushing us to be better, for pushing our city to be better. I signed the petition, so I am down with districts and district representation. I just want to make sure that, you know, As we had conversations, there was more that we could do, and Council President alluded to some of that to ensure that if you are passionate and you raise your hand and you want to serve, that you have an equal shot at it. So, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Dackauer.

Thank you, President Pro Temp. Before I start with my remarks, I want to let everybody know I injured my back this weekend and I'm in a lot of pain. So if you see me grimacing or wincing, it has nothing to do with what any of you were saying. I'm just in a lot of pain and discomfort. But I keep my remarks brief. For those of you who aren't familiar with me, I began advocating for council districts in 2014 when I started serving on the Westland Area Commission. We wanted geographical representation on council because we felt that our needs were ignored and the city was unaware of the unique challenges of outer belt communities. I continue to believe that we need districts that ensure geographical representation across the city, but we also need districts that ensure racial representation and that don't divide neighborhoods. However, I also believe that we need some council members who represent the city at large because somebody must care about the greater good and not just their own little patch. We need a diverse group of people to come together to create better representation. And the conversations that have been having with Our City, Our Say leave me feeling hopeful that we can continue to collaborate and come up with a solution that will better meet the needs of our community and i look forward to our discussion tonight and seeing how we can all move forward to a solution for a better columbus so thank you all for spending your your evening here with us tonight thank you council member any comments from any other members council

Seeing none, I will move us to our first presentation for the hearing. We'll hear from Council's Chief of Staff, John Tannous.

Thank you, Council President, President Pro Tem, Council Members, and the Our City, Our State Coalition for today. My name is John Tannous. I'm the Chief of Staff for Columbus City Council. And what I'm going to do in this staff presentation to open us up today is essentially recap how we got here, take everybody through the deliberative dialogue that we had that I helped to organize with council members and with our city RSA over the last few months, and in a way, create a common vocabulary for I think a lot of the benefits and drawbacks and upsides and elements of reform that we're gonna spend the next few hours talking about. Can you guys hear me okay? Can I do that? Okay, great. So I'm going to recap how we got here, talk about a couple of different elements of council structure, and then I'm gonna just acknowledge the things that we did not really have time to talk about, but should probably be discussed at some point as we go forward. Council members and staff began to have informal conversations in the spring with members of the Our City, Our State coalition that culminated in that May 2026 hearing that President Pro Tem Dorans held. We then began to meet in a more formal way starting in June with folks. And we met about once a week-ish over June and July. We found a lot of common ground. Our conversations were collaborative. They were candid. They were good faith. We didn't agree on everything. But they allowed us a chance to talk holistically about council structure. We came close to a collaborative agreement, but we didn't quite get there. And what I'm going to do in this conversation is talk about the things that we did discuss. I want to also make sure everybody knows where we are in this process. So the Our City, Our State petition has been certified to have enough signatures and to have legal sufficiency. So council will vote to advance it to the ballot next Monday. If council were to vote to advance something else, as Pres. Pro Tem Doran said, we don't have a lot of time to do that. Per the Board of Elections, really August 25th is their last possible date when they think they can practically get language and still be able to meet ballot proofing and other state measures. And so I just share that because I want folks to understand where we are in that timeline. So let's start by talking about districts and what district seats can achieve and provide. I think council members have referenced this and the Our City, Our State coalition is going to talk even more about it. So I'll try to be brief. It's worth saying that of the top 25 United States cities by population, Columbus is the only one where there are no seats elected exclusively by the voters of a particular district or ward. District representation is fundamentally about neighborhood voice and accountability. So when you elect someone from your district, you know that that person has a responsibility to advocate for you and own local concerns. They are accountable just to you. And without a whole city to worry about, instead of a million people contacting them, They're focused on the maybe 100,000 that are their priority so they can be more responsive and connected to that specific district. District elections also lower the barrier to running. So a community leader running in just one part of the city doesn't have to raise enough money and build enough of an organization to campaign citywide. But there are some drawbacks that we talked about in our discussions. District members are incentivized to focus on their neighborhood first. So even if something benefits the city as a whole, like density or a homeless shelter or affordable housing, their neighbors might say that they don't want it near them. This might sound abstract, but it's something that you see in the research on city council structures. When cities move toward models, housing production drops a lot, especially in whiter and wealthier areas. And affordable housing, from that point forward, tends to get built mostly in poorer parts of town. what it can do is turn resource allocation into essentially a negotiation instead of a framework based on equity or need so instead of council members making decisions about where sidewalks should go based on traffic safety data or police staffing based on crime it becomes more about what your district council member can get or trade a district council member truthfully just doesn't have much electoral incentive to support an investment anywhere other than their area so For example, President Pro Tem Dorrance, you've been working a lot the last year on a workforce initiative that has made a lot of investments in Southeast Columbus and in Linden. That's super nice, but it won't make sense for that to be a district member's focus under a different model. A district council member can be great if yours is great. But if they're not, if they're on the outs politically with the mayor or the other council members or they're just newer or they're just not good at this, you're out of luck. You've got four years to hold them accountable and hope that you can find someone better to advocate for your part of town. A district council member also might not have an electoral mandate to go toe-to-toe with a public agency that's not serving people or another elected official. They're understood not to represent the whole city, but just for a small slice. In our conversations, it was important to our city, our state, to have nine council members, which allows each to represent about 11% of the city, which is right around the middle standard of what you see in other cities, where they tend to represent anywhere from 7% to 14% per district. We also talked a lot in our discussions about at large seats. An at large council member represents everybody. That gives them a base of support to support things that are good for the city, even if one neighborhood or constituency would oppose it. So I think a lot of a story that we tell, I hope the council president doesn't get mad at me when I tell this, that he supported affordable housing on the south side, even though his own family on the south side protested him for it, believed that there was a greater good to affordable housing in the city over how it was playing out in one part of town. What at-large district members have is a purview to work on issues that don't fit neatly into districts or span multiple districts, like a healthcare disparity that affects everybody, or carbon emissions, or a citywide bike network, It can also create pathways for representation for constituencies that don't dominate any one district. So council member Rosita Padilla, you mentioned this and I hope you don't mind me reiterating it. You are proud to be a voice for Hispanic and Latino Columbus, which is about 9% of the city. That's almost one full district's worth, but it's distributed so equally across the city that it probably would not have its opportunity to elect that representative in any one district. But at-large models have weaknesses too, to be clear. When every voter can hold an at-large official accountable for everything, that's good in theory, but that means everyone's responsible for everything, so maybe no one's responsible for something. You don't know who to go to. Running citywide is also expensive. You need more money, more name recognition, more volunteers. And because everyone votes on every seat, Some citywide political majority, even a bare majority, can elect the entire council. And so that leaves other viewpoints or constituencies unaddressed. That's why in our conversations, we talked a lot about the value of two or three or four at-large seats to balance those district seats. And so that's what makes a hybrid system worth considering. Essentially, district members have an incentive to ask, what does my neighborhood need, while at-large members would have an incentive to ask, what does the city need? And the idea is that these perspectives can check each other. District members can make sure that a neighborhood isn't overlooked, and then an at-large member can push back when one neighborhood's preferences are getting in the way of a citywide need. And essentially, every resident then gets both. A representative whose job is to specifically fight for their part of town But then if that person doesn't agree with you or isn't getting the job done, you have others that you can go to instead. These hybrid models are pretty common. Cities like Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Detroit, Boston, Charlotte, Houston, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., all of which we sometimes think of as peers, have anywhere from two to seven at-large seats that supplement their district seats. And if you look around Ohio, it's common too. So Toledo has six at-large, six district. Akron has 10 district, three at-large. I WILL SAY WE DID NOT BEGIN THESE DISCUSSIONS TRYING TO GROW THE SIZE OF COUNCIL, BUT WANTING TO RESPECT THE DESIRE FOR NINE DISTRICT SEATS AND THEN THINKING ABOUT ADDING POTENTIALLY FOR EXAMPLE FOUR AT LARGE SEATS, THAT BRINGS US TO 13. THAT HAS A LITERAL ACTUAL COST, LIKE OFFICES AND SALARIES AND THINGS LIKE THAT. BUT IT IS ALSO STILL WELL WITHIN the benchmarks of our peers. If you look at the top 25 cities, the median council size is 11 members, the average council size is 16. All that being said, a district model is only as good as the map that it's drawn on, and something that we talked a lot about was the current map. Looking at GIS data from 2024 for a data set called ESRI, what we know about the current map is that there are zero majority black districts, and there are six plurality white districts. Now that's just the population, so literally who lives in those districts. If you look at the voting age population, it skews wider. If you look at who's registered to vote, it skews wider. And if you look at who tends to come out and vote in an odd year municipal election, it skews even wider. So communities of color have understandably raised concerns about if ward elections on these maps would lead to a council that doesn't look like Columbus. And it's not because the commission that drew the map in 2021 did a bad job. Columbus has a history of redlining and racial segregation, so the map is what it is in terms of where communities live. The charter amendment from 2018 also required them to not split districts less than 1% from one another, which sounds good, sounds equal, but it meant that they had to split a lot of historic neighborhoods. Whoops, sorry, I somehow jumped forward. How am I doing that? I apologize on this slide. The reality is there is no way to fix this issue if we are holding district elections in 2027. But one of the ideas that we came up with was trying to do a kind of mini map redraw in 2028 with a new commission, and this time giving the commission more flexibility in how they draw the maps. What we discussed was that it didn't feel fair to ask communities of color to wait four election cycles until 2033 when the next maps would be redrawn. to try to resolve this issue and to avoid the chaos and confusion of multiple changes in systems and who's up every year for voters essentially over that it would look different if we had everybody up in 29. We said that potentially how it could work is that the districts that would have been up in 29 will still be up and you use essentially the districts that most look like those. This is similar to how the Ohio Senate does their work at the end of a redistricting cycle. I will say this also elevates the importance of at-large because, again, an at-large seat can be a place for someone to run who does not match their current district and demographics. We also talked about other measures to make our system more fair and competitive, things like bringing down the number of signatures required to run for council to 150 signatures per district, potentially. And we talked about campaign finance reform. There were a lot of creative ideas out there for how different cities go about campaign finance reform, and we talked about some of them in our deliberations. One of the challenges is we didn't have that much time to design a new system between November 26, when this would be on the ballot, and when folks filed to run for office in February 27. So where our conversation went were more straightforward changes. And these are in city code, not city charter. So they are easier to change and can evolve in the years to come if this dialogue continues. What we talked about was having the current contribution limits for elected officials across the city. These are set based on the state limit and then indexed according to that. It's also been a point of controversy that the current city code allows for unlimited in-kind contributions between municipal campaign committees. We talked about introducing the first ever cap on that and having that set it twice the state limit. Again, there were other ideas, too. We did not have a lot of time in our discussions to fully flesh out, research some of those other ones. One of the things we did talk about is that lower limits can sound appealing, but what we've seen in Columbus and around the country is that those tend to push spending just to the untrackable independent expenditure side. We also talked about Columbus's size. Each of these council districts is about the size of a state rep district, and A competitive state rep district these days can cost a quarter of a million or a half a million dollars to run that campaign. You know, a citywide election in Columbus is bigger than a congressional district. So it does cost a lot of money to reach a lot of voters in a city this size. Some things that we did not discuss, we just didn't have time. The Our City, Our State proposal includes a recall threshold that I know some staff and council members think is quite low, could allow you to recall a council member potentially with as few as 1,000 or 1,500 signatures. I think that's just not something we had time to discuss. We also talked a lot about council vacancies and how those should be, or I'm sorry, we didn't talk a lot about council vacancies and how those should be handled. That's previously been a hot button issue. I also think when it comes to the kind of effectiveness and functioning that people want in council, we could have a conversation about the employment status of council members. The charter does not mandate these to be full-time jobs, and we just didn't have time to get into things like that. So I said a lot. I went really fast. I'm sorry. I'm happy to pause and just open it up for questions from council members if I can clarify or further flesh out my report out on those deliberations that we had over the last two months. Any questions, council member, for chief of staff?

Seeing none, we move on to the presentation from our representatives from the Our City, Our State Coalition.

All right, can you, ooh, that is loud. Can you all hear me well like this at this distance? Great, okay. All right, so Council President, ooh, Council President Hardin, President Pro Tem Dorans, and members of Columbus City Council, thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony on behalf of our city, our say, our charter amendment, and the collaborative discussions that have brought us here today. I'm a resident of Eastmore in District 8. I suppose I should actually say my name. Didn't say that. Chris Tavener. I use they, them pronouns. And I'm one of the petition committee members for the charter amendment. My role here today is to present briefly on the work of the campaign over the past few months, give my perspective on the conversations with council on additional reforms, and then hand the mic over to my colleagues here. All right. So Our City, Our Say is a coalition of residents and organizations who connected over the past year around a core belief that all of us should have a say in decisions that impact our lives and our city, and a belief in a democracy that's responsive and accountable to residents and communities, not just the rich and powerful. I've appreciated the opportunity to be one amongst many who are all fighting for the same cause. The way we see the problem is that in Columbus we have a system designed to ensure that big money and a small group of people can control the future of our city. When all council seats must be elected by the entire city, it not only makes those races incredibly expensive, it also means that no single region of the city has a representative on council they can truly call their own. No one accountable for working specifically for their district at City Hall. At-large systems have also come under attack for other reasons. including their ability to dilute the vote of specific demographic groups within cities. So our amendment, we call it the simple fix. We believe that when people are elected by their neighbors, by their community, the community that they live in, that they're more connected to the challenges facing that community as well as opportunities. Our aim with our charter amendment is to build a local democracy that's more responsive and accountable to the needs of communities. We've called our amendment the simple fix because it touches as few words in the city charter as possible to change our current nine districts, all currently elected at large to true districts where each council member is elected only by the voters in their district. That's it. We wanted our language to be simple, not just to make it more likely to pass review by the city attorney, but also because we knew it would be an issue folks could understand and unite around. Even though many in our coalition have different views on other council election reform topics, including at-large districts, map redraw changes, campaign finance, other matters, we share the belief that the simple fix is the most strategic way to begin reforming how we elect city council to make it more responsive and accountable to the people. So, between, well, this thing is not working. Maybe, okay, well, I can't go to the next slide. Well, oh, there we go. Wait, it went backward. Well, it's not letting me go forward. I'll just keep reading and maybe someone who controls the computer can advance it for me. Between March and the middle of July, over 250 volunteers gathered more than 23,000 signatures across Columbus, including on primary day in May, a single day of signature gathering that resulted in thousands of signatures and so many great conversations with the voters of Columbus, farmers markets, pride events throughout June, ComFest, and more. I know some of you here tonight signed our petition and then people in the crowd also helped collect signatures and we thank you. One shared experience our volunteers saw throughout their work, people know the system is not working for them. We barely had to explain the simple fix to voters. They often understood it immediately and wanted the simple fix. Personally, I gathered a few hundred signatures and like many other volunteers, I had very, very few people tell me that the simple fix was a bad idea. So still not working.

Oh, that was the last slide? Okay, well, I'll just keep talking.

All right, so as Chief of Staff Tannous already outlined, at the same time we were gathering signatures starting in early June, council members initiated conversations with our coalition about what additional reforms could look like as well as a potential compromise. The topics covered in those conversations were already outlined by John. I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in most of the conversations with council members throughout July regarding potential common ground. When I testified at the first hearing back in spring, my primary request was for council to join us, so I was grateful that some of the members of Columbus City Council were willing to have collaborative discussion around reform. So as many folks in the crowd have likely seen in the news, there was a lot of discussions around this compromise, where council and our city RSA could meet in the middle. Sorry, there's something going on in my, all right. Ultimately, our coalition decided to not rescind our charter amendment. And we thought that doing so would do a disservice to the 23,000 people who signed it and the 250 volunteers who gathered signatures. At the same time, we did not want conversations around comprehensive reform to end. Rather, we believed those conversations needed to expand. More comprehensive reform is needed to make City Hall more accountable and responsive. And depending on community input, more may be possible as we head toward November. When communicating that our city, RSA, would not be accepting any sort of compromise and that we wouldn't be rescinding our amendment, council invited us to participate in this public hearing too. And so we wanted to be a part of this conversation about reform, and we truly thank you for continuing this conversation in this space with us, with all of you, and most importantly, with the people of Columbus. So I think many of us know the simple fix is not the end to the conversation about democracy reforms in Columbus. Whether additional reforms appear on the ballot in November or in another election, we think it's important for the public to have an opportunity to weigh in on other important questions and potential reforms, such as campaign finance reform, council district maps, at large council seats. While our coalition didn't see eye to eye with council on some of these topics, I appreciated the focus on comprehensive reforms and building a system to last for generations. Above all else, though, I found the conversations with counsel to be collaborative. They were in pursuit of what is good for the entire city. And that's why the Our City, Our Say campaign has made a clear commitment. If this body decides to bring forth a second charter amendment, we will not actively oppose it so long as it does not contradict our first amendment. If council decides to submit a second complementary charter amendment, the Our City, Our Say coalition has agreed to meet again to vote whether to formally endorse a vote on that second amendment. Based on public input at council hearings and other community listening, our coalition will conduct. What I believe to be most important, and hopefully to all of us, is that this process is an exercise in democracy. Our city RSA has gathered thousands of signatures, demonstrated the collective desire for nine real districts. The perception I've gotten from many of you on council is that you also believe, at minimum, we need nine real districts. That question is ready to be sent to voters. The other questions and topics, should there be public consensus that voters would like to have a say on them, should be sent to voters as a separate question. Today, council, I'm sure you will hear from a lot of different perspectives in the room, and you'll share your perspectives, too. You already have. I ask that you listen with an open ear as people share their thoughts on other issues for comprehensive reform. I also ask my friends and colleagues with Our City, Our Say to listen, too, to the diverse perspectives that walk up to the podium and to the words you all say as our elected city council. I firmly believe we are all here in this room because we are united behind a commitment to a better democracy in Columbus. Let's do this the right way, and let's be proud of what we've done for our city come November. Thank you for inviting us, and I will pass the mic to my colleagues.

Good evening. Council President, Pro Tem, City Council members, My name is Adrian Hood. This is loud. My name is Adrian Hood and I am a resident of Forest Park East. I got involved in this initiative because it is important for our community to really believe that their voices are heard. As a former candidate myself, I know the uphill battle that one faces when you're running against an incumbent. This initiative gives hope, hope that we are taking steps in the right direction. I would like to first start with a hearty thank you to all of the people who collectively came together to create Our City, Our Say. The many hours that were dedicated to making this ballot initiative a reality does not go unnoticed. I'd also like to thank City Council for having this important hearing today. The main reason we have come together has already been identified, and I am sure there will be plenty of others who will speak on that throughout this evening. So I will not belabor that point beyond saying both sides agree that the current system that is in place can and should be better. Tonight I want to focus on what meaningful district representation requires beyond changing how council members are elected. If we want district elections to produce a more representative government, we also need to make it possible for people outside the traditional political structure to compete and be part of the public debate. Therefore, I would like to shift my focus to some other opportunities that this body could focus on and propose as well, and that is campaign reform. and the map redraw. I'll address the campaign reform first. It is my humble opinion that if we push for district voting only and do nothing to address the campaign finances, we will have only moved the needle an inch because constituents who are not a part of the party structure will still face an uphill battle in running a compatible campaign. There are very few limits around campaign finances currently, and therefore, we can put a great candidate in the race and they will still not be successful because they will be outspent. And we got to see that the last election cycle. With these facts before us, this is a great time for council to put forward solutions to limit the influence of big money in our local elections. That can close this gap. I would also like to address the map redraw. While we have seen the United States Supreme Court roll back Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act around minority majority districts, it doesn't mean that our city has to do the same. For decades, Black folks have called for a system that gives our communities a meaningful opportunity to elect representatives of our choice. As council draws new districts, we cannot repeat a process that divides communities whose history and interests belong together. There have been requests. There have been petitions demanding minority majority representation. A person chosen by the people for the people. I understand that there was a 1% population variance requirement in the last map drawing process that chopped up communities, and this is a time that we can fix it. District representation only works if the districts themselves represent black and brown communities and historical neighborhoods. You all have the power. and now the community wants to see you all use it for the good of the community. When you do create the district maps this time, please be sure to have stakeholders in the room that know the history of the black communities, the black and brown communities that continue to be left out. This is our city and we do deserve our say. In addition, And I knew that I wrote this right because President Pro Tem already brought it up. I appreciate it. We ask that you support the Our City, Our State proposal so the people in each council district have the power to elect the council member who will serve their district. And also, please don't send conflicting reform to the ballot in November. If you do put forth the If you do put forward reforms, we ask you to place a complimentary charter before the voters. Let's give voters the final say on a simple fix and any additional reforms you all want the voters to consider. And I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ms. Hood. Oh, coming.

Can you all hear me?

Oh, here we go. President Pro Tem Dorans, Council President, members of Council, thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony. My name is Stevie Passamonte. I am a resident of District 7, a community organizer, an immigrant, a bus rider, board chair of Transit Columbus, and a member of the Our City, Our Say Coalition. When I talk about Transit Columbus, I don't usually describe it as a transit advocacy organization, but rather a democracy organization that works on transportation and housing issues. Our members are people who volunteer their time trying to build a Columbus where everyone can get around safely regardless of whether or not they drive. That work requires regular people engaging with their community and with their local government to highlight issues in our neighborhoods and on our streets in order to advocate for a safable, more livable, more affordable city. With our current city council structure, neighborhood-level issues often go overlooked, especially in low-income black and brown neighborhoods. Because of our at-large representation, which focuses primarily on the big picture, it is more difficult to address the acute pain and frustration felt by our residents every single day. We joined the Our City, Our Say Coalition to ensure that regular people will always have a champion for their neighborhoods as the city continues to grow and change. Throughout this process, we've heard from countless Columbus residents about the need for true representation and accountability. And we have also heard from countless others who have questions about how this new system would work or concerns about being represented in a way that feels meaningful. And though we feel that nine representative words would create a more open and functioning democracy, we recognize that others feel that it may be a bit more complicated than that. At its core, democracy is messy. It is difficult and it is sometimes dysfunctional. But it is always worthwhile. It is in service to democracy that our coalition came together to do this work, that we engaged in discussions with city council on how to move forward, and that I am asking you now to support the Our City, Our Say measure when it gets to the ballot. And it is also in service to democracy that we should recognize the perspectives of those who feel differently. It was not our place to make changes to the solution that 23,000 community members had already supported, nor is it our place to silence the voices of those who want to see something more, including those who are here tonight. When you do put forward your own measure on the ballot, I echo the ask to make it a complimentary charter amendment and to let the people of Columbus decide for ourselves how we want to be represented. Thank you.

Again, I want to thank everyone from the RSA Coalition who presented here tonight. I know, again, many of us up here spent a lot of time with you all over the last couple months, and again, I appreciated the good faith nature of, I think, all of those discussions with you all, not only on council structure, but as Chief of Staff has put it, the parking lot and many other issues of just good government reform that I think is spurred based upon, I think, this one central question, and I think When we talk about things like campaign finance reform and other things, this should not, whatever happens in the upcoming weeks, whatever happens in the upcoming months, that should not be the end about how we think about how we should structure ourselves to be reflective in Ohio's largest city about how we want those structures to relate towards, you know, the people in our community that ultimately are governed by those structures. So again, just want to say thank you to you all for spending the time only here with us tonight, but many, many hours over the course of several months to bring us here to this evening. Unless there's any questions from my council colleagues for any of the presenters, we're going to move to the public hearing portion or a public speaking portion of our hearing tonight. We have a number of individuals that have spoken or that have signed up here tonight. We do have a list. We've had a couple of changes in and out over time. So there may be a couple of additions and subtractions to the list. And so please bear with me. So I will announce who is up. And then the next person I'll ask, if you're on this side of the room, if you just want to pop over here or or over here, just to make sure we're keeping things moving, because we do have, I think, over 30 speakers signed up to speak here tonight. So the The first speaker to come before council, and I will say we will ask folks to try and keep their comments limited to three minutes or so if you can. We'll practice some Midwestern politeness, but with over 30 folks signed up here tonight, we'll just ask folks to be mindful of everyone's time. So with that, our first speaker is Maitland Neff. Oh, and I do apologize if I get anyone's name wrong, so please correct that. And if you're representing the organization, the next speaker after Mr. Neff is Mark Hirschfeld. Test.

All right. Good evening, Council President Hardin, Pro Tem Dorans, and members of City Council. My name is Maitland Neff. I'm an alumnus of Whetsun High School, class of 2023, and member of the Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, an organizer with Columbus Stand Up, and a proud volunteer with Our City, Our Say. I graduated from the University of Michigan, don't hold that against me, on May 2nd and on May 5th, primary election day, I first collected signatures for the Our City, Our State campaign outside of Westgate Community Center, where I had the pleasure of meeting Councilwoman Green. Disappointed she's not here today. But between May 5th and July 12th, I collected 1,549 signatures from Columbus voters to place a charter amendment on the November ballot to change the way we currently elect Columbus City Council by taking our nine districts but making them real by having only the people who actually live there vote on the councilperson who represents them. Throughout those conversations, some instinctively asked if this petition was about gerrymandering, to which I responded, it is almost like the inverse of gerrymandering, where you have people who don't live in your district or area of town voting on who represents you and your community. If you were to extrapolate this out, it would be as if all of the United States voted for each state's governor. It doesn't make sense. Others reflected they had no idea who their counselor was or which district they lived in, and that's an indictment of the system, not of the voter. In a city of nearly one million people over 225 square miles, it takes upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars to run a competitive city-wide campaign. And that means councilors are beholden to those who fund their campaigns, their donors, not the public's interest. I believe in a politics of people, not money. District representation not only lowers the barrier to entry for candidates to run in neighborhoods that they know, but council members would have a stronger incentive to engage proactively not reactively to the concerns of the communities for which they serve. And think about it. Wouldn't it be nice to have competitive elections where candidates run grassroots campaigns to pitch why their vision would best improve the lives of their neighbors and thus Columbus as a whole? Instead, clear examples of the current lack of attentiveness to what constituents actually want has been evident in the past two public hearings on data centers where we want a moratorium and flock cameras where we want them gone. Columbus residents understand that this system, dominated by corporate influence and the donor class, is not working for them. It's not working for Columbus City Schools that were forced to cut their budget by $50 million while the district simultaneously lost $84 million in tax-abated revenues, or the children who would have had the opportunity to grow up playing at McCoy Park every weekend like I did in Clintonville with the Whetstone Park of Roses. Passing the Our City, Our State charter amendment in November will provide the people and neighborhoods most affected by local decisions to have a greater voice in shaping those conversations and the opportunity to vote for a candidate who truly embodies the interests of the struggling and disenfranchised many rather than the wealthy few. I hope you each join us in building a city that doesn't just prioritize growth and development for the sake of corporate profits, but for the people who already live here and that invest in the communities that make Columbus our home. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Neff. Any questions, council members? Seeing none, the next speaker to come before council is Mark Hirschfeld. I know Mr. Hirschfeld submitted written testimony, so I think he may have only submitted written and won't be here with us here tonight. Our next speaker was supposed to be Will Harmon, who's the president of AFSCME Local 1632. Unfortunately, he was meant to appear before the body virtually, and we're having difficulty getting him in the line, so The representatives from the Central Labor Council will actually be presenting his testimony here in a little bit. So our next speaker will be Eric Cunningham, who's the vice president of CWA Local 4502. And after Mr. Cunningham, we will have Jamie Shoemaker from the Central Labor Council, along with representative for AFSCME.

Good evening. President Hardin, President Pro Tem Dorrance, members of city council, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Eric Cunningham, and I'm the vice president of CWA Local 4502. I represent the city's supervisors, managers, and technical staff, the people who plan and coordinate the work that keeps this city running day to day, and make sure we are prepared for any task that arises. We think about Columbus not just as how it is today, but how it's going to be in 10, 20, 30 years. And that's why I'm here today. Everyone in this room knows from their own experiences that getting a group of people working together toward the same goal is difficult. Whether it be organizing a large event, a group project in the office, or any other time you have had to collaborate. Agreement does not always come easy. But when everyone in the group is only working for themselves, it becomes impossible. Columbus is growing fast. We're one of the fastest growing cities in the entire country. I am very proud of that fact and I hope you are as well. because that growth and progress did not happen by accident. It happened because this council has been able to set goals and work together to achieve these goals. Keeping that ability means having a council where somebody is always thinking about the whole city, just not their little piece of it. Sweeping city ride reform only happens when there is a voice on this council whose job it is to hold the whole group together and see the big picture. Take that voice away and it becomes the impossible group project that everyone is just fighting for their own district. A council without any at-large representation puts that kind of vision at risk. When every council member is solely accountable to one district, the instinct becomes to protect that district first and think about the entire city second. My members manage the programs, budgets, and long-term plans that keep Columbus moving forward. And what they'll tell you is the hardest part of their job is not the work itself. It's getting everyone aligned around a shared vision for the whole city. At-large representation is a critical part of how that happens. Now we are blessed to have the most labor-friendly city council I have ever known. CWA 4502 does not want to see that change. This ballot initiative as written presents an opportunity for that to change. I understand wanting to change the maps, understanding changing how districts are voted on. I just want to make sure that this council does not lose sight of the big picture. and throw the baby out with the bathwater here. I'm Eric Cunningham, Vice President of CWA Local 4502, and I thank you all for your time.

Thank you. I appreciate it. We were going to have Jamie Shoemaker from the Central Labor Council. I do know we have one person that has to run right now on behalf of the city. So Dr. Nathaniel Harris, I'd like to ask him to come up. Is Dr. Harris with us? He would be. I missed him. Jamie. That'd be right.

Sorry, I need bifocals and I can't see it, so I'm just going to give you guys a heads up. That's why I'm having to. Thank you.

Jamie Shoemaker, the Executive Director of the Central Ohio Labor Council.

President Hardin, Pro Tem Dorans, members of Columbus City Council, thank you for letting me speak today. My name is Jamie Shoemaker. I'm the Executive Director of the Central Ohio Labor Council, AFL-CIO. We represent over 60,000 union workers in Central Ohio. And we are here today because this decisions matter deeply to every single one of them. However, this council changes. Our position is clear. Some form of at large representation must be preserved. That is not negotiable for us without an at large representation. The only person in the city who speaks for everyone is the mayor. That is too much weight on one office. City workers need to know that the whole council answers to them, not just the district that they happen to live in. And the biggest issue the city faces, public safety, infrastructure, transportation, housing, do not stop at district lines. They need a city-wide answer without voices on this council focusing on the whole city. We will be more divided when those hard conversations come, not less. We have seen that a unified council can accomplish. LinkUs will connect communities across the entire city with bus rapid transit. Zone In is rewriting our zoning code for Columbus, can keep growing and building the housing people need. These wins happen because this council could speak for all of Columbus at once. Pure district representations put that ability at risk. The maps being proposed were never meant to be voting districts. They were drawn simply to create equal-sized areas with no attention paid to demographics or community boundaries. The data behind them was outdated when they were made, and the Columbus has grown enormously since then. The gap between those maps and the city we live in today is real, and it matters. Keep at large representation, get the maps right, and make sure when the city speaks, it speaks for everyone. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Thank you, Ms. Shoemaker. Yeah. One invites Mr. Cunningham back to the podium. As I mentioned earlier, President Harmon from AFSCME was unable to join us virtually and asked that Mr. Cunningham present his testimony on his behalf.

Thank you. I'm going to read this as written, as my colleague President Harmon has written it. President Hardin, Pro Tem Dorans, members of City Council, thank you for letting me speak today. My name is not Will Harmon, but my name today is Will Harmon, and I'm the president of AFSCME Local 1632. My members are the people who keep this city running every single day. The sanitation workers, the park employees, the building inspectors, and the rec center staff, and everyone else in between. I want to start by saying that something needs to change. I think most people in this room can agree on that. The way this city is represented has not kept up with the way this city has grown. And I'm thankful that council has worked very diligently to find out a solution that keeps council representation while also not leaving us flat-footed. But the solution has to actually work for the people of Columbus. And for me and my members, that solution has to have some form of at-large voice on city council. Let me tell you why. From the perspective of someone whose members live and work the city every day, when those storms hit last week, my members did not ask which district needs help first. They just went. They cleared the roads, they cleared out the debris, and they responded wherever they were needed because they didn't work for a neighborhood they live in. They work for the city. A city government only works when it can make decisions for the whole city. And a council with no at-large representation loses that ability. Every vote becomes about what one neighborhood wants. Every budget conversation becomes a tug-of-war between districts. and the city workers stuck in the middle are left trying to serve nine different bosses with nine different priorities. My members need to know that this council can look at Columbus as a whole and make decisions that serve everyone. When we need new equipment, it should go where it is needed most, not where the loudest council member lives. The state and federal governments already work like that, and I don't think anyone here wants to make Columbus City Council work more like the state legislature or like Congress. If we're going to make a change this big, we owe it to the people of Columbus to get it right, not to move fast, not to figure it out later, to get it right. I'm not here to stand in the way of progress. I'm here because my members deserve a city council that can speak for all of Columbus, not just part of it. Keep at large representation, fix the maps, and find a solution that works for everyone. President Will Harmon asked me 1632. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Carter. I appreciate you pitching for your brother in labor. Our next speaker to come for council is Sharon Kim. After Sharon Kim, we'll have Sarah Cherry.

Hi, everyone. President Hardin, President Pro Tem Doran, city council members. My name is Sharon Kamiushi. Her pronouns, I'm a District 3 resident, a Columbus City Schools parent. I'm also the lead organizer for Asian American Midwest Progressives Ohio, one of the coalition members with Our City, Our State, and also one of the petition committee members. I have something prepared, but I feel like I really need to speak to the discussion around the at-large seats. Um, I used to be a resident of Brooklyn for almost 10 years, where, as you know, we have district seats. I was in district 33 with Lincoln wrestler. And what we've heard our union leaders talking about is not really what I experienced as a resident. I can say personally that having Lincoln within our neighborhood was pretty amazing because he was my neighbor. He was out on the playground with his kids. When I was out with my kids, I knew where his office was. And I saw many times that he came together with other district council members to work on things like roads or there was a big problem in terms of STREET SAFETY AND PEOPLE GETTING HIT BY CARS. IT WAS SOMETHING THAT HE WORKED WITH OTHER CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ACROSS THE CITY TOWARDS. SO THERE WASN'T REALLY THIS INFIGHTING THAT I EXPERIENCED AS A RESIDENT THERE. HE ALSO WORKED WITH OTHER CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS TO work against the mayor at the time, Mayor Adams. So the situations that you hear about, yes, that is a possibility, but there also is the other possibility of district city council members working together for the greater good of the city, which is the experience I had as a resident in Brooklyn in New York City. Also, I want to say that the culture of a council is not due to the makeup or the system. It is created by the people who are in the seats. So I also want to say that as well. Okay, so I have a little bit of time. I do want to say that in my many, many hours of speaking with hundreds of residents across the city, that it's very clear that people are deeply unhappy with the current system that we have in place with our city. It also revealed that residents are paying really close attention, not just to the headlines in our local news about McCoy Park about last November's city council election, the city budget deficit, but also to the ever increasing charges in our utility bills, our grocery bills, our property taxes, our rental prices, and also the threat of data centers and flood cameras in our neighborhoods. They are also paying very close attention to how this body is going to be responding and moving in regards to the Our City, Our State ballot amendment. People are invested. Our residents are invested. So what I'm asking is that you please listen to your constituents. support the Our City, Our State proposal for a true district-based city council voting system. Please do not oppose or block the proposal and do not send a conflicting plan to the ballot in November. If you have any questions. No? Okay, thank you.

Next we have Ms. Sarah Cherry, followed by Ms. Cherry, we have Jennifer Creighton.

Council President Hardin, Chair Dorans, members of council, thank you very much for your time tonight. My name is Sarah Cherry. I'm a Democrat attorney. I've worked in elections, voting rights, and redistricting a lot in my career. I'm not involved in any organized way, any opposition, or being paid to be here. I oppose the measure, and I oppose going to at-large I'm sorry, going to a hybrid even. I don't want my say taken away. I voted for all of you. I want to keep doing that. I voted in each of your races. And I'm really concerned about the recall situation that Mr. Tannous highlighted. In fact, I had ballparked it at a higher number of signatures, so I was really concerned to hear it would be such a low number that could initiate a recall election. I don't want to be excluded from voting in any recall that might come up. because I voted in that election. And I've heard people cheering about that recall provision. So that really concerns me because I wondered if this was a sneaky way to have a quick, easier recall. I'm proud that we have a racially diverse city council and the black and brown voters can unite across the city to choose the candidates of their choice. I think that is delivering on the spirit of the Voting Rights Act, which has been shredded in recent years by our country's Supreme Court. In 20 years of working on redistricting, I know one thing. If you don't have to do it, don't. It creates problems. It is full of problems, and if they can be avoided, I think that is the path we should be on. My concern, a big one with Our City, Our Say, is who's city, who's say? I mean, you go to a website on most organizations, and you can look at the About section, and it'll tell you who It is, and who their leadership is, and maybe how they make decisions. I have not found that with Our City, Our Say. That's concerning. I find some of the slogans that they've used a little insulting, because we have democracy in this city. And we have responsive city council members. So I don't appreciate it being insinuated that we don't. And as I said, black and brown voters had their say in last fall's elections. In the most recent election, the richest and most powerful voting precincts were outvoted. Voters with less won and elected the candidate of their choice. Our city, our state has not been transparent. They have not answered questions when I have posed them in public forums. They've been used sexist language in response to me personally in public forums. Um, this was by a person who claims to be in the voting leadership of the organization. So I don't want that kind of those kinds of tactics to be embraced by the council, uh, or that kind of, uh, way of behaving empowered in my city. Another thing that is the elephant in the room is this seems to be a replay of the Vogel campaign that lost last year. There was a $36,000 contribution. From that campaign committee to, um, our city, our say. 60% of the organization's funding, as far as I can tell. So I'm just wondering, who's signing the checks to these consultants in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, not Brooklyn, Ohio? That's not in any district in this city. And I just think some transparency would be expected from an organization that seems to want it. I just have a few more seconds. I'm wondering what's next. Are we going to have districts for school board? Like, where does it stop? I'm just not seeing how what their slogans are promising will deliver improvements in people's lives. So in conclusion, I do not support taking away my say on council members, including whatever additional issue might be on the ballot to supplement our city RSA. Thank you.

Any questions of council members? Seeing none, thank you. Our next speaker is Jennifer Creighton, followed by Danielle Dillard.

Good evening. I'm going to go off script a little bit because I like to do that. I just want to say that I signed our city our say, but I voted for T.R. Ross. as a District 6 resident. So the argument that there isn't going to be some kind of representation, I find that false. But here we go, here's my testimony. This entire body is guilty of spending decades managing the symptoms of inequality while actively weaponizing the disease. Let's stop pretending this city has ever made a genuine effort to heal the generational trauma it inflicted on black and brown communities. You haven't. Hearing? Healing requires giving up control, and this council is dedicated to keeping it. Let me address the disgusting, cowardly narrative weaponized by the political machinery to protect your seats. The whisper campaign that my support as a white woman is somehow racist because I want ward voting that I am trying to drown out black and brown voices. My family is black. My family is brown. I happen to be white. I would like to think that anybody is capable of representing my best interests. regardless of skin color. I support ward voting because I demand actual neighborhood accountability. Hilltop still has sidewalks that are not ADA compliant. I sent you pictures. They're still not fixed. My husband can't get around. My commitment to this fight wasn't learned in a corporate diversity seminar. It was forged By this city, its own failed social engineering. Well into the 90s, the school district shuffled kids like me across the city. I actually lived in the north side, went to the east side to champion. That is where my social justice advocacy was formed because I saw the disinvestment. I saw how we took whole freeways and highways and carved them through places like Hanford Village, like Linden, and we did that intentionally. We said, hey, look, the Tuskegee Airmen are here. It is a hazardous neighborhood. We have to tear through it and stop it. Black thriving communities, this city did, and we continue to do it today. It might not be a highway. It might not be hazardous red lines. But we have not healed the hurt. And the only way we can do that is by attacking the system. The simple fix, the simple fix is district representation. That's it. I still wait for people to coffee. I send out emails to people. on this council, replied. I got a 30 minute virtual visit and I got an hour with Mr. Hardin. It's still out there. Thank you.

The next speaker to come for council is Ms. Danielle Dillard, followed by Kaz Kimura.

All right. Hello. My name is Danielle Dillard and I live in driving park resident of district seven. I'm currently the vice president of the Livingston Avenue area commission. And this conversation is about accountability. There's just no way my district gets effective representation from an at large city council member who represents almost 1 million people just won't happen because what's the greater good for a million residents. It's, who has the most money. So in the eight years that I've been advocating for my community, at almost every turn this council has stood in direct opposition. That's not an exaggeration. You sided with developers at the cost of health and safety. We're currently dealing with an affordable housing development that houses our most vulnerable residents right next to a waste management facility that kicks up dust, air is polluted. Council Member Ross, we took a tour. You saw it. The kids in these apartments will have no community school to go to. School's closing at the end of the school year. These and other issues were repeatedly brought up but quickly hand-waved away. Council Member Bankston spoke about minority representation. We're so worried about what this council looks like that we've deprioritize platforming effective representation. Councilmember Ross, you killed an effort by my community to put something on the ballot to dry out convenience stores. They sell illegal substances to our minors. They harbor crime and prostitution. Backed by foreign money, you killed it. I guess you know my community better than I do. Most recently, found out AEP substation wants to come right on my corridor. Went to National Night Owl, spoke to Council President Hardin, spoke to Council President, Council Member Barroso de Padilla. Hey, well, let's set up something. We'll get back to you. It's been crickets. You know, Southern Orchard says they haven't heard from you either. I've sacrificed so much of my free time. I've taken leave from work. I've readjusted my day to accommodate chasing many of you down. And I can't, because I can't get an email back. I can't seem to get a call back. This seems to be the only time that you hear me, the only time. Yet, two of you mentioned, oh, I may need to leave for personal reasons. So, time and again, it just tells me that your time is way more valuable than mine or any other constituent. The right time for this conversation was years ago. Council President Hardin, you've been on this council for 12 years. Council Member Dorans, seven years. Council Members Bankston, Burroughs-Judy-Padilla, five years. I think the onus should be on all of you to illustrate what exactly you've done to merit continuing on in any sort of at-large capacity, because I've seen nothing to demonstrate that we deserve some sort of hybrid model. I think it's time for us to vote for who cares about our district, who lives in our district, who's familiar with our district, who didn't just move to our district, The person I voted for won the district, but I guess a whole bunch of people who don't live anywhere near me know my community a lot better than I do.

The next speaker to come before council is Taz Camara, followed by Sean Walden.

Good evening, members of council. My name is Kaz Gamura, a Columbus resident. Tonight, I ask one question. Who should choose a district's representative? The people who live there or voters across the entire city? Right now, Columbus requires each council member to live in a district, but every Columbus voter votes in every council race. That is not true district representation. Our city, Orsay, proposed a simple fix. nine districts with each council member elected by the people who live there. More than 23,000 residents signed petitions. The Board of Elections validated 15,945 signatures. I was one of the people who collected them. I spent hours asking residents to stop, read the petition, and sign their names. I did not ask them to sign a blank check. I did not tell them they were signing for nine district seats plus four at-large seats. They signed for direct district representation. Those signatures are not bargaining chips. They are citizens using the process they were given to demand change. I understand compromise, but compromise cannot mean collecting thousands of signatures for one proposal and changing its central promise after the work is done. Four at-large seats may sound like a middle ground, but they preserve four seats elected under the same citywide system residents petitioned to change. Citywide elections reward citywide fundraising, name recognition, and institutional support. District elections create another path. Know your neighborhood. Knock on doors. Listen. Earn trust. Answer directly to the people you represent. Campaign finance reform may strengthen this proposal. Fair maps may strengthen it. But add safeguards. Improve the details. Do not dilute the principle. The people did the hard part. We organized. We collected the signatures. We met the legal requirement. Now let us vote on the proposal we actually signed. A district should mean something. If someone represents my district, my neighbors, and I should choose that person. Council members trust the people who did the work. Nine districts, nine district elections, direct representation, direct accountability. That is the simple fix. Thank you.

Next speaker to come for counsel is Mr. Sean Wallen, followed by Nathaniel Wilkins. Welcome, Counselor.

Good evening, President Hardin, President Pro Tem, and our council members. I'm Sean Walton, president of the NAACP Columbus, and I come to you on behalf of our organization, and I will say that I do not have the formal position of our executive committee at this point in time, but I can speak to you about what the principle feeling is amongst black people regarding this issue. And I think it's pretty much uncontroverted, not in dispute that reform is needed and that we're here approaching and addressing that reform. What is not settled is the question of what the current proposals on the table do to black political power. And there's a serious question regarding whether that black political power is being protected or advanced. And I can say pretty clearly that the mission of our organization is to protect and advance that black political representation. So with that being said, I Personally, I believe that the will of the people should be respected. It should be acknowledged. And I've said for years that the power of the people is more powerful than those who are actually in power. And I think that we're seeing that right now with the ballot initiative and all that's happening. At the same time, I urge council, as we're moving forward and considering what can be added here, that there is work to be done on the unfinished details here. There is nuance, and I think that we can certainly achieve our goals and respect the will of the people while also making sure that we consider the fact that these districts were not written with that black political representation in mind. And we have to also consider campaign finance reform, as well as what these new maps should look like in this district voting system, because those are key components that can materially change the outcome here. We can certainly have what looks like a better system, while seeming as if it properly represents everyone, but it just moves the goal post without really allowing us to have a fair shot at the end zone. And so again, it's in that unfinished work that we invite you all to hear the voice of the NAACP, to hear from our executive committee, to fully investigate and consider what this does to the makeup of the city beyond what's there on the paper, what's there in the language of the ballot. And again, it does not mean that the work of the people as it stands is being disrespected. I will certainly never stand for that. And I want to make that clear. But I believe that it's not as simple as stopping at what is there in the plain language. We have to look at the impact of how this plays out. So I appreciate you all for your time. And again, I invite and encourage you all to consider us a resource. Then I also have a request to read another statement.

Yes, President Walden. I know that Stephanie Hightower, the presidency of the Urban League, had submitted a written testimony and wasn't able to be here, but had requested that you present her testimony. So you're welcome to do so.

Okay. It's a very brief statement. I will read it on behalf of President Hightower. All right. All right, again, this is on behalf of President Stephanie Hightower of the Columbus Urban League, Dear Council President Hardin, and members of Columbus City Council, the Columbus Urban League is proud to join a number of community organizations and leaders in expressing support for the city council-led charter amendment calling for citywide as well as district council representation. Council deserves credit for working hard to find positive solutions and thoughtful compromises with the members of the community who advocate changes in council representation. This has been truly excuse me, this has been a truly open process as it should. Nothing matters more than ensuring government responds to the public it serves. While we respect the desire for true district representation, we strongly believe that preserving citywide leadership matters. Our organization stands for the principle that access and opportunity should be freely offered, no matter what your zip code. We cannot dilute anyone's voice, nor should we forget that there are times when a more holistic perspective is required to settle what can become narrow disputes among communities. Your voice and vote represent important perspectives. Let's be sure that in the process we amplify everyone's voice. Sincerely, Stephanie Hightower. And again, that is her statement coming on behalf of the Columbus Urban League. Thank you.

Thank you, President Walton. Next speaker for council. Mr. Nathaniel Wilkins. After Mr. Wilkins, we have Pastor Derek Holmes, who I'm not sure if he's with us yet. I know he had a pastoral issue that he was dealing with earlier. So if he's not here, we'll see if he's able to make it by the end of the hearing. Mr. Wilkins, the floor is yours.

I want to say thank you for all of you. Once again, 1612 Ellington Avenue, Mr. Nathaniel George Wilkins. I've been in my house for more than 19 and a half years. I stayed in Linden. And so, again, like I said to you, Rob, to all of you city council members, I call this a new era in time of jazz. I was listening to Joyce Duke yesterday on my TV. And when we talk about New Disket and what I want to say, I think it's time for a change of 16 people. 16 people. And the reason why I say that is because I live in Linden for 19 years. What I want to say to all of you, there's three things you're missing out. It's the visually impaired population, the disability, and the elderly population. Some people might not like a larger district. And I'm going to show you nine slides. And the reason why I'm all for this, this young lady here is visually impaired. And you have to understand, she did not know nothing about this because there's nothing in large print or braille copy. And when I talk about my neighborhood, I'm a voice to be driven with down here every Monday night. Every Monday night. Let me say that again. Every Monday night I'm down here for this opportunity. I want to see a larger district to serve my community in different businesses, in different stakeholders. What I see It's all of this been torn down. When people drive on Cleveland Avenue to turn their bin on Cleveland and Myrtle, you see them on vacancies, vacancies. When I bought my first house, my mother asked me, this is my mother. She's no longer still living. She asked me, Nate, why did you chose a bad neighborhood? You know why? This opportunity. This opportunity. I wrote this letter back in 2012, talking about 1639 on Arlington Avenue. I saw a potential, and I saw a potential is because of this home. I was still standing here with breath in my body to talk about that home is because that was neglected. Let me say that why it was neglected. Nobody didn't care. Nobody didn't have a voice for that community. I had watched other houses on Myrtle Avenue had came down. Broke my heart. My wife and I, we stood down there, 1639 Arlington Avenue. That home was supposed to be my dream home. But unfortunately, I had to end up with a two-bedroom house. You have to understand, when you have old houses built like this to bring character in the neighborhood, This day, I'm watching my home. The home behind me is getting fixed up in a six-bedroom house. And I will tell you, it's going to go over a quarter million dollars. So again, I'm suggesting to make this district a larger district to serve the visually impaired population. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Wilkins. Next speaker to come for counsel is Dr. Nathaniel Harris. Dr. Harris, welcome back to counsel. After Mr. Harris, we will have Charles Abernathy, Jr.

Good evening, President Hardin and members of the council. I won't be before you long. Today I'm not here as someone trying to protect a political system for the sake of tradition, but as a servant of the community who has sat in rooms of residents who have led commission meetings, who have talked to families, walked blocks, and heard development concerns and have watched people try to find a way into a government process that often feels distanced from them. So let me be clear, I understand the cry for wards. And when people are asked for wards, what they're really asking for is we want to be seen. We want someone who knows our streets, our schools, our vacant lots, our traffic patterns, our neighborhood pains, and even our neighborhood promise. The desire is not wrong. The desire is righteous. And I'm concerned when a ward system is presented as the only pathway to justice, accountability, and representation. Because the reality is Columbus cannot afford to trade one imperfect system for another system that may simply divide us into nine smaller political territories. Dr. King wrote in his letter to the Birmingham, in Birmingham jail, he said, in an inescapable network of mutuality, That must mean something in how we govern a growing city. Because what happens in Linden affects the Near East side. What happens on the South side affects the Hilltop. What happens in one district affects another. And from a standpoint, we know that electoral systems shape behavior. We know that ward systems can create stronger neighborhood accountability. They can create a system where each elected official is pressured to fight only for their district, even when the citywide good requires a shared sacrifice and a shared vision. But that is not the future Columbus should copy. We need a system where every neighborhood has a voice, but every leader still carries responsibility for the whole city. And that is why we have to build a Columbus model that directs district accountability but does not abandon citywide responsibility. And so give residents a clear path to be heard early. Give neighborhoods better access to data and development timelines and capital improvement and priorities and the decision-making processes. Because if we revise the code or this charter, let us do it in a way that increases trust, not just territory. because the question is not just who gets elected but the deeper question is who gets listened to who gets heard before the deal is already done who gets respected before the vote is already scheduled and i believe that columbus can do better but better does not mean having to copy what's being done in chicago and cleveland and cincinnati and other cities but we have to learn and create something that is best for Columbus, that represents all of the citizens, and more importantly, something that further calls us to reimagine what representation looks like with courage, equity, and accountability. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Dr. Harris. Our next speaker is Charles Abernathy, Jr., followed by David Gray. Is Mr. Abernathy here? I am not seeing Mr. Abernathy. Do we have David Gray? Mr. Gray, welcome to council. After Mr. Gray, we'll have Cara Dillon.

Good evening, council president, pro temp, and council members. My name is David Gray, and I would like to start by paraphrasing a quote by Victor Hugo, who was both an author and a poet. Nothing else in the world, not all the armies, is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. How extraordinary is this statement because here today in Columbus, Ohio, an idea powerful enough to get over 23,000 signatures has come. This idea has presented itself, has the ability to strengthen democracy, give credibility to elected officials, all while giving a voice to those whom all elected officials work for, and by that I mean the voting public. Our founding fathers viewed representation as essential, and a large part of that representation was directly or indirectly derived from the great body of people. This body of people consents to be ruled by elected officials, but when a system evolves that no longer represents these people, a change must be considered. This change must be brought about to ensure voices from those being represented are heard on the same equal footing as those with deeper pockets, as those who can advance elected officials' careers, or those whose connections may be friendlier to said elected officials. Many times in the government, problems can become bogged down in the minutia. This often slows down decision-making of the problems that are being considered due to the red tape, bureaucracy, and endless rules. All this can lead to a lost focus where people forget the main goal of solving the actual problem. Fortunately for us, this is not one of those times. The solution is simple. The solution is fair. The solution solves the problem. That solution is if you win the district, you win the seat. Simple, fair, and solves the problem. Lastly, I would like to state that a large enough part of the Columbus population has an issue with how city council is elected that they were willing to sign their names to the petition. I'm aware that Columbus City Council can and very well may send another proposal to the ballot with a vote of seven of the nine council members, but I would also want to state when seven people have more power than 23,000, that system is broken, faith is lost, and our founding fathers would consider this a miscarriage of justice. This is more power than a good city council should want or a bad city council should have. Thank you for hearing my words today.

Thank you, Mr. Gray. Next, we hear from Kara Dillon, and then we will have Pastor Cameron Harris.

Good evening, President Hardin, President Pro Tem Dorans, and the members of the council. I'm Kara Dillon, and I'm a Board of Trustees member of the League of Women Voters of Metro Columbus. I am here tonight to share that the Board of Trustees of the League has voted to endorse the RCDRSA citizen-led ballot initiative. I want to emphasize that the League did not arrive at this decision quickly or automatically. The League is 106 years old. And as anyone who has worked with the League knows, sometimes things can move quite slowly. That is because study and deliberation are fundamental to how we make decisions. As a nonpartisan organization, the League does not support or oppose candidates or political parties. And we do take positions on public policy issues after study and evaluation based on established league principles and positions. We consider positions adopted at the local level, positions established by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and of the National League of the United States. Our organization is also driven by our members. That includes roughly 300 individuals in central Ohio who are committed to our mission of defending democracy and empowering voters. Our members include people of different political affiliations, races, genders, ages, backgrounds, and communities and districts within Franklin County. When we take a position, we take seriously our responsibility to represent the board, that broad and diverse membership. At the same time, commitment to careful nonpartisan analysis is why the League has become a trusted election resource in our community. We take seriously that trust that voters place in us to analyze complex issues and provide information that helps all voters make informed decisions. For this proposal, we formed a task force specifically to examine the issue, and we spent significant time reviewing the proposal and against existing league positions, researching electoral positions, voting rights and representation, Columbus demographics and electoral data experiences, and other municipalities, talking to people from our city, our state, and from this council. And in addition to that resource, sorry, in addition, we also talked to you all. That research was then brought to the Board of Trustees for discussion and deliberation. After that process, the Board adopted the following statement. The Our City, Our State proposal aligns with existing league positions and sufficient evidence exists that the Our City, Our State proposal for an all-district-based representation would create a better option than the existing system of an at-large representation with geographic residency requirements. While the league recognizes that the proposal may have unintended consequences and therefore endorses with some reservations, we acknowledge that it represents the best available opportunity to strive for a more representative city council. An important part of our conclusion is that we do not view the proposal as the end of the conversation about representation in Columbus. Our statement continues, the League believes it is the responsibility of the City Council to address any unintended consequences by immediately convening a diverse study group of community leaders to research and recommend additional improvements to the governing structure of the City Council. and any downsides that may come from the proposal. And finally, we thank the citizens and the people who worked hard to collect these signatures, and we respect the outcome of the vote in November, as it is the voters who have the voice. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Dillon. Mr.

Chair, can I ask a question of Ms. Cara? Ms. Cara, you spoke of a lot of data information that was gathered and submitted to the board. Would the Board of Women, League of Voters, would they be willing to share some of that information, just as it seems like it was very thoughtful, deliberative work, and I just think it could continue to inform even as we keep this conversation going?

Yeah, I can bring that idea to our board and see if we are willing to share some of that information. Some of it was given to us with the idea of confidentiality, so we just want to make sure we respect those opinions.

Sure, thank you.

Anything else?

Thank you. Again, our next speaker will be Pastor Cameron Harris, followed by Stacey Green.

Good evening. President Hardin, President Pro Tem, Council Members, thank you for the opportunity to provide some remarks on such an important conversation that is certainly going to shape the future of our city. As mentioned, my name is Cameron Harris. I am a City of Columbus resident here this evening in my personal capacity, and I want to express my support for the hybrid system of representation and explain why. First and foremost, it's primarily because I'm a son of this city and I love this city. I was born and raised here. I attended Columbus City Schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, beginning at what was then Reeb Elementary, graduating from Aaron Franklin High School. And when the time came for me to attend college, I made my own decision to stay local and attend Capital University for a myriad of reasons, primarily because the opportunity this city provides for college-age students looking for internships and eventually looking to begin a professional career. Staying here turned out to be the right choice for me. For while I was in college, opportunities here allowed me to begin working in and around state government. That experience eventually awarded me the opportunity to work down on Capitol Hill and later put me in a position to serve as a presidential appointee for the Biden-Harris administration. I mention this not as a rendering to my resume, but to illustrate what can happen to a child in this city when decisions made about rec centers, public safety, neighborhood investment, and public spaces are not seen just as a line item in the budget, but rather tools that council members have at their disposal to help better the trajectory of a young person. Simply put, my life would be completely different had not the Marin Franklin Rec Center existed or the at-large support that was needed to continue its funding. But there's another part of my life that shapes the way I think about this conversation. I have the privilege of serving as a pastor here in Columbus. I live in District 9 while the church I serve sits in District 7. But the people I pastor do not only come from those two districts. Our congregation includes people from nearly every part of Columbus. That means on any given Sunday, I'm looking at people who live in different neighborhoods, face different local concerns, and very well may need to interact with city government in very different ways. But the fact is that they're all still a part of one city. And what this has taught me is that people do need representation that's close enough to understand the needs of where they live, but also need leaders who can see beyond the boundaries of one neighborhood for all residents. Look, I care deeply about what happens at District 8, because that's where I grew up and where my mother currently lives. I care deeply about what happens in District 9 because that's where me and my family live. I care deeply about what happens in District 7 because that's where I serve. And because the people I pastor come from all walks of Columbus, I equally care about the other six districts as well. As has been said by a myriad of people tonight, we all agree that, many of us agree, that our current system is imperfect and reform is needed. But I do not believe the answer has to come at the expense of choosing between neighborhood representation or citywide representation. There's an opportunity for Columbus to have both. A hybrid system gives residents a council member who's from their neighborhood while also providing members who, too, are accountable to voters as well. Suppose there come a time where your district council member is not hearing the concerns of your community. even after you do rally and organize and support with others from your neighborhood. This is not a hypothetical situation. We've heard testimony about this back in May, discussing this very topic, where residents organized. They did what they had to do. They felt like their voice wasn't heard. Under a hybrid system, your voice does not have to stop with just your council member. And to me, that does not dilute representation. It expands our access to it. Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor. Any questions from council? Seeing none, our next speaker is Stacey Green, followed by Liz Reed.

Good evening, council. I'd like to ask you, what is the average cost of a council member's office? Fully loaded. Salaries, staff, security. Two million? Three million? I want to follow up with my colleague, Daniel Dillard. We worked with this body very hard over four years. In 2022, we proposed remediating a brownfield for commercial use and opposed rezoning that brownfield because 95% of the hazardous and chemicals were unaccounted for. We also felt housing hundreds of kids directly across the street from the driving park community center with Livingston's designated six times more deadly than any street in the metropolitan area No crosswalk, no flash, no cross light. We felt it endangered children. We also felt housing within eyeshot of 14 registered sex offenders was hazardous to our community as well as our children. Council is elected at large. No transparency, no accountability as touted by Hardin. Developers cherry pick and council disperses parcels grants, funding, services to them and those in that community that support it while ignoring those that dissent. Driving Park has the distinction of being represented by two districts, District 7, Ross, District 8, Barrosa-Dipudela. Like Hardin, Barrosa-Dipudela has ignored all those that dissented since 2022. On August 5th, we sent Hardin a message asking how do we get the homeless camps removed from the driving park community center front lawn, clearly visible from Blifston Avenue. They're still there. Last national night out, the police came and they removed one of those homeless men because he was belligerent so that we could have national night out. His female friend was still there. I engaged her. And she told me her friend had overdosed a couple of days before. She asked if children were going to be there today. And I said, sure. I asked if she wanted to stay for food. So we started having a conversation because I wanted to find out what services she might need for me to be able to help her. She said, oh, if there's kids here, we have to clean this up. I said, clean up what? There were little yellow tablets, brightly colored yellow tablets, fentanyl, all around the bleachers. So we picked up the fentanyl so that the kids that could come wouldn't be mistaken for candy. This is the homeless camp that's right now on the front lawn of the Driving Park Recreation Center that we have yet to get a response from President Hardin. Council Member Ross, I thank you so much for everything that you've been doing to help us because she is the only one that has responded to us. So what is it? Two million, three million for a council member's office? But what does it take for you to support your community? What does it take to get a homeless camp off the lawn of the Driving Park Recreation Center. And just one last point. Driving Park Recreation Center has the largest softball league, baseball league in the city. Starting next month, 800 to 1,000 students will be coming to that small field with an eye shot of this homeless camp weekly. Will you clean it up before they get there? Or is it just for us neighbors in Driving Park to have to deal with? Because you think you don't care, so nobody else does. Our neighborhood cares. But we have been disinvested for decades. We can continue the conversation anytime you want. I tell you, I hate to come down here. But I have reached out to all of you, except for the new ones. But I have reached out to you for four years to have a private conversation to deal with the issues in our neighborhood. And the only one that has responded is Council Member Ross. Four years ago, you said you would come for a tour. Four years ago. Questions?

That's what citywide representation does for the neighborhood of Driver Park.

I don't know what it does for other neighborhoods, but that's what citywide representation has done for Driver Park.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Our next speaker is Liz Reed, followed by Samira Chicas.

Greetings, I'm Liz Reed, representing one resident, one voice, and living in District 7. Councilmember, Council President Hardin, Pro Tem Dorans, Councilmembers de Alcar, Barroso de Padilla, Weish, Ross, Remy, thank you for being here and listening. I'm here to urge you to do two things. First, support this ballot initiative as is with no at-large seats. Second, to complement this initiative by focusing on real campaign contribution reform in city government. To assume the district representatives will only care about their districts is short-changing our representatives. The work that council members do through their assigned department committees that they serve serves the full city. That does not need to change. Every district representative can easily understand that a rising tide raises all ships. In today's political environment, why is it that it's all about the money? Why is it that it's about how much one campaign collects over another campaign? Shouldn't a politician be voted in because of the actions they take, the service they give to the community, the competency they have, and the values that they demonstrate? This amendment to charter is the first step towards removing money as the key influencer in city politics. This amendment allows city politicians to focus on and understand the people and the needs in their district, putting people first. When money becomes the way people get elected, politicians get elected, they spend more time with donors. Residents are limited to three minutes on one topic. When campaigning, how long do big donors get to bend your ear? How many topics can they bring up? This charter amendment is about balancing of power from big money to everyday people. By supporting this amendment and introducing real campaign contribution reform, you can reduce the time spending campaigning with big donors and increased the time spent serving and listening to city residents. For some politicians, the influence of donor money was there from the beginning. For others, it's insidious. The influence of money slowly creeps up and becomes fully embedded before they know it's even there. Ballot initiatives are required to be single-focused. Our city RSA opted to begin with a common sense first step, district-based voting system for council seats. Seize this moment. Fully support this initiative and take the next step, real campaign reform, finance reform. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Reid. Our next speaker is Ms. Chicas, followed by Chris Orban.

Council President, President Pro Tem, Council Members, thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony about the Columbus City Council's structure and reform. My name is Samaria Chicas. I'm a proud Driving Park resident in District 7. and serve on the Livingston Avenue Area Commission. As we've referenced and heard here, the Our City, Our State symbol fix petition collected 23,000 plus signatures across all districts with a force of 200 plus volunteers. I was one of those volunteers that went out and collected signatures and had many wonderful conversations with fellow Columbus residents. Many confessed that they did not consider themselves particularly engaged in local government, but issues affecting communities across our countries like data centers, and flock camera usage was starting to really draw them in. There was excitement as I explained that the proposal for the simple fix was about real direct representation. We have an opportunity to bring real accountability to city council, to open candidacy to local community members, and to truly reflect the will of Columbus residents, not just major donors or party leaders. At a state and federal level, elected officials are tasked with representing their own districts and just their districts generally, and yet legislation gets passed. While it's an imperfect system, I ask that we get the same creativity, tenacity, compromise, and collaboration at the city level. I believe city council can still achieve that with direct district voting. This is, of course, not the only change that we need. Many people have referenced other things that can complement this type of change, but it's an important step to build trust with the electorate through greater accountability and accessibility to our city council members. 23,000 plus residents want the opportunity to vote on a major improvement in representation, and I encourage you to support the simple fix and ask that you don't oppose or attempt to block the Our City, Our Say proposal. Let the people have a fair chance to be heard at the ballot. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Chris Orban, followed by Heather Lauterbach.

Thank you. My name is Chris Horbin. I'm a professor in the physics department at Ohio State University, and I'm a Wineland Park resident. Many of you know me. In 2024, I ran for the State Board of Education. I got to know a lot of the people in the Franklin County Democratic Party. Everyone is very nice to me. Nancy and I are both Methodists, and Nancy was very nice. Thank you, Nancy, for what I was running. Antoinette Miranda, I was running to fill her seat. She was also very kind to me. You all know Antoinette. It felt like a family. It feels like a family to be up here. But sometimes families have to have difficult conversations. And I think it's time to end the citywide voting system. Now, everyone under the sound of my voice, I want you to think of a mentor that you had at some point, a teacher, a principal, a pastor. And I want you to imagine having a conversation with them and saying, you should run for city council. Now, I want you to... Imagine explaining to them that if they can, they should try to raise a half million dollars because in a citywide race, in a city as large as ours, that is what it costs. Now, I am not a keep money out of politics guy. I don't necessarily think that's possible. But I do think that it shouldn't cost more money to run for a city council seat than it does for the state legislature. How much money? It can cost as much as ten times more money to represent the same number of people to the state legislature. And there's been a lot of talk about, you know, can a ward-only system maintain the racial diversity of city council? Well, let's look at the State House. In the State House, I think it's fantastic and I think it's interesting that there are two Somali Americans representing parts of Franklin County in the State House. And I've never seen Somali American representation in this body, and I don't think it's a coincidence that we have a citywide election system, whereas in the State House, they're only representing, as they said, about the size of one ward. In the State House, I think it's great that we have Dr. Beth Liston. We have schoolteacher Sean Brennan. When's the last time those occupations were represented in this body? And I don't mean this to be personal, but how many lawyers do we need to run the city? And that's a funny thing to say, but we face cyber attacks. We face rising electrical costs. You do not have to sacrifice your values to put technical people into positions of power. You don't have to sacrifice the demographics of this body to empower technical people to put them in positions of authority. Now, the entire state of Ohio is looking at you all to see what happens when Democrats win every seat. And please show the state of Ohio that you can accept a simple and concise petition that changes the way that elections are done in our city without providing your own counter-petition that would appear two months before it's being voted on to a very confused electorate. Please show the state of Ohio that you can do that. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Heather Lauterbach, followed by Charles Coleman, Jr.

Good evening. Thanks for having me tonight. My name is Heather Lauterbach, and I currently live in the Hilltop. I moved there in 2022. I moved to Columbus, and I hate to say this number, 40 years ago to attend OSU. In the time that I've been in Columbus, I have lived in three different quadrants, all of them having their own unique culture and needs. I'm speaking in favor of RCDRSA and the simple fix for more representative government. I'm here this evening also as a representative of the leadership of Indivisible Central Ohio and also as a social worker. And being a social worker has allowed me to understand and appreciate the importance of community and how policies impact community members. As a member of Indivisible, I have learned the importance and the power of grassroots organizing. Indivisible started, Indivisible Central Ohio started in 2017 with 250 members and we currently claim more than 7,000 members, many of whom live within the city's limits. As an organization, we've been instrumental in voter registration and supporting signature collection for other charter amendments most recently the Columbus Safety Collective. ICO collected 4,000 of the 23,000 signatures, and I'm proud to say I was one of the top signature collectors within Indivisible. While sweating through the Fourth of July parades, community festivals, and local neighborhood garage sales, I encountered almost universal support for the simple fix, with most signature most residents stating, quote, this has to change, and quote, this isn't right, before signing their name on the petition. Also, as a Westside resident, I've heard from neighbors the disappointment and helplessness they feel when out-of-town billionaires have used their influence on our representatives to strip limited and valuable resources from communities like McCoy Park. I met a community member while driving to his place to collect his signature that he has a disabled child who would have benefited from that adaptive park slated for McCoy Park. He was shocked to learn that this decision was made without input and wasn't even sure who his city council representative was. As a social worker, I see every day how regular folks are ignored, dismissed, when the representatives answer to donors and not their community. The simple fix returns power to the people to address the needs and concerns that are unique to their neighborhoods and communities. The time is now for city council to change and move to a more direct representative model where all people are empowered. And I'm asking that you support our city RSA proposal, the simple fix, change the city charter.

you our next speaker is mr charles coleman after mr coleman we have caleb dorante colman welcome back to council good to see you again sir thank you city council and council president harden for giving me the opportunity to speak um

Before today, I didn't know what the hybrid model looked like. I looked online to try to get some type of resources to get an idea of what it might be, and the only thing I could find was council members had to live in their district and residents had to vote for only their district. I just want to speak from the voter's perspective, and I just want to say I don't think that I should have to vote in my district just because I live here for the fact that I grew up in a low-income neighborhood and my parents always taught me that, hey, you work hard, you become exceptional, and you provide a better quality of life for your family. And I believe that to be true. So I lived in North Columbus the majority of my life, and I've been living in Whitehall for the past six months. And if we change to where I have to only vote in my district, I don't know too much of the needs in Whitehall because I've only been there for six months. But for the majority of my life, I lived in the Cleveland Avenue area, and that's what I know. So there were some problems that maybe were never addressed. or some changes that never got to be done that I still know of today, that I could still come here and, hey, can you guys do this? Can we work on that? So I don't agree with us only being able to vote in our district. But if that was the case, I could understand it too to play devil's advocate. Why not have it to where possibly we could vote in our district for one person and then maybe we get one vote to vote wherever we want for the reason that I said, like, you outgrow your neighborhood and you move, but you still know your community needs. Also, I want to just talk on, like, speaking on the public relationship with you guys. I've been guilty of looking at leadership and always trying to look outward instead of trying to look inward and look at me, my coworkers, my friends, and my family members and what we can do different. I feel like the public, we have to, We have to do better at working with you guys instead of always trying to look at you guys as criminals or you guys are trying to do something behind our backs because majority of us in this room, we're parents and we make decisions for our kids and our kid might not like it. Your kid might not talk to you for a week. I took my kid out of public school and put him in Catholic school. He didn't talk to me for about six months, but now he understands he's in a better environment and he's happier and it just makes sense for him. So I say that to say, you guys are not our parents by any means, but you guys are our local leaders. So you guys are going to make decisions that even myself at times, I wasn't happy with, but down the line, I seen the benefits from it, or I seen that it didn't work. But like as a parent, if I made a decision for whether it was my son, my nieces, or any of my family members, if it was the right decision, okay, fine, that's cool. right thing if I made a decision that was wrong down the line hey I went back I apologize but I thought this was in our best interest at the moment so maybe if from the public if we can help support you guys more and stop trying to criminalize you guys and think hey they're trying to do something or not we might get somewhere and maybe if you guys make mistakes in the future maybe hey I apologize we thought this was the best at the time it was the best at the time with the information that we had but it just didn't work out. We'll do better. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Coleman. Our next speaker is Caleb Durante, followed by Katie Shanahan.

Good evening to our council. Thank you for continuing this important conversation as it regards to our city's governance. My name is Caleb Duarte. I am a lifelong resident of Columbus and a student at Ohio State, and I call Old North Columbus my home. Members of this council have spoken to very sound rhetorical arguments against the district system, one of which is that once we shrink our constituencies, neighborhoods and their council members become territorial, pitting one part of Columbus against another. But as one such Kevin Cox puts it, a geography professor at Ohio State, Developers have been doing this for a long time. Across our city, developers create and fund neighborhood groups under the guise of supporting education and job growth, often under deceptive organizing practices to kill certain referenda. People in power know districts compromise their power to influence our local politics. And ultimately, developers have been pitting our neighborhoods against each other, and we didn't even need a ward system to do it. I'd like to point to another rather successful rhetorical argument brought forth by our council, and that is the argument of housing. We need housing everywhere and the data proves it. Therefore, we need a political system capable of deciding fairly how every part of our city participates in producing that housing. This is what the data doesn't actually show. A district system allows our elected officials to face public accountability, working with neighbors to reduce negative externalities of development rather than override their concerns as illegitimate obstacles to growth. I'm Columbus's youngest area commissioner, and in my short time in that position, I've seen how this council has denied nearly every recommendation in regards to development that questions it. This concern of the opposing few is not unfounded, however. According to studies heavily cited in this chamber, districts do run the risk of inviting a NIMBY into these conversations, but there is a different risk that this at-large system or at-large seats invites. And that is a similar, more powerful, small group of individuals representing developer interests, oftentimes enshrined as the public interest, ironically enough, trumping that of the public itself, only this time with greater access to the institutional apparatus. When we position entire constituencies as adversaries It destabilizes the narrative that an at-large system or at-large seats is in some way more representative, more democratic, or more just. While the opponents of our city are saying power continue to advocate for at-large seats, I'd like to remind you that the proposed amendment already includes one, and that is in the seat of the mayor. The question is whether the impact of your decisions are accountable to the abstract idea of a city or a real constituency that feels the impact themselves. In regards to our NIMBY problem, people who experience the impact of development are not obstacles. In fact, it is these same opposition groups in which we've seen some of the greatest reductions in negative externalities and development while still ensuring our housing agenda is met. Take the University Area Commission, for example, on which I sit, in which our body of neighbors were able to advocate for dense, high-quality housing for students while still maintaining the historic architectural quality of the Pavey Block on North High Street, and similarly with my colleagues in the Greater Southeast Area Commission in the absence of a recreation center. When we bring neighbors to the table, the opponents of RCDRSA call NIMBYs, we get greater outcomes for our built environment and our communities. That begins with ensuring our elected officials are held accountable to their constituents, not free of them. Districts invite us to cooperate with growth, not offset it to other neighborhoods.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Katie Shanahan, followed by Daniel Quintello.

Good evening. I'm going to change quite a bit of what I was actually planning to say because I have to respond to what I feel like is a really disheartening reality that's been espoused by labor leaders in our city, other community organization leaders in our city who seemingly think so little of our city residents that if we shifted away from an at-large structure, we apparently would all stop caring about each other. as long as you didn't live in the same district that I did. I've watched our city come together when ICE announced Operation Buckeye across the city, not just limited to certain districts, to protect our neighbors and our friends, shipping groceries, going on grocery runs on complete other sides of our city. Like our labor leaders said, when workers show up every day to do the work to make the city run, they don't ask what neighborhood you live in. They go to the source of the problem and they try to fix it. In my mind, I would generally offer that their arguments actually come to the exact opposite conclusion. Our city knows how to show up for each other, suggesting that the only way to do that is through a historically racist at-large structure is just disingenuous on its face. I also want to be clear that I don't entirely dismiss your compromise that you've put forward to the folks at Our City, Our Say. I don't, in theory, have a problem with an actual hybrid system where we have nine real district seats and up to four at-large seats. I do have a problem with that proposal being talked about behind closed doors, except for the 15 or so people who apparently got notice of it ahead of tonight's announcement about it, which is the first time I heard about it, because they all had the information necessary to create testimony for it. You opened this hearing today talking about how much you valued public discussion on this topic, and yet you made very clear it doesn't matter what any of us have to say because you've already come to the conclusion that you're going to put a competing ballot measure on our ballot in November. That's how you opened tonight's hearing. A bunch of speakers have already gotten advance notice that you were going to announce this tonight. How else would they have been able to craft testimony saying, I support council's hybrid system? Even speakers who weren't able to be here knew that information. How then are we supposed to trust that you actually have faith in the people who live in the city if you don't even trust us to engage in a real dialogue with us? I also feel like I have to spend a certain amount of time that's undoubtedly going to be longer than in a minute, so I apologize as a voting rights attorney talking about what it means to shift away from an at-large structure. I absolutely reject the notion And 60 years of jurisprudence that I don't know about you, Mr. Dorns, or Ms. Ross, but when I was studying in law school, I learned about 60 years of jurisprudence using what used to be the full force of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that made very plain what was necessary to ensure adequate political representation for black and brown communities. At-large structures do the exact opposite of that. They do not serve the interests of voters of color. They diminish their voting power. That's what the NAACP LDF, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, the ACLU, LULAC, other civil rights giants have spent the last six decades fighting against. So to suggest that leaving that behind somehow diminishes the ability writ large for black and brown communities when they are instead given the decisive say in their communities alone without the remainder of the majority white population that lives in our city also participating in their votes, that that would somehow diminish their ability writ large to have a real say in who represents them to ensure that no matter what the race is of the candidate who they ultimately select, that they have an adequate path to power. The makeup of this council itself makes clear that that argument is disingenuous and not true. Our city is 51% white. The people who make up our council are 55% black and brown members of our community. That shows that what does not exist in our city is what's called racially polarized voting, where Non-white voters tend to vote for one set of candidates, and the majority white population tends to vote for a different set of candidates. And because there are more white people in this city than there are non-white people in this city, non-white voters never get an opportunity to elect representatives of their choosing. Our current districts make clear that that doesn't happen in our city. One need only look at Councilmember Remy's district. You represent a district that is as close to a majority black district as we have on our current maps. You are not a black person. That's because black voters have no problem voting for a white candidate. And if that community decides that that's who they want to keep representing them, and they're the only people who get a voice in that election, that doesn't mean that black political power has been diminished in our city. It means that their neighborhood alone got to select council member Remy as their council representative. So to suggest that for some reason, despite the fact that in 2021, not a single one of you mentioned that our districts were so badly drawn they needed to be redrawn immediately. When our districts were drawn in 2021 by a process that has since been rightfully lauded as the way we should draw maps in this state. In fact, all of you, including those labor leaders who were just here earlier tonight, all came out in support of issue one, which would have created a very similar system at the state and congressional level redistricting process as exists here. It was an independent commission, with a lot of room for public input, transparency in how the maps were drawn, and ultimately what came out of it were maps that are representative of our city. Now, are our maps perfect? No, they're not, because spoiler, you can never draw a perfect map. It's not possible. You always have to split communities somewhere. The lines have to go somewhere. But to suggest that our process six years into the decade after you all have been elected under three election cycles using those district maps that they're all of a sudden now so bad that they have to be redrawn and they have to be redrawn before our 2031 mapping cycle, I'm not sure I understand it. And the reason I'm not sure I understand it is because the only other group of politicians I've seen demand so forcefully for an unnecessary mid-decade redraw was the batch of Republican congressional members and governors and legislators across the country this year who insisted on redrawing their maps in the middle of the decade to rig the outcome of the 2026 U.S. House elections. And I have to wonder, as someone who has spent 20 years fighting against Republicans and their... their efforts to undermine our democracy, why you would ever align yourselves with what they're doing. I just want to end to say that for some reason, you all have convinced yourselves and too many other people that our historically racist at-large council structure is somehow a boon to voters of color. That is not true. You think that giving yourselves permission to draw districts with different population sizes and thus undermining our collective and constitutional right to one person, one vote will somehow help community representation. That is also not true. You think that the minor adjustments that you've proposed to our outrageous campaign finance limits and city council races, that you are somehow doing something real to keep money out of politics. That is laughably also not true. The reality is you aren't willing to listen to your voters, because just like the Republican goons up at the State House who run our unfair, unconstitutional, and unjust redistricting process, you don't actually want to release your outsized grips on political power. And that's what it would result in if we actually went to real wards where you'd actually have to run on your own merit and you might face some real competition to earn back these seats. Columbus voters have expressed a real interest in actual reform rooted in the real principles of people-powered democracy. This petition process and the multiple other attempts city residents have made to reform our council structure underscores that the reality that our current system does not work for us. And I am begging you to not duplicate the efforts that we see on a regular basis from the Republicans in the State House. You all are better than that, and I'm asking you to be better than that. If you're going to refer anything to the ballot, do not make it a direct, confusing, and competitive measure to the Our City, Our Say. If you'd like to go further and do real campaign finance reform, I'd love to have a real conversation about what that looks like. If you're looking for examples, the city of San Francisco, a city roughly the size of Columbus, their individual donor contribution maximum is 5%. $500. So if you want to pat on the back for bringing down our total to $8,000 or your ability to give each other $34,000, you're not going to get it, at least not from me. There are real conversations to be had about what reform looks like. They're not happening behind closed doors. They're not happening in phone calls to get all of your proponents to come out here and get advance notice of what you're going to propose to us at the last minute. And they're certainly not in confusing voters with a reform that we obviously want. Thank you. I apologize for going over my time.

Thank you, Michelle. Our next speaker to come for council is Daniel Poncello, followed by Alexandra Nagy.

Hi, good evening. Council President Hardin, President Pro Tem Dorans, thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony about the structure of Columbus City Council. My name is Dan Cotello. I live in Victorian Village in District 7. I'm a member of Columbus DSA, the Short North Rotary, and I'm currently serving as treasurer for our city RSA. And I am incredibly grateful for all of the amazing people of this coalition who have come together to do the hard work of democracy. And I'm here to add my voice to the over 23,000 voices of your constituents that ask that you support the RCDRSA ballot initiative. When I was out gathering signatures and talking to over 500 neighbors and residents, I was blown away by how many people wanted to engage in this process. This initiative has struck a chord with people who, like myself, want our voices heard in our city and have never before been involved in a level of local politics. number cruncher for a science equipment company, so this is a big step outside of my normal day-to-day life. But democracy, I feel, is extremely important. And when I looked at Columbus versus all the other peer cities, it seems that it's time for a change. And when I was out and talking to all of these constituents, I had a lot of conversations. Some I'd like to recount, some of the things I heard from signers of the petition. Many people thought that this was already how elections worked and were concerned when they learned that the districts were only for residency requirement and not actually voted on. Others expressed how they were confused whenever they would vote in November for a council seat that they don't actually live in. And then many expressed how they've never seen their council district's person at events in their district and feel the council's presence is absence from their neighborhood. which is not an indictment of any of you, but an indictment of the system that forces you to be responsive to nearly a million people. I met members of Columbus area commissions that expressed frustration with their issues going unaddressed. People signed my petition from all kinds of backgrounds, from young college students at the Earth Day Festival to old Vietnam vets during the Fourth of July parades, from parents watching their kids' football match at McCoy Park to neighbors jamming out at ComFest. They all expressed a strong desire to have their voices heard. And in all of these interactions, there was an energy that many people said was unprecedented in this city. I encourage you all to join this expanding movement and tap into that energy. I ask that you add your names to the increasingly long roster of endorsements to help move Columbus's council structure in line with all the other major cities. Please support the Our City, Our Say simple fix. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Alexandra Nagy, followed by Zachary Besselman.

Good evening, Council. This is my first time addressing you all, so excited to be here. My name is Alexandra Nagy. I'm a two-year Columbus resident living in District 3, moving here from L.A., where I was born and raised. But I'm loving Columbus. It's a beautiful city. And my first day here, I went and got myself a library card, and I also looked up how elections are run here. So I was eager to know my rights. And I have to say I was very disappointed to read about the at-large system That's because I've spent my career as an environmental and climate justice organizer who worked all over Southern California and California broadly to protect communities from fossil fuel pollution, especially neighborhood drilling. In one community I worked in, it was quick to see the consequences of at-large voting. Whittier, California is a small town of about 80,000 people, and its population is about two-thirds Latino and one-third white. There was a battle over public land that was recently designated as a nature reserve. And the Whittier City Council, all seats at large elected, and all white men decided they knew better and put that land up for lease to an oil company for fracking. You can guess that the oil company had a lot of influence in getting these men elected. So naturally, the community fought back, but not successfully at first. Many voices were disenfranchised, especially Latino communities closest to the proposed drill sites. They were not represented in any way because their voting power was severely diminished. We knew that we had to change the election system and decided to campaign to eliminate at-large voting, to unrig the election. We knew in order to protect the land and secure the power for the people to have an equal voice, Whittier had to have district-based voting. And two years later, we won both fights, changing the election system and protecting the land, with the drilling issue uniting the city across the board to change the election charter. So you can see this issue really activates me, and it's critical to other issues I care about, like schools and housing, data centers and flock cameras, many issues raised here tonight. The people have taken action here in Columbus. Now the council must act in turn. The choice is simple, to give people a real voice in what happens in their community for both big issues and small. and direct representation matters. In no way should this council undermine that same grassroots process Whittier accomplished by putting a countermeasure on the ballot that requires at-large seats that will only serve the interests of big money and billionaires, and they already can take their shot with the seats we have. Our city, I say, has a very simple fix to this issue, district-based voting. It makes sense, and the public is behind it. I urge you to take action now to fix this, Do it as quickly as possible. Don't undermine it. Don't delay. Don't be a barrier. Be the solution. Let the people have a fair choice to be heard.

Thank you. We have two speakers left to come for council. Next we have Minister O'Shea and then Kyle Miller. Oh, I'm sorry. We have Zachary Basselman. I apologize. Then we'll have Minister O'Shea. I apologize.

Good evening, council. My name is Zach Basselman. I'm speaking tonight as a supporter of the Our City, Our Say initiative and as one of the many volunteers who work to gather 23,000 signatures from Columbus residents who demand real change. I'd like to begin with a little history. When the city of Columbus was first incorporated in 1834, it established a system of three wards, each represented by four councilors for a total of 12 members of city council. This is recorded in the Canton Repository in an article from 2016. As the population grew, this system adapted, but it was still fundamentally a ward system. And with the victory of the Civil War and the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1880, Columbus would elect its first black counselor, James Poindexter, through this ward system. In 1916, when the at-large system was adopted, that would all change. Columbus would not see another black councilor elected until 1966, 50 years after the system was adopted, when Dr. John H. Roseman was elected. In 1968, a similar referendum to what we are discussing today was proposed. It was opposed by the Franklin County GOP and it was defeated. In 1975, a hybrid system, like what council has proposed, was brought forward. It was again opposed by the GOP and defeated. I say all this to say that, well intended or not, our current voting system is fundamentally a Republican system supported multiple times by the GOP with the express goal of racist voter suppression. In the wake of the Calais decision and everyone from the White House to our State House looking to suppress the votes, it is clear that we need to bring the system to an end to protect all of our voters. And I understand there is a bit of convenience for those who are on council to keep the system as it is. It's easier to run as an incumbent or as a political insider with an at-large system. But I think... It's more important that we uphold democracy in the face of the fascist threat that we see nationally and on the state level. And I think by supporting the Our City, Our Same measure, you will go a long way in protecting what is being stripped from us by those reactionary forces. But don't stop there. Work to build majority minority districts. Work to do campaign reform. Work to build a city that works for everyone. I yield my time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Hsieh, followed by Kyle Miller.

Give an honor to God, President Hardin, pro temporeans. I come just as I am, and I applaud the Our City, Our Save group. I applaud you. You've done a wonderful job getting the initiative. You're a great group of people, young people mostly. I applaud city council. City council, you're a well-meaning group of people. All of us have good hearts. I'm the peace ambassador to the United Nations in New York City for a non-governmental organization, the Peaceful Nation, AKA the Edenite Civil Society. I go all over the country. doing different types of initiatives. You see the shirt I have when I design says the Tennessee Three. The Tennessee Three, one of them is running for Congress out of Memphis, Justin Jones, Justin J. Pearson, rather. His picture is here, and he signed it. He signed the shirt, the drawing, and I made the shirts, donated them to them. I am older than most of the people in the Our City, Our State group. I have shoes older than most of them. I was here, and we put our lives on the line to get African Americans on the police force. Bill Moss, the late Bill Moss, Les Brown, all the people that, Jerry Hammond, Dr. John Roseman, Mr. Roseboro.

You can read, the young man that was here last, he told us about some of the history.

He's read it, but I've lived the history. I've been here. I've lived it. Except for the short period of time I had to go up north for something else, but that's another story. Nobody has mentioned the Voters' Rights Act. The first thing the city council should be concerned about is making a Voters' Rights Act compliant map. That's number one. The Voters' Rights Act The map would be, I gave those out at the last hearing. I passed them out. I didn't bring any this time. But the elders and I submitted that. Jonathan Beard, myself, a number of the other elders, Asad Shabazz, and many others. Now we, as elders, would love to see a district voting council. 10 seats. maybe three at large, nine, maybe four. But 10-3 would be great for us because we understand that, first of all, people need representation in their district. They need that. They deserve that. So that's why I applaud the Our City. I say I applaud them. At the same time, we need to have an at-large group, especially one at-large person that is in charge of people with disabilities, in charge of veterans, in charge of seniors, in charge of people with mental illnesses, in charge of the LGBTQ community. We need to have one at large person who has the quote unquote minority minority responsibility. They should be appointed and voted on at large so they could look out for the folks that aren't looked out for hardly at all. So that's why I like the blended system that Dorians is talking about, 310. I like that. But first things first, un-gerrymander the map. District 7 runs across a freeway. I mean, just look at it. Gerrymandering at the national level has torn us apart. That's why Memphis, which is a predominantly 99% almost black, the new chocolate city, African-American city, but it's broken into three parts. So Justin J. Pearson, who's running for Congress, is not going to get that vote. He has to go out into one third of that, and somebody else, another third, another third. That's on the national level. Then on the state level, we see the gerrymandering at the state house. Then, you know, here we are in the city. Let's not do that. First things first, redraw the map. Make it Voters Rights Act compliant, number one. Then number two, after you do that, then make sure that All of the people in the city are safe who want to have their district representative have them represented. They deserve that. These young people deserve that. So that is our position. I love everybody. I'm not mad at anybody. Y'all are good people. Y'all are good people. But you kind of got the cart before the horse. And that's what I'm saying in terms of do this thing and do it in the right way because We're in a bad situation nationally. You know, if you look at the war, the gas prices, you know, we're in a bad situation all across the country. We're in bad situations in many of the states and the cities. But as Columbus goes, I know that there are good-hearted people here everywhere. And I've lived this life in Columbus all my life. I still stay on 16th Avenue, 1117, 1119 East 16th. Chief Jackson, when I was a kid, he'd come by and let us play with it, take the bullets out of his guns, and let us play with his guns. OK? So I've lived what some of you are just talking about. So I thank you for your time. I ask you to consider a Voters Rights Act compliant map. Give our city, our saved people what they want. Have a few people, three or four at large, one in charge of minority minorities, LGBTQ, disabilities, people with mental illnesses, and veterans and seniors. Have one of those, have that person in charge represent that area. And just make the whole thing complete and make it full of love. God bless you. May heaven smile upon you.

Thank you, Minister. Our final speaker to come for council is Kyle Miller.

Good evening, city council. My name is Kyle Miller. I'm the chair of the Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. I'm here today to ask the council to respect and support the wishes of the 23,000 voices who have signed the Our City, Our State proposal and not create any conflicting reforms on the ballot. As more than one of the 250 volunteers involved in the signature gathering process, I can say that, honestly, I did not have a single person push back against the proposal, whether it was when I was canvassing it. Juneteenth Pride, ComFest, my community cycling group, Everyone just kind of said, yeah, that makes sense, as soon as they learned about it. Internally, I can tell you this has been one of the most exciting campaigns for our members in Columbus in years, and one of the most You Live Like That campaigns for our other Central Ohio members who learned about how this city does its city council elections. This is a simple democratic decision-making process at work. People want to have a say in who represents them directly. The people of Columbus are tired of uncompetitive elections financed by wealthy individuals and establishment corporate interests giving thousands of dollars to their chosen candidates. The people of Columbus also know bad math when they see it. Running at large in the city means running a campaign to get the votes of roughly 800,000 residents you theoretically do not directly represent. The scope of campaigns is vastly disproportionate to what the seat is actually intended to represent. Residents who live north of 270 near Powell, I would think, would feel they have different concerns than residents south of 270 near Lockbourne. This system incentivizes our city council members to be unaccountable to their own district and instead make judgment calls on behalf of politically unpopular moneyed interests like the Hassams and the Wexners. The knock-on effect then causes people to become disengaged with the local politics such that we only had one contested election for city council last year for a city with almost a million people in it. Overall, we're looking for a simple fix. Columbus has outgrown the at-large voting system that, as mentioned earlier, was enacted nearly 100 years ago when the city was a tenth of the size that it is now. and if there are any additional reforms to address further concerns, we ask that they be purely complimentary and not contradictory to what the 23,000 residents of Columbus have asked for. Thank you.

Thank you, Kyle. I know we had a number of individuals when I called their name were not present, so I just want to pause and see if Derek Harris, Charles Abernathy Jr., or Pastor Derek Holmes have made their way to council chambers. Seeing none, that was our final public speaker to come before council. As we mentioned earlier, this council will be charged with taking action on any proposal, both from the Our City, Our State coalition and any potential proposal from council at our next council meeting this upcoming Monday. The ability for folks to sign up to speak on legislation is on our website. If folks have questions regarding how to speak either on any piece of legislation, please contact my office. You can reach me at radorns at columbus.gov. We also want to acknowledge individuals that submitted written testimony to the body, including Steve Stein, president of IAFF Local 67, Mark Hirschfeld, Timothy Adams, Trevin Flickner, Joe Motil, Zachary Besselman, and Deborah Link. I want to pause and see if there's any closing comments for any of my council colleagues. Seeing none, appreciate everyone's engagement on this issue. Appreciate everyone's engagement on the issue. Wish everyone a great evening. Take care.