Elections board not planning fire staffing vote in November
By Jeff Gallatin
Bay Village
Published July 23, 2008

Cuyahoga County Board of Elections officials have no plans to put on the November ballot an issue about shift staffing levels for the Bay Village fire department, according to Bay Law Director Gary Ebert.

Ebert said he was told by board officials that they didn’t plan to put the issue on the ballot unless the city asks it to do so. Ebert said he spoke to the board after he sent it a letter which challenged the validity of the petitions submitted by the Bay Citizens for Safety group for a possible November ballot issue about fire department staffing levels.

Based on this, Ebert said the board officials’ comments mean the petitions would have to be recirculated and would likely knock the issue off the November ballot. To make it on the November ballot, an issue has to be submitted to by the Board of Elections by Aug. 21.

“When we talked about it, the board told me that either the city would have to approve putting it on the ballot or it would have to be through a writ of mandamus, meaning a court would have to say it has to go on the ballot,” said Ebert Monday.

He said the issue is clear.

“It’s pretty black and white,” Ebert said. “There’s a misstatement of fact about the issue. The language is misleading and was present when people were signing the petition.”

A board of elections official who received Ebert’s letter is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Ebert had his July 10 letter hand delivered to board officials about the petitions submitted by the Bay Citizens for Safety Group. He said the language was discovered by city workers when the ballot initiative proposal was placed on the City Council agenda for possible passage. At a special July 7 meeting, council rejected placing the issue on the ballot. The petition drive was started as a response to Mayor Debbie Sutherland’s cutting the minimum staffing level for the department from six to five firefighters on duty when a firefighter calls off. Sutherland said she made the February move to try and curb mounting department overtime expenses as part of dealing with a tight municipal budget this year.

In the letter to the board, Ebert refers to the petition language which states “Whereas, an initiative petition relative to the staffing of the Bay Village Fire Department was circulated and “voted upon by the people of the city of Bay Village.” Ebert sent a copy of the petition and ordinance to the board to support his questioning of the petitions.

“Obviously, this is an incorrect statement of facts since the issue will not be voted on until the general election on Nov. 4, 2008,” Ebert said in the letter. “This raises an issue as to the validity of the petitions since the petitions were signed by residents with a misstatement of fact contained at the time of circulation.

“Therefore, it would be our opinion that in order for the initiative petition ordinance to be placed on the ballot, the petitions must be corrected by removing the misleading statement and re-circulated for signatures in the time frame required in order to have this placed on the November ballot,” Ebert said.

Martin Mace, the Bay Village firefighter who serves as a spokesman for the Bay citizens group, said the organization is reviewing the letter but noted they want to do it more thoroughly before making a formal comment. He cited a death in his family and the passing of  Bay firefighter Matthew Linder last week from a heart attack.

“We’re dealing with that right now,” Mace said. “We’ll look at the letter more extensively and then consider a more formal comment. Right now, we’re planning on going ahead and working on a November ballot issue.”

Jim Walts, president of the Bay Village firefighters union, which has challenged Sutherland’s move and helped with the petition drive, said the group also is dealing with Linder’s death and would review Ebert’s challenge shortly and consider possible comment then.

Even with the potential ballot issue, Sutherland said she’s still planning on hiring a floater for the fire department.

“We’re just waiting to see some numbers on the collection of the fire ambulance fees,” Sutherland said. “At this point, even strong early indicators would be enough for us to go ahead with it.”

She said Linder’s death has created the need for an additional hiring.

“We’re all devastated by it,” she said. “It’s been hard on everybody. Obviously, we’ll hire someone to replace him as soon as we can. And we will still pursue a floater as well.”