Court orders parties to file responses by this Friday
More Late-breaking News: Eric J. Brewer, Tony Madalone, Robert Kilo file more signatures hoping to get on ballot for Cleveland's Sept. 12 mayoral primary
The
litigation to determine whether the voters of Cleveland are entitled to have a
referendum on the Quicken Loans Arena expansion deal may be headed to a
fast-track decision by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The
Court this afternoon gave Cleveland Law Director Barbara Langhenry and
Cleveland City Council Clerk Patricia Britt less than 48 hours to respond to a
motion filed by five Cleveland voters on behalf of the more than 20,600
citizens who signed petitions asking for a chance to vote on the Q deal.
The
Supreme Court case was initiated by Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson [through
Langhenry] and Council president Kevin Kelly [Britt’s boss] last month. Jackson
and Kelly, who both support the Q deal, filed the mandamus action, alleging
that they did not know whether the referendum petitions should be accepted by
the council clerk because the city charter provision ordering their acceptance
was in apparent conflict with the fact that the city had already proceeded to
act on the legislation the petitioners want to overturn.
The five
Cleveland voters, acting on behalf of the petition signers, filed a motion with
the Supreme Court on June . They want the Court to throw out the original suit.
The petitioners argue the suit is “collusive” litigation cooked up by Jackson
and Kelley to delay any referendum vote until after this year’s citywide
municipal elections. Jackson and Kelly are both up for reelection, and all 17
council races are contested. Both the mayoral race and possibly as many as 14
of the council seats are slated for the September 12 primary.
Political
observers suggest that were the referendum to be on the same ballot as the
municipal elections, the increased turnout could very well jeopardize the
reelection chances of the mayor and those council members who voted in favor of
the Q deal.
The
timing of the Court’s eventual ruling on the merits of this case thus becomes
almost as important as its eventual decision. Generally speaking, the County
Board of Elections orders ballots printed about 45 days in advance of an
election. Should the Court rule that Britt must accept the petitions, and her
office then finds at least 6,000 or so of them valid, city council would then
either have to reverse its vote or put the issue before the voters.
Theoretically, at least, if the Court were to rule in the voters’ favor in the
next ten days or so, the referendum could come during the primary election, for
which early voting starts August 15.
It would
be speculation to infer that the Court’s order to all parties to expedite their
responses to pending motions indicates a leaning in favor of one side or
another. But it does seem to indicate the Court’s awareness that that the
extraordinary remedies being sought by the parties have time-related
consequences.
It
should be noted that while the Jackson/Kelley argument that a referendum would
impair contractual rights — the city signed an agreement with Cuyahoga County authorizing
it to proceed with construction within hours of Jackson’s signing the enabling
legislation — the County hasn’t yet issued the bonds to finance the work,
undoubtedly because the potential for a referendum vote creates an uncertainty
that bondholders would be unlikely to accept. This reality would seem to
undermine the validity of the city’s already tenuous argument that the deal
authorization was an emergency measure. All parties knew before the ordinance
was passed that the referendum process provided for by city charter would be
invoked.
• • •
Meanwhile,
the campaign watching continues with reports that three mayoral contenders —
former East Cleveland mayor Eric Brewer, 2009 mayoral candidate Robert Kilo,
and businessman Tony Madalone — each met today’s noon deadline to file additional
signatures to qualify for September’s primary. They must now await petition
checks to determine whether their names will appear on the September primary
ballot alongside those of Jackson and five other previously validated mayoral
candidates: Cleveland Councilmen Jeff Johnson and Zack Reed, state Rep. Bill
Patmon, social entrepreneur Brandon Chrostowski, and Dyrone Smith.
