56. The Ohio Provision for Municipal Home Rule

The Ohio constitution of 1851 contained a provision prohibiting special legislation for municipal corporations. The legislature, however, resorted to the device of classifying cities by size and passing laws which would be applicable only to cities of a certain population. This practice was upheld by the courts, and soon the constitutional requirement of "general laws" was so completely circumvented by this subterfuge that it became little short of ridiculous. By 1898 the cities had been classed into eleven distinct grades, as is shown by the following table: 1

Class I.

Grade 1. Over 200,000 inhabitants (Cincinnati).

Grade 2. From 90,000 to 200,000 inhabitants (Cleveland). From 31,500 to 90,000 inhabitants (Toledo). Those promoted from Class II (None).

Grade 3.

Grade 4.

Class II.

Grade 1.

From 30,500 to 31,500 inhabitants (Columbus).
From 20,000 to 30,500 inhabitants (Dayton).
From 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants (Youngs-

Grade 2.
Grade 3.

town).

Grade 3a. From 28,000 to 33,000 inhabitants (Springfield). Grade 3b. From 16,000 to 18,000 inhabitants (Hamilton). Grade 4. From 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants (four cities). Grade 4a. From 8,330 to 9,050 inhabitants (Ashtabula).

This circumvention became so obvious an abuse that in 1902 the Supreme Court of Ohio reversed its earlier decisions and held that classifications of this nature were void.2 The decision practically swept away the entire legal foundation of the city governments, and the court suspended the execution of its decision until the legislature could be

From the "Report of the Municipal Home Rule Committee of the Municipal Association of Cleveland, 1912," quoted in C. C. Maxey, Readings in Municipal Government (Garden City, 1924), 22.

'State v. Jones, 66 Ohio St. (1902) 453.

hastily convened. For nearly three months the General Assembly labored with the various proposals presented to it, but in the end it passed a uniform charter law applicable to every city in the state with more than 5,000 inhabitants. The disadvantages of this plan were also obvious, and the constitutional convention of 1912 recommended the approval of the following amendment to the constitution giving the cities complete home rule. The amendment was ratified on September 3, 1912, by a vote of 301,861 to 215,120 and went into effect on November 15 following. Within two years practically all of the larger cities attempted to exercise the home-rule powers granted and nine new charters were adopted. Under this provision, too, a number of important municipalities have adopted the manager form of government.

SOURCE-The Constitution of the State of Ohio, as in force and effect January 1, 1922 (Columbus, 1922), 43-46; Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Ohio, 1912 (Columbus, 1912), 1069-1073; Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Ohio, 1912 (Columbus, 1913), II, 2138-2140; Throckmorton, A. H. (ed.) General Code of the State of Ohio (Cleveland, 1921), xliii-xliv; Page, W. H. and Adams, J. J., Annotated General Code of the State of Ohio, 1910 (Cincinnati, 1912), VII, 475-489.

ARTICLE XVIII.

SEC. 2. General laws shall be passed to provide for the incorporation and government of cities and villages; and additional laws may also be passed for the government of municipalities adopting the same; but no such additional law shall become operative in any municipality until it shall have been submitted to the electors thereof, and affirmed by a majority of those voting thereon, under regulations to be established by law.

SEC. 3. Municipalities shall have authority to exercise all powers of local self-government and to adopt and enforce within their limits such local police, sanitary and other similar regulations, as are not in conflict with general laws.

SEC. 4. Any municipality may acquire, construct, own, lease

and operate within or without its corporate limits, any public utility the products or service of which is or is to be supplied to the municipality or its inhabitants, and may contract with others for any such product or service. . . .

...

SEC. 5. Any municipality proceeding to acquire, construct, own, lease or operate a public utility, or to contract with any person or company therefor, shall act by ordinance and no such ordinance shall take effect until after thirty days from its passage. If within said thirty days a petition signed by ten per centum of the electors of the municipality shall be filed with the executive authority thereof demanding a referendum on such ordinance it shall not take effect until submitted to the electors and approved by a majority of those voting thereon. The submission of any such question shall be governed by all the provisions of section 8 of this article as to the submission of the question of choosing a charter commission.

SEC. 6. Any municipality, owning or operating a public utility for the purpose of supplying the service or product thereof to the municipality or its inhabitants, may also sell and deliver to others any transportation service of such utility and the surplus product of any other utility in an amount not exceeding in either case fifty per centum of the total service or product supplied by such utility within the municipality.

SEC. 7. Any municipality may frame and adopt or amend a charter for its government and may, subject to the provisions of section 3 of this article, exercise thereunder all powers of local self-government.

SEC. 8. The legislative authority of any city or village may by a two-thirds vote of its members, and upon petition of ten per centum of the electors shall forthwith, provide by ordinance for the submission to the electors, of the question, "Shall a commission be chosen to frame a charter." The ordinance providing for the submission of such question shall require that it be submitted to the electors at the next regular municipal election if one shall occur not less than sixty days nor more than one hundred and twenty days after its passage; otherwise it shall provide for the submission of the question at a special election to be called and held within the time aforesaid. The ballot containing such question shall bear no party designation, and provision shall be made thereon for the election from the municipality at large of fifteen electors who shall constitute a commission to frame a