Friday is the deadline for advocates of overhauling Lucas County's obsolete government to file enough valid petition signatures to get their reform plan on the November ballot. Dozens of circulators are gathering signatures this week, going door to door and visiting public places such as branch libraries.
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They also will be at the Walbridge Park Shelter House from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday. If you haven't yet endorsed the petition, you have every reason to do so.
Reform proponents need at least 14,500 signatures of registered voters, approved by the county board of elections, to advance their proposal for a new home-rule charter. Late last week, the grass-roots campaign said it had collected about 20,000 signatures. It seeks as many as 22,000 to fend off inevitable challenges by champions of business as usual.
The reform plan would enable voters to exchange their 18th-century county government for a more-efficient structure. The new charter envisions a government that saves tax dollars, makes elected officials more accountable, and promotes economic growth and job creation.
The proposal would abolish the three-member Board of County Commissioners and seven of the county's eight elected -- but largely invisible -- row offices. The current government structure encourages wasteful fragmentation and redundancy, and leaves taxpayers wondering who's responsible for what.
The ballot plan calls for an elected, nonpartisan county executive who would appoint professional administrators rather than politicians to head county offices. It also would create a county council whose nine members would mostly be elected by districts rather than at large. Those elections would occur in November 2013, and the new officials would take office the following January.
A similar structure in Cuyahoga and Summit counties has cut costs of county government. It also has encouraged central cities and suburbs in these counties to cooperate in providing regional public services, thus reducing duplication, and discouraged them from raiding each other for businesses and jobs.
The reform plan would make the Lucas County executive a focused, high-profile agent of economic development in northwest Ohio. Advocates argue plausibly that it also would make county government more diverse and bipartisan.
The four months until Election Day will provide ample time for a thorough public debate on the merits of county reform. But that can't occur unless county voters give themselves the opportunity now to opt for positive change and modernized government in November. That means adding your signature to the petition drive.
First Published June 27, 2012, 4:00 a.m.
