Rep. Derek Merrin (R., Monclova Township) is attempting to recast his opposition to Toledo’s lead-safe ordinance as a desire to protect all of Ohio’s children, not just the ones who live in older Toledo rental housing.
But as efforts to address lead contamination in Ohio housing go, his latest proposal sounds less helpful than those of his colleague Sen. Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green).
Mr. Merrin owns residential rental properties in Toledo that would be subject to the ordinance that requires rental buildings built before 1978 with up to four units, or a day-care center, to be certified “lead-safe” in order to rent to tenants. Property owners who don’t comply can be fined $50 a day, up to $10,000.
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Mr. Merrin’s attempts to usurp Toledo’s home-rule authority to regulate lead were wisely halted by his fellow lawmakers in Columbus. He has now said he will introduce a stand-alone bill to accomplish what his state budget amendment did not. He wants to give the Ohio Department of Health — which has no comparable residential lead-testing program — the sole authority over such matters statewide.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gardner included a provision in the state budget that will bring $300,000 in grants to Toledo to help owners make improvements to lead-contaminated properties. Now that is good legislating, from a master legislator.
Mr. Gardner hopes the modest grant program can accomplish two important goals — to help the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department rise to the challenge of implementing Toledo’s ordinance and to draw the ODH into the process in a useful way.
The uniform, statewide standards Mr. Merrin says he wants are an admirable goal. The Ohio Department of Health should study Toledo’s implementation of the lead-safe ordinance and use what it can learn from this first-in-Ohio measure to expand protection statewide.
But as with his failed budget amendment, Mr. Merrin’s suggestion that Toledo should be stripped of its authority to enforce the ordinance so a state agency can step in and start the process over from scratch is unacceptable.
First Published July 3, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
