With five issues on the Fairlawn ballot, voters had their plates full, but in the end signaled they were happy with the status quo and rejected all five.
Meanwhile, Munroe Falls voters had to decide the fate of three new tax requests, approving one and passing on two others. And Macedonia residents were considering two income tax issues.
They were among a handful of Summit County communities facing issues close to home.
Fairlawn
Voters said no to three proposed charter amendments that would have limited terms of mayoral and city council seats while making the law director an elected position.
They also turned down two proposed ordinances that would have tightened regulations for landlords and mandated rental property inspections.
Joe Simonetti, the Ward 5 freshman councilman who argued in favor of the term limits and election of the law director, said “the voters have spoken.”
Simonetti and supporters collected enough signatures to put the question before voters in this city of 7,400 people.
“I had a number of people approach me, I got it on the ballot, and that’s the end of it,” he said.
On the landlord legislation, members of the Fairlawn Neighborhood Homeowners Association had petitioned for new regulations. The current legislation allows landlords to certify housing conditions without verification and only triggers inspections if a tenant makes a formal complaint.
Munroe Falls
Officials in this city of 5,000 were asking for three separate tax increases.
They gave the nod to a 10-year, 2-mill levy that will pay for street projects, for which Mayor James Armstrong said he was grateful.
The $214,000 it will raise annually “will assist the city in addressing long overdue road repairs and other capital projects,” he said, and “a necessary step toward putting the [city] back on a solid financial foundation.”
But voters said no to an income tax hike (from 2 percent to 2.25 percent) to raise money for the general fund, and a five-year 2.8 mill police levy that would have allowed the city to hire more full-time police officers.
Armstrong said the city will spend the next few weeks determining where reductions can be made and “what services can be safely eliminated.”
Macedonia Voters had two income tax issues before them. An existing-but-expiring .25 percent income tax, if renewed, would be used to operate the city-owned rec center.
A second .25 percent income tax request would have raised another $1 million a year for roads and storm water repairs.
By late Tuesday, both issues were slightly behind with only 17 percent of the vote counted.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.