No. 1
January 22, 1999
PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF
TO: All Municipal Officials
FROM: Susan J. Cave, Executive Director
Enclosed is some of the initial information we have about the composition of the General
Assembly for the 123rd Session. The Assembly is now organized and most of the formal
mechanisms and member assignments are in place. There are still two members (one House,
one Senate) to be appointed to fill the seats of members who have departed the General
Assembly for assignments in the Taft administration.
This session promises to be a challenging one
for the League. Many issues we struggled with last session (electric deregulation,
annexation, uniform building standards, police and fire residency requirements,
restructuring of the municipal income tax, etc.) will be back.
Additionally, there will be new challenges.
One bill will propose putting the ownership of a cable TV system by a municipality under
the authority of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, while at the same time declaring
that such cable systems are not utilities. The bill also outlines numerous restrictions
that would be imposed on a city or village council should that council ever want to take
an action that might lead to such a cable system. Many of those restrictions require that
such actions be done in the public light and that council not venture forth on such
efforts unless they can show they have the money to do such a project. Though the cable
industry evidently knows of such cases where that prudence and openness has not occurred,
we have no evidence that any city or village in Ohio has ever acted in a wanton or
whimsical fashion when embarking on such a capital-intensive project as a new cable TV
system. We would hope that the Assembly spends most of its time this session protecting
the taxpayer from something for which they need protection.
As with every session of the General
Assembly, committee meetings and bill consideration will gradually build over the next two
months. We will keep you informed as those events occur. Hopefully, we will do a good job
for you on that front because without you being informed and able to talk to your members
of the General Assembly about municipal issues we know our work will not be effective.
We also would like to see you make our
Luncheon honoring the members of the General Assembly a great success. That event will be
held March 17th this year (Registration enclosed). Your participation in that event is
critical to the success of the League's work. We hope it will fit into your schedule and
we'll see you on the 17th.
