It is the responsibility of the political subdivision (city, township, school district, etc.) to follow up on the status of their tax levy filing, Greene County Board of Elections Director Tracy Smith said, and to comply with applicable election law.
“It’s a legal document,” he said. “That’s why we don’t make decisions and don’t change things at this level.”
While on paper the ballot language was off by one number, a difference in the start of the collection year of a tax levy would have had serious consequences, Smith said.
“If that filing had gotten through our office and gotten through the Secretary of State …’25 to ’26 is a little more than just one digit — it’s a full year of taxation," Smith said.
Smith started his position as Board of Elections director on March 11, though he previously served in the same role from 2005 to 2011. Smith said in his time in the position, he didn’t know of any time that he had notified a jurisdiction of incorrect ballot language.
“Somebody doesn’t hand me an ordinance and we immediately start working on ballot language,” he said. “People will walk in literally at 3:59 before the 4 o’clock deadline, and you’re not going to get the ballot language done for a few days with the whole process.”
Additionally, if the board had notified the city, the ordinance would still have been required to go back to the Bellbrook City Council. Under Ohio law, if a jurisdiction’s ballot language is rejected for any reason, the process of filing an ordinance would need to have started all over again from the beginning with passing an ordinance with city council.
Bellbrook’s ballot language was rejected on March 4, about a month after the filing deadline for the May election, meaning Bellbrook had no way to resubmit their filing in time, even if they had been aware.
“It’s a bad situation all around,” Smith said. “As a BOE we don’t like the fact that that happened, but there was no clear way to fix it at that point ... it’s not an easy fix any way you look at it.”
Bellbrook officials say they are still on a “fact-finding mission” to see if the weeks-long process to identify a scrivener’s error (the legal term for a typo) could be changed. Further, the fact that the city would have to start all over again with the November election over a typo was “a red flag for common sense,” City Manager Rob Schommer said.
“The process is flawed, in our opinion,” Schommer said. “We’re hoping there are improved efficiencies that can come out of this process that creates more transparency, accountability, and knowledge of the workflow for very important language and documentation.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
The original tax measure was passed by Bellbrook City Council on Dec. 23 of last year, and filed three days later with the county auditor according to a timeline provided by the Greene County Board of Elections.
The 2.2-mill public safety levy, which would fund both the city’s police and fire departments, was filed with the Greene County Board of Elections on Jan. 28, six business days before the filing deadline for the May election.
On Feb. 14, the ballot language was sent to the secretary of state for review, and returned on Feb. 25, when it was sent to the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office. The Board of Elections received a confidential memo from the Greene County Prosecutor on March 3, and the Board denied the ordinance on March 4.
An identical police and fire levy is expected to be on Bellbrook residents’ November ballot, as city council passed legislation to that effect Monday, starting the process all over again.
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