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Lucas County Board of Elections begins review of Waterville amphitheater referendum

Lucas County BOE will determine if the referendum on a proposed amphitheater from a Waterville petition can legally be put on the November ballot.

TOLEDO, Ohio — After a resident-organized petition of over 1,000 signatures followed by a Waterville City Council vote, the Lucas County Board of Elections began discussions Tuesday on if the controversial proposed amphitheater should appear on ballots in November.

The primary debate before BOE was whether the decision by council in November was legally an administrative or legislative action.

Waterville law director Phil Dombey said based on the Ohio Constitution and case law, voters may not decide the issue with a referendum.

"That is not referend-able," Dombey said.

Attorney Richard Carr, who represents the petitioners. said he believes the council decision should not stand because it was made during a special meeting and needed five votes to pass, according to Waterville's city charter.

"It never passed," Carr said. "This should not even be here today because that ordinance in fact failed."

Council members Anthony Bruno, Barb Bruno, Todd Borowski and John Rozic voted for the amphitheater. Mayor Tim Pedro and council member Mary Duncan voted against the amphitheater. Council member Rod Frey abstained from the vote. 

Because the venue creates a new tax for the municipality, Carr believes council's decision was a legislative action.

"Because it includes a ticket tax, and they do not have a ticket tax, it makes this legislative and not administrative," Carr said. "The voters, all of the residents of Waterville, they want the right to vote."

Because so many new briefs were brought before BOE on the day of the meeting, the board listened to both parties but didn't make a decision.

Credit: Jon Monk
Board member Dawn Christen also had to leave the meeting early, moving to final decision to a later meeting.

The petitioners in the crowd believe the more time lawyers have to look over the decision, the more likely council's vote will be overturned.

"It gives legal a chance to go over it and review every aspect of the case," Wayne Wagner, a member of the petition committee, said. "We obviously do believe there were legislative decisions made and we look forward to the board getting a chance to look at that."

Because BOE's March session is going to be an organizational meeting, they will hold off on making any decision on this amphitheater referendum until at least their April session.

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