TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo City Council voted on Thursday allowing for city charter changes to be on the ballot in November's general election.
The proposed charter amendment includes a change to the term limit for the Toledo mayor, increasing it from two consecutive terms to three.
It would also affect how much money the mayor is able to spend without council approval, among other changes.
At-large councilmember Katie Moline motioned to amend the section for term limits, but it was denied. Councilmember Theresa Gadus motioned for the vote to be postponed until Tuesday, which also failed.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said the amendments will improve the charter in a number of ways, including making it easier for citizens to overturn city government decisions and improving the efficiency of city purchasing.
Kapszukiewicz said he is "most excited about the opportunity to fix more roads," included in the amendment.
He said nearly 80,000 Toledoans live on unimproved roads without sewers.
"This gives us the opportunity to fix a flaw that has existed in our charter for over 50 years. Right now, capital improvement dollars are not allowed to be used to fix unimproved roads," Kapszukiewicz said in the statement.
Moline said the term limit increase being on the same amendment as other changes could cause votes against it, even if voters agree with other changes.
"I can only speak to the constituents that have reached out to me that really love term limits," she said. "They want to ensure that there's new people in the political system and term limits help ensure that. So, if they do disapprove based off that one issue it does also eliminate the changing of the unimproved street funding."
In his statement on Thursday, Kapszukiewicz said:
There will be those who focus on the other aspects of this amendment, and all recommended charter changes deserve discussion and debate.
But there is no question what the most important part of this ballot issue is — the chance to fix ALL of Toledo’s roads.
The general election will be on Nov. 8.
Ohio's primary election happened on Aug. 2. Find the results here.
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