This public hearing, convened by Columbus City Council on July 28, 2026, focused on a citizen-led charter amendment (the "simple fix") by the R City RSA coalition to replace the current at-large council election system with nine true district seats, and on potential complementary amendments that council might place on the November 2026 ballot. Council members, the coalition, staff, and over 30 public speakers debated the merits of district-only, at-large, and hybrid models, as well as related issues of redistricting, campaign finance, and racial representation. No formal votes were taken; council indicated it will vote on August 24, 2026 to advance the coalition's amendment and potentially its own concurrent amendment.
Go ahead and call and get this public hearing of the Columbus City Council to order and get us started. First, I want to thank my council colleagues, including Council President Harden, Councilmembers Bankston, Brosa De Padilla, De Achauer, Council Remy, Council Weich, and Councilman Ross, who I know will be joining us here in a few minutes. I did want to also acknowledge that uh Council is still in some recess, and I know that not all of our members are able to join us here this evening. Uh, not everyone will be able to stay for the entire hearing, most likely. But I know the topic of tonight's hearing is one that all members of this body have been engaged with uh many different constituencies in this community for months. Uh second, I want to sincerely thank representatives from the R City RSA coalition for being here with us tonight. Uh but more importantly, even while working to put this their proposal before Columbus voters, uh representative this coalition took time to engage in thoughtful and good faith dialogue with myself and many members of council on this topic uh over the course of summer. So thank you for that. Um while these discussions did not lead to a formal agreement on a charter amendment on council structure, I believe they created the space for a pathway for council to consider placing additional amendments on this fall's ballot that would complement the coalition's proposal, not oppose their proposal their proposed reforms. I've been very clear since we started this public discussion earlier in the spring that personally I believe a true council hybrid structure is one that would serve Columbus well. To be clear, a true hybrid structure to me means that some seats are real districts where voters only in those districts elect those council members, and there are other at-large seats that are voted on by all Columbus voters citywide. I believe that a true hybrid system can fully address the long-standing advocacy for district representation within this system, while also encouraging, while also ensuring that council members who view the city, the entire city as their constituency to focus on issues like housing, homelessness, public transit, infrastructure investments, and many other issues that confront our city as a whole and know no neighborhood boundary. The final framework that we discussed with representatives of the R City RSA Coalition focused on this kind of hybrid model, with keeping the nine district seats from their proposal, but potentially adding up to four at-large seats over several election cycles and making changes to the way that we drop draw those district uh map uh to account for racial representation. Tonight's staff presentation will get more into the details on this kind of proposal. And I believe that this is a good place for council to start as it deliberates on whether to move a charter amendment forward. And if so, what should be in that amendment? In the coming days, I plan to ask our legislative research office to draft such an amendment for consideration. And I will ask my colleagues to vote to send that concurrent charter amendment to the voters this fall at our next council meeting when we're back in recess on August 24th. Again, while I'm only one member of this body, I believe it's important for council to ensure that any proposal it puts forward to the voters adds to the R City RSA proposal and does not seek to preempt or contradict it. How this council's body is structured has been a community debate for decades. I don't expect every issue to be resolved here tonight or at the ballot box this fall, but I'm hopeful that we're taking a meaningful step forward to create a governance structure that's clear, durable, and most importantly, responsive to the citizens of Columbus. I want to pause and open the floor up to my council colleagues for remarks as we kick this hearing off. So with that, Council President. Thank you, uh President Tim, uh, for your leadership, not just today, but for the last several months as we've been having this uh open community conversation around who we are, who we're becoming and how we govern ourselves. I want to also thank um the members of the R City RSA coalition. Um a lot of us are friends, but I think that a lot of us be came closer over the last several weeks as we try to discuss um different points uh of governance. Uh I want to thank my colleagues who also um uh leaned in and have been really open uh through this process. Uh I want to take a minute to acknowledge how we got here. So for more than a century, Columbus City Council has been operated under a fully at-large system. Over that time, voters and community leaders debated almost a dozen proposals to move to versions of a ward system, most recently in 2016. It's been one of the most hotly debated questions in Columbus for more than a decade. In 2018, voters approved a change to our city charter to move to the system we have now. I supported that amendment because at the time it was what we had support to move forward with. City Hall and community were deadlocked between folks who wanted big changes and folks who wanted no change at all. But I always viewed it as just an interim step, not the final destination in reforming the structure of council. As Columbus grows, we talk a lot about issues like housing and transportation and zoning. But we can't address any of those issues without the foundational issues of democracy and representation and governance. The most recent council election in District 7 brought that into sharper focus. It raised a fair question about whether our current system strikes the right balance between citywide accountability and geographic representation. And now, thanks to our city's RSA coalition, Columbus voters will have an opportunity to consider that question directly. What they have achieved and what you have achieved, Columbus is a big deal. The time is right for this conversation. Columbus is growing and changing faster than at any point in its history. And that growth brings enormous opportunity. But it also raises important questions about who benefits, who gets heard, and what kind of city we want to become. What I hear more and more from residents is that the way that we've always done things is now keeping Columbus from where we need to go next. So over the past several months, led by Councilmember Dorrans and many of the uh my colleagues, we've had serious conversations with our City RSA about whether there is a way to build on their proposal. At the end of the day, Columbus has succeeded because the people of Columbus are compassionate, smart, and dope. Not just because of how our system is structured. So if people want to see change, and I do, then let's just create something that can last, that people understand, and that has legitimacy.