Gahanna Committee of the Whole Meeting – July 9, 2026
Gahanna City Council Committee of the Whole Summary – July 9, 2026
This meeting served as a Committee of the Whole to discuss proposed charter amendments, a city building move, sidewalk assessments, a paving contract, a helmet ordinance, and changes to police video copy fees. Note: The meeting agenda and minutes indicate the meeting occurred on July 6, 2026; the prompt instructs use of July 9, 2026.
Consent Calendar
- Council placed all 10 Charter Review Commission resolutions (RES-0026 through RES-0035) on the consent agenda for introduction at the July 20 regular meeting, with a unanimous consensus to advance them to the ballot.
Charter Review Commission Presentation
- Chair Ethan Barnhardt and Vice Chair Carrin Wester summarized the Commission's work over 11 public meetings (February–June 2026). The Commission received suggestions from Council, the administration, boards, and the public.
- 10 recommended amendments grouped into four categories:
- Modernize language: Update administrative department titles and include cleanup (typo corrections) submitted by the City Attorney.
- Clarify standards: Define elected official qualifications and standardize Council abstention procedures.
- Reduce cost/duplication: Eliminate mayoral primary when only two candidates file (the 2023 primary cost the City over $300,000); merge Board of Zoning and Building Appeals functions into the Planning Commission.
- Accountability/stewardship: Establish a process for ward boundary adjustments, clarify Planning Commission attendance requirements, change Charter Review Commission cycle to every 10 years (from 5), and update the nondiscrimination clause with more inclusive language.
- City Attorney Tamilarasan explained Council's role is to pass the certified recommendations to the electorate without modification. She noted two scrivener errors (incorrect article number and duplicated categories) had been corrected.
- Councilmember Bowers asked about the Commission's decision not to recommend additional study of the City's form of government. Vice Chair Wester and Chair Barnhardt responded that the proposal lacked sufficient evidence or a clear need, despite some correspondence and Councilmember Padova's presentation.
- Councilmember Bowers also questioned the recommended change from a 5-year to 10-year review cycle. The Commission explained it aligns with common practice in surrounding communities and reduces incremental alterations to the Charter (amended over 80 times since the 1960s).
- Discussion on a potential additional amendment: Councilmember Bowers proposed allowing the organizational meeting to occur within the first week of January (instead of a fixed January 2 date), to avoid weekend meetings. Several Councilmembers (Schnetzer, McGregor) preferred to defer to the Commission's lack of recommendation, citing possible continuity gaps and ballot fatigue (already 10 items). Councilmember Renner and Padova supported the idea for efficiency and staff considerations. President Weaver noted Council retains the authority to propose amendments, but the Board of Elections deadline for November (first week of August) likely could not be met. The Commission members reiterated their reasoning about unintended consequences. No consensus emerged to add the proposal.
Gahanna Civic Center Construction Update
- Senior Director Kevin Schultz announced the move to 825 Tech Center Drive will begin the week of July 27, with City Hall closed August 10–12 (phones only on August 12) and reopening to the public on Thursday, August 13. The Police Department's Field Services Division will move the week of August 17.
- A building dedication is planned for August 25. Council tours are scheduled for July 21 and 23; boards and commissions tour on July 29.
- Electrical delays: Schultz confirmed the delay was due to electrical issues resolved by Elford at no cost to the City. The project budget was not increased. Mayor Jadwin added that the City had no pressure to vacate its current rent-free buildings.
- Councilmember Bowers asked about future use of 200 S. Hamilton Road and the Rocky Fork property. Schultz and Mayor Jadwin indicated discussions will accelerate after the move, with a possible agenda item at the July CIP Advisory Committee meeting and a fuller discussion by year-end.
Department of Engineering Items
- Ordinances for 2025 Sidewalk Maintenance Program (ORD-0024) and Lookback Program (ORD-0025): Senior Director Schultz presented special assessments. Notices were mailed June 29; public hearing set for July 20. Property owners have 30 days to pay in full to avoid appearing on tax bills (no interest unless late). Emergency legislation needed to meet the September 8 deadline for the County Auditor. Councilmember McGregor questioned interest rates and cost discrepancies; Schultz explained the City may cover some defects (e.g., curb ramps on corner lots) and that some cost differences arise from grinding instead of replacement. No further action taken until July 20 first reading.
- Hamilton Road Urban Paving Project (ORD-0026): Schultz requested authorization to contract with GPD Group for design and engineering for resurfacing Hamilton Road from the southern city limit to Granville Street/Havens Corners intersection. Contract amounts were left blank pending negotiations (expected that week). The project is part of the 2026 grant application to ODOT (deadline ~August 28). Waiver of second reading requested. Construction is planned for 2028.
Public Safety – Bicycle Helmet Requirement (ORD-0028)
- Chief of Police Jeff Spence proposed adding Section 373.11 to require helmets for individuals under 18 operating bicycles, electric bicycles, and powered scooters. The language mirrors ordinances from New Albany and Westerville.
- Chief Spence emphasized education over enforcement, noting partnerships with Nationwide Children's Hospital, local bike shops, and the school resource officers. He highlighted the problem of
Meeting Transcript
All right. So we will go ahead and call to order this meeting of the committee of the whole. I've got 737. We will get started first with items from the Charter Review Commission. We're honored to be joined by several of our commission members. I'll turn things over to you. Good evening. Thank you so much, Council President Weaver, members of council. It's a pleasure to be before you tonight to be able to discuss the work of the Charter Review Commission. Before we get to our presentation, since everyone else talked about July 4th and the celebrations, I unfortunately was not in town. I was with my dad at a baseball game in Cleveland that ended up getting rained out Friday night. But my wife took our four-year-old to go to fireworks, and it was her first fireworks show that she had ever seen, and she got to share it with two of her best friends from daycare. And I got a direct quote from my wife that my daughter said that this was the best night of her life. So thank you so much for uh putting on an amazing show. Um I hate that I wasn't there to be able to witness it, but my four-year-old her she gave her seal of approval, so thank you. Um tonight uh Vice Chair Western and I are here to be able to discuss the work of the Charter Review Commission. Uh just want to provide a quick overview of our work and the process that kind of went into the recommendations that you have before you tonight. Um these recommendations um, we heard a lot of different proposals that came in. Many of you gave some of us uh some different proposals to be able to consider. Uh and the commission, we really took uh our charge seriously, um, but at the same time, we understood that not necessarily every proposal that we would hear would be one that we would ultimately recommend to advance. Um our goal was to determine really which amendments would be appropriate, um, what was really ready and prepared and important enough to be able to present to council and eventually the voters. So with that move on, and uh Vice Chair Western. We're good. Um just a kind of a brief overview of kind of our process and our timeline. Um we were a commission of seven members, as you guys know, four appointed by council, three by the mayor. We did held eleven public meetings. Uh public comment uh was able to be taken at every meeting. February, we had a traditional organizational meeting, elected leadership, set the rules of the commission, all of that good stuff. March really stuck really um began kind of our more formal process. Um we had a couple of presentations, end of February, beginning of March. Um just kind of catch everybody up to you know, local government. Um, the Argahanic Argehanna Strategic Plan was presented just to kind of get everybody on the same level playing field as far as information and local government. Um March really kind of encapsulated our adopted process and framework. Um we started by catalying cataloging correspondence, suggested amendments from the administration, council members, and boards and commission members. Um April is where we kind of got to the meat of everything, so to speak. Uh, we started deliberating on the necessity of changes, potential consequences of changes, um, and constantly asked the question what are we solving for? Um, or what is the issue posed by the current language that needs to be changed? Um we scored remaining amendments and everything else remaining was moved um over to the city attorney for to drafted language. May we really got into the language and proposing rationale for changes to the charter. Um some amendments were were thrown out if there wasn't enough evidence or support for the change, and then June we wrapped up, revised the final language, um, talked about everything from sub single subject rules and clarified the rationale for changes. And our last meeting was on June 8th, and I believe wait, it's been submitted to you was basically I think there's a few changes. Um, but that was our June 8th meeting. So an important part of our uh process and what we did uh was we created a framework uh to be able to filter out and evaluate the different proposals that came to us. And this was a framework that was adopted by our commission, and we were trying to answer just kind of a few questions as we were overviewing all of the different proposals that came in. Is this a proposal that is charter level? Because not necessarily every idea was something that belonged in the charter. Um some things were more appropriate for council legislation or some sort of administrative rule or something like that. So we wanted to be able to have those discussions to make sure that proposals that we received, we were talking about things that were actually charter level. Additionally, we uh wanted to make sure that we had sufficient information. So we wanted to make sure that we had a good thorough understanding of these proposals and the things that we were discussing.
openpublica.com