The Charter Review Commission of the City of Green, Ohio, convened for an organizational and procedural meeting on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, at 5:30 PM in the Council Chambers at the Central Administration Building. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Yeargin and included the swearing-in of appointed members, election of officers, and discussion of the procedures the Commission will follow to review the City's Charter. The Commission must deliver recommendations to City Council by June 12, 2026, and any recommended amendments not denied by a three-fourths vote of Council will proceed to the ballot. The meeting concluded with introductions from the members regarding their backgrounds and interests.
Meeting Schedule and Timeframe: The Commission discussed the proposed meeting schedule of every other Monday beginning January 26, 2026, and ending on or about June 1, 2026. The Commission unanimously moved to accept the proposed dates. Meeting length was discussed, with the city offering either 60 or 90-minute meetings; the Commission settled on 90-minute sessions beginning at 5:30 PM.
Charter Review Procedure: The Commission discussed how to approach the Charter review. It was determined that the Charter would be reviewed in sections, beginning with Articles One, Two, and Three at the first meeting on January 26, 2026. The Commission discussed a process where members would review sections in advance, circulate thoughts, and then discuss each section in a round-robin fashion, voting on any substantive changes. If no discussion is needed for a section, it will be marked as "no change."
Agenda and Communications: City staff will publish agendas and video recordings of meetings for residents. Resident correspondence related to the Charter will be forwarded to the Commission and read into the record and minutes. The Law Director's office will prepare a memo identifying potential updates; for any requests for changes raised by city directors, staff will facilitate communication. The Commission noted the need to address editorial typos and update Charter language to reflect 2026 standards, including clarifying references to the Ohio Revised Code in ethics/conflict-of-interest sections.
Public Access and Research: The Commission discussed public accessibility of prior Charter Review Commission meetings, which are available as videos on the city website under the 2019 tab. Members asked whether it would be useful to review charters from comparable "peer" cities for benchmarking; staff endorsed the idea and stated they should not place limitations on the review.
Calling to order the Charter Review Commission Procedural Meeting for Organization of Officers on this Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. This is a little bit of an unusual meeting because it's our first. It's open by the mayor. What we're going to do first is have a pledge of allegiance, and then I'll walk you through the agenda. So if you can join me for the play. For which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. In a in a minute, we're going to do a swearing-in ceremony and swear in each of these members who have volunteered their time to be part of the Charter Commission. And I want to just put on the record, I want to thank you on behalf of the community for your effort. You have all been have volunteered to be here. Some of you we've called you. Some I've known that you've said to me, hey, if whatever you need, we want to be active and available and support the community. So you were sort of in pocket all along. But we're going to be meeting, you're going to be meeting about twice a month going forward. The calendar basically is the Charter Review Commission's job is to review the charter at the end of what's roughly six months, but our charter says by June 12th, you will give recommendations to City Council for amendments that are designed to be presented to voters. And notify residents that we're going to have a meeting at that time. This will be in June. The Charter says unless they deny any particular amendment that you recommend by three-fourths of a vote, it goes on the ballot. And it would be on the ballot for November. So the role that you play is very important because the charter is the document that we live by for the city. Think of it as our constitution, right? It defines the role of all government players, it defines processes, it defines expectations for how the government works and responds to residents. So we take it very seriously as our founding governing document. So obviously any changes to that have repercussions throughout the community. And we are very grateful for your willingness to be part today. Once we swear in, I'm then going to ask for nominations for a chairman. Once that or chairperson, once that chairperson is selected, I'll give the gavel to that person, and then they'll take nominations for a vice chair. And then it'll kind of be up to you to determine your schedule, your cadence, your approach. I think there's there's pretty much a well-worn map to do that based on prior years, but you'll have the freedom and availability to for uh myself, my directors, anybody on our staff to answer questions as we go along with regard to anything that you think is appropriate with regard to your review of our charter. So let's go down in front. We're gonna get sworn in and we'll we'll take it a step at a time. So we have with us tonight um attorney Robert Dufferin. Thank you for being here, Robert. Uh Bob Knapp, uh, whose background is he was a corporate executive, and uh he's in mostly retirement, but we're grateful that he's still a resource for the community and willing to serve. Um Christine uh Yanko. Uh many people know her by Sussex. I I know people have said, well, who's Jaiko? But um she's been a member of the um Living Green Task Force and is a graduate of the what we call the Green Leadership Initiative, which is a model um organization that creates leaders within the community modeled after leadership acron. We also have Betty Conan, who's a former council person and also a lawyer. Um not here tonight is Deborah Cole R. Colsar. Coral, thank you. Um, who's also an attorney. We like, frankly, uh certain number of attorneys on this board because we're looking at rules that govern the city when we talk about a charter, and rules have a legal impact. So we appreciate your expertise in that, and we know that you'll all be thoughtful. So as we proceed, let's get sworn in. Um if you could do this for me, uh raise your right hand, and then after I say I just say your name, and then I'll walk you through the rest of it. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. Of America, that is the Constitution of the State of Ohio. The charter of the City of Green.