Lucas government plan to be topic of hearing

7/26/2011

A campaign to make Lucas County a charter county with an executive and council form of government gets its first public hearing Tuesday night in Toledo.

The Lucas County Citizen Review Study Committee is scheduled to present the proposed reorganization from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Sanger Branch Library, 3030 West Central Ave.

The review committee, made up of volunteers, released a suggested charter in June that would replace most of the elected administrative offices in Lucas County government with a single elected chief executive and a nine-member county council.

The leaders of the group said they took on the study of the structure of Lucas County government because of the county’s decreasing tax base and declining employment.

Supporters of the plan contend a county executive would have the power to focus county resources on economic development.

The committee is looking for new volunteers to handle the next phases of the campaign, such as collecting signatures for a ballot initiative and raising money to promote passage of the ballot initiative.

The charter would go on the ballot in November, 2012.