Issue 15 on the November ballot presents voters with a set of revisions to the Harrison City Charter. The city’s charter is seldom talked about and not terribly well understood. This series is my attempt to shed some light on the charter, the review process, and the proposed revisions to help voters make an informed decision. In the interest of full disclosure, I chaired the 2026 charter review after having served as secretary for the 2021 review. That said, these are my words and my thoughts alone. I’d like to think the other members of the 2026 charter review commission share my opinion since we voted unanimously on the recommendation presented to city council in July but it would be inconceivably arrogant for me to try to speak for them.

First in a series: A Primer

The best way to understand the charter is to view it as a constitution for the city. Like our federal constitution it lays out legislative, executive, and judicial roles within the city. And like the US constitution it provides a framework for government leaves the implementation of that government up to the citizens and their elected leaders.

The current charter clocks in at 22 pages (25 if you count the table of contents) of fairly large type. Despite a bit of legalese the language of the charter is fairly plain-spoken and easy to follow. The charter is organized into 11 Articles:

Article 1 and 2 are mostly boilerplate, establishing our authority to create such a document under the home-rule provisions of the Ohio Constitution.

Article 3 defines city council, it’s makeup, qualifications for office, powers, and procedures for removing members and filling vacancies.

Article 4 defines the role and qualifications for the mayor as well as procedures for removal and filling vacancies.

Article 5 defines the departments, boards, and commissions that comprise our city government

Article 6 defines the civil service commission and it’s role in filling certain city jobs.

Article 7 defines legislative procedures for council.

Article 8 defines citizen-led initiative and referendum procedures for council-passed legislation as well as the recall process for citizen-led removal of an elected official.

Article 9 defines financial procedures including things like public bidding requirements for the city.

Article 10 is a small boilerplate section that defers to the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) for procedures on things like nominating petitions for elections.

Article 11 is a bit of a catch-all section with more boilerplate language but it does also specify a periodic review of the charter for the purpose of recommending changes. It concludes by specifying the oath of office to be used when swearing in elected and appointed officials.

You can find the current City of Harrison charter here.

Up next: The Charter Review Process