BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Creating a charter for Hamilton County for the purpose of locating a ballpark at Broadway Commons could weaken the townships and cities within the jurisdiction.
That's the view of opponents of a countywide ballot initiative, who filed objections Thursday with the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
"This issue is a wolf in sheep's clothing," said Bill Seitz, chairman of the Board of Trustees in Green Township, in western Hamilton County.
The only vehicle Broadway proponents could use to get a vote on the site was a county charter, because state law doesn't allow for a referendum to change the county commissioners' decision on a stadium.
Commissioners and the Reds have already agreed on a site for the new ball field, between Cinergy Field and the Crown on the riverfront. The ballot question creates a county charter, which normally restructures county government and gives it broad new lawmaking powers.
Mr. Seitz maintains that once a charter is created, it could be amended to bring about more sweeping change.
"It would wipe out the townships, the small cities, and replace it with a single county government; that ain't going to happen on my watch," Mr. Seitz said.
"This baseball issue is not important enough to risk our sovereignty and our future. We like our police department . . . we like our parks." Cincinnati City Council members Jim Tarbell and Todd Portune, who led the effort to put a baseball park at Broadway and Reading Road, could not be reached.
But Broadway Commons supporters have said this charter is written so that it changes nothing, only opens the door for the Broadway vote.
Mr. Seitz, an attorney, said his philosophical opposition goes hand in hand with some legal problems in the petition and ballot language.
He maintains the language does not delineate the organization of the government under the charter, nor does it state how the governmental leaders should be elected, all mandated under the state constitution. But Don Mooney, an attorney representing the petition circulators, says the language is appropriate:
"Maybe a bunch of highfalutin lawyers may think you have to write that out, but the lawyers who put this language together don't."
"The only thing that would change is that it instructs the county not to spend resources for a stadium except at the Broadway Commons site," said Mr. Mooney, who also serves on the city's planning commission.
The commission endorsed the Broadway Commons Site. Objections to the petition and ballot language come days before county board of elections officials meet to decide whether to certify the Broadway Commons petitions.
Lucy May contributed to this report.
