BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Bob Taft
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COLUMBUS -- Voters in Hamilton County - not the Reds and not Hamilton County Commissioners - will decide on Nov. 3 where to build the Reds stadium.
In a victory for the grass-roots Broadway Commons campaign, Secretary of State Bob Taft declared today that a petition by Broadway backers to bring their county charter proposal to the November ballot is valid.
Mr. Taft said he could not accept arguments from Broadway Commons opponents that the charter proposal was unconstitutional. He said he did not have the authority to rule on "the constitutionality of the substance of the issue," only on the validity of the petitions and signatures.
Mr. Taft said his ruling could be appealed, and he speculated that a November vote in favor of Broadway Commons might not be the final decision in the matter. He said that if voters chose Broadway Commons, Broadway opponents could then go to court to contest the constitutionality of the charter proposal.
Mr. Taft, a Cincinnati native, repeated during a morning news conference that his decision was not a personal endorsement of Broadway Commons over a riverfront site. He said he followed the recommendation of John Bender, his top elections lawyer who served as judge during the two-hour hearing on the issue in Columbus Tuesday.
The measure would create a county charter for the sole purpose of requiring Hamilton County Commissioners to build a Reds ballpark at Broadway and Reading Road - a site rejected by the Reds.
The county has a tentative deal with the Reds to build a riverfront stadium by 2002 or 2003 adjacent to Cinergy Field at a site known as Baseball on Main or the "Wedge." Total cost of a stadium and land: $297 million.
It's unclear what the Reds would do if the riverfront deal is nullified.
Opponents trying to block a vote faced repeated, tough questions from Bender during Tuesday's hearing.
In the usually understated realm of elections law, it was high drama.
Cincinnati lawyers Joseph Trauth and Bill Seitz often shouted to make their point: that the measure doesn't meet the legal requirements of a charter. "You can't willy-nilly place on the ballot a referendum and call it a charter," Mr. Trauth said.
Gregg Haught, lawyer for the Broadway Commons group, said in 25 years of being involved with the elections process, "I can't ever recall such zealous advocacy arguing that citizens should not be allowed to vote."
Mr. Haught argued that the group pushing the measure had met the requirements to get the issue on the ballot and that the issue of whether the proposed charter was legal could be decided in court if the measure passed.
Mr. Bender stressed several times that it wasn't Mr. Taft's job to pick a stadium site. Rather, he said, Mr. Taft must rule on whether the issue should be placed on the ballot.
Mr. Bender said there is very little case law in the matter of county charters. In one exchange with Mr. Seitz, he asked, "You're asking the secretary of state -- without the benefit of any case law -- to make a determination of what a charter can be?"
Mr. Seitz said while there might not be much case law, there were two attorney general opinions defining charters as mechanisms that change the form of government to give counties broader powers. The Broadway charter, he argued, would restrict commissioners in an administrative matter.
"This is a ruse! This is a ruse!" Mr. Seitz argued. "Theirs doesn't change anything -- if you believe them. If you believe they don't have a secret agenda."
Opponents of the measure also argued that the matter shouldn't even be Mr. Taft's to decide. The Hamilton County Board of Elections deadlocked 2-2 last week on whether the petition language itself was valid. The board did certify the validity of 27,477 petition signatures.
Mr. Trauth argued that state law doesn't give the secretary of state the authority to break such ties when it comes to county charters.
That didn't seem to sit well with Mr. Bender, who said having the secretary of state break such ties is "standard practice. Otherwise, the elections system would become unworkable."
Mr. Bender also questioned whether opponents were asking Mr. Taft, the Republican candidate for governor, to reach beyond his authority and interpret the constitution.
But Mr. Trauth and Mr. Seitz argued that Mr. Taft doesn't have to stretch at all to rule against putting the measure on the ballot. "My point here is this is not a charter," Mr. Trauth argued. "The duty of the secretary of state is not to attempt to fool the voters to put before them a ruse."
Cincinnati City Councilman Todd Portune, one of the leaders of the Broadway effort, said he can't understand why anyone is fighting so hard to keep voters from having a say.
Mr. Portune said he hopes opponents don't fight Mr. Taft's decision. "I would urge those who are attempting to use every trick in the book to thwart the right of the people to call off the dogs," he said after the hearing.
Hamilton County voters approved a half-cent-on-a-dollar sales tax increase in March 1996 for two new stadiums for the Reds and Bengals. The Bengals' stadium is under construction and scheduled to open in 2000.
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