Middletown Journal -- Emergency legislation has eased at city hall

City administrators have taken a beating over the use of emergency legislation, including accusations of abusing the system from council members.

But in stepping outside of conjecture and looking purely at the numbers, the city has made a undeniable push to cut the ratio of emergency legislation nearly in half since 2006. Of the 78 ordinances that came before the council in 2006, a total of 72 were passed as an emergency. That is a staggering 92 percent.

Law Director Les Landen said emergency legislation is simply “the way the city did business” for a great deal of recent history.

“For years and years when I first got here, virtually everything we did was an emergency,” Landen said. “I’m talking probably close to 100 percent for a number of years.”

That figure drastically dipped in 2007 to 63 percent, when Landen said former City Manager Ron Olson decided he wanted council members to have more time to consider certain items. When current City Manager Judy Gilleland came aboard in 2008, she said her preference was for emergency legislation only “when it was an actual emergency.”

“Allowing legislation to go through the normal process of first reading, second reading and a 30-day effective date is important in that it allows citizens to petition for a referendum on ordinances,” Gilleland said. “When you pass something by emergency, you basically remove that referendum period.”

The numbers do not lie. Gilleland kept somewhat level with Olson’s 2007 figures during 2008 with 64 percent of all ordinances coming forward as an emergency. She tightened the reins in 2009, dropping that figure to less than 42 percent for the year.

As for 2010, it is still a bit premature to say where things are trending. Of the 16 ordinances to come before council so far this year, exactly half of them have been read as an emergency.

Councilman Josh Laubach said he considers each piece of legislation on a “case by case basis” and has no problem supporting emergency legislation given the right reasons. And while he feels the city has leaned too heavily on emergency legislation in the past, he said it’s still too early to say whether that tendency has improved.

“I’m not quite three meetings into this, so I don’t want to start making judgments too early,” he said.

Subjecting ordinances to multiple readings serves to slow the legislative process immensely, Landen said, resulting in frustration from staff members trying to move administrative items through the system.

“Just sit back and think if everything you did had to wait between 44 and 51 days to happen,” Landen said. “It would make functioning rather difficult.”

Gilleland said passing legislation under emergency is a “perfectly valid policy decision,” but said she prefers to examine each item as it comes before her rather than cast a blanket decision.

“It’s a matter of perspective,” Gilleland said. “I’m happy with the way that we’re headed in terms of emergency legislation. Cutting it in half over a two-year period is headed in the right direction for me.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or rgauthier@coxohio.com.

Conflicting Emergency Legislation Quotes??