UPDATE: Council Approves $1,800 Opinion on Constitutionality of Stow Charter

Last updated: April 29, 8:57 a.m. 

Stow City Council unanimously decided Thursday to hire an outside attorney — at the cost of $1,800 — to get the city charter in line with the Ohio Constitution.

The outside law firm, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, offered Stow a flat rate of about $1,800 to give an opinion on whether the city's charter is unconstitutional when it comes to voter-led ballot initiatives.

Law Director Brian Reali said an opinion should be available in about a week.

The city's charter requires signatures of 20 percent of registered voters in the last gubernatorial election on petitions to put an initiative on the ballot in Stow.

Reali says the city charter does not follow Ohio's Constitution, which requires 10 percent of voters from the last municipal election for petitions to place an issue on the ballot.

That difference in numbers is significant for former Councilman Bob Adaska, who is leading a petition drive to put a measure on the November ballot that would cut council pay on the November ballot. Under the city charter, petition-circulators would have to gather 2,584 signatures. Under the Ohio Constitution, only 780 would have to be gathered.

Adaska's petition drive prompted the law director's review and opinion.

If council fails to act on allowing the changes, Reali said, those behind the referendum petition could sue.

, but  would reduce the pay by 50 percent next year.

As it stands, starting in January, council members will earn $14,950 annually, down from the current $16,600. The president of council will earn another $1,000 a year.

The petition, if placed on the ballot and passed, would reduce council's salary to about $8,400 annually.