Gahanna voters will face 10 proposed changes to the city charter when they head to the polls on Nov. 3, after the Franklin County Board of Elections officially certified the ballot questions on Aug. 4.
The amendments cover topics including how the mayor gets elected, how the city handles discrimination complaints and how ward boundaries are drawn. City Council adopted all 10 resolutions unanimously on July 20, with Councilmember Stephen A. Renner making the motion and Vice President Jamille Jones seconding. Council President Trenton I. Weaver presided.
The proposals emerged from the 2026 Charter Review Commission, chaired by Ethan Barnhardt, which spent months studying the city's governing document before recommending changes to council.
Here's what each amendment would do:
Amendment 1 — Mayoral primary elections: Would eliminate the primary when no more than two candidates file for mayor. Commission members discussed the change as a way to avoid significant expense when a primary serves no competitive purpose.
Amendment 2 — Elected official qualifications: Would set a consistent standard for conflicts with other public offices and employment for the mayor, council members and city attorney.
Amendment 3 — Ward boundaries: Would shift the basis for redrawing ward lines from registered-voter data to federal census population data, starting with the 2030 census. Rebalancing would be triggered only when the largest and smallest wards differ by 20% or more in population. Gahanna's ward boundaries have not been redrawn since 2013.
Amendment 4 — Council abstentions: Would require that any allegation of improper voting abstention by a council member go through the charter's existing notice-and-hearing removal procedures.
Amendment 5 — Administrative departments: Would remove specific department listings from the charter while preserving the Director of Finance's mandated duties, giving the administration more flexibility to reorganize.
Amendment 6 — City attorney vacancy: Would clarify how vacancies in the city attorney's office are filled. Under the proposed language, an appointee filling a vacancy would be required to run at the next municipal election if filing deadlines permit, preventing an appointed attorney from serving nearly a full four-year term without facing voters.
Amendment 7 — Planning Commission attendance: Would let the Planning Commission set its own attendance requirements for members through its rules of operation.
Amendment 8 — Zoning appeals consolidation: Would eliminate the Board of Zoning and Building Appeals as a separate body and transfer its functions to the Planning Commission. Appeals of Planning Commission decisions would go to Franklin County courts. Commission members noted this would reduce administrative costs.
Amendment 9 — Charter review cycle: Would extend the mandatory interval for convening a Charter Review Commission from every five years to every 10 years. Councilmember Michael Schnetzer told the commission on May 21 that his intent in proposing the change was "to reduce the risk of codifying potentially unintended consequences," referencing an idea he first raised with the commission on March 26.
Amendment 10 — Non-discrimination provisions: Would update the charter's nondiscrimination language to align with the city's existing codified ordinances and applicable federal, state and local law.
The Franklin County Board of Elections filing lists all 10 questions. The charter amendments will appear alongside other Franklin County ballot items, including school levies and township tax issues, on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
