City Considers Turning Disaster Relief Program Into Nonprofit

The feedback received about his idea for a community-funded disaster relief program ranged from positive to negative, but he said the good outweighed the bad.

He heard comments from the community that encouraged him to keep molding the program — . Residents called it a "fresh new idea," and he also heard things like “If this is something new and helpful, it’ll probably get tabled and go away.”

After sharing that feedback inside City Hall Monday night, council decided to move forward with the idea, putting emphasis on turning the program into a 501c3, or nonprofit organization, and keeping the city out of it.

Council had talked before about legal hurdles to overcome before the fund could become a reality. It seemed Monday night they might not have too many hurdles after all.

“I researched it, and it’s a novel idea,” Law Director Hans Nilges said, adding the city could need to fill out a form and submit it to the Ohio Auditor’s Office asking for establishment of the funds. He doesn't foresee any reason why they would be turned down, either.

Councilman Pat DeOrio suggested the next move would be to discuss forming a committee that would oversee the fund. He also said they need to find other ways to obtain donations other than Cerreta’s original idea of putting an opt-in option on residents’ tax forms.

And suggested turning the group into a nonprofit.

“To me, you should have a charitable organization that solicits donations, and the city should not be involved in that,” Davies said. “It’s not the city’s job to become a charitable organization and run a charity. It just isn’t.”

Check back with North Canton Patch later today for more coverage of Monday night's North Canton City Council meeting.