Westlake City Council Overrides Mayor's Vetoes

WESTLAKE, OH — Westlake City Council voted this week to override Mayor Dennis Clough's six vetoes of proposed city charter amendments.

"Basically council rejected his reasoning behind the vetoes," Westlake City Council President Michael Killeen told Patch after the meeting.

Clough's objections to the proposed charter amendments boiled down to a few key complaints: that council's adopted amendments did not follow the Westlake Charter Review Committee's language, the amendments undid long-held city protocols or the amendments were politically-motivated and pushed by a single individual.

"Additionally, I strongly believe that amendments to the City Charter should not reflect the political reasons or personal opinions of a few. After all, the Charter is essentially the City's Constitution, and has served Westlake and its residents well since its adoption in 1965," Clough said.

Killeen said he disagreed with everything the mayor said. "He's not really being fair in how he's describing these amendments," he said.

For one, by law the charter must be reviewed and updated every decade, Killeen noted. A group of residents form the Charter Review Committee and then make recommendations to city council on what should be updated in the charter.

"Five of seven city council people adopted these proposed amendments. Westlaker residents will then vote on the amendments. Frankly, it's up to the people if these are adopted," Killeen said. He added that two of the amendments are word-for-word amendments taken from the charter review committee's recommendations.

The six amendments would:

• Clarify the powers of the mayor, saying the mayor does not have control over city council or the law director
• One of the amendments would change language in the charter saying the mayor shall have "control" over departments. The proposal would shift the language to "supervise" departments
• If the position of mayor is suddenly vacant (due to a health crisis, for instance), the president of city council would be come interim mayor. If the president of council cannot assume the role of interim mayor, the law director would take on the position
• Give council flexibility in when regular meetings are held
• Clarify that the city's law director is elected and not appointed by the mayor
• Reducing the number of signatures needed to run for elected office in the city from 500 signatures to 250 signatures
• Changing the threshold for winning the office of mayor in Westlake to 40 percent of the vote; if more than two candidates run and no one achieves 40 percent of the vote, there will be a run-off between the top two candidates

"I think all these amendments are appropriate and good. If they don't pass, the world won’t end, but they are improvements. We should always be looking at the charter for improvements," Killeen said.

The Aug. 19 city council meeting can be watched on the city's website.