COMMENTARY: In Ohio, it’s the lobbies that are beating local rule

Regulation of assault weapons isn’t the only home-rule power that the General Assembly yanked from Ohio’s cities and villages. Earlier, in 2004, the legislature denied Ohio’s 900-plus cities and villages any authority over the “permitting, location, and spacing of oil and gas wells.”

You don’t want someone fracking in your neighborhood? Don’t waste your breath at City Hall: No mayor can do much to help. Instead, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is supposed to police what the oil and gas industry does, including fracking.

That 2004 measure – which had bipartisan support – was House Bill 278. Its sponsor was then-Rep. Thomas Niehaus, a suburban Cincinnati Republican, later a state senator, then Senate president. Today, he’s a Statehouse lobbyist whose 30 clients include the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

Here’s how then-Justice William O’Neill explained HB 278 in a state Supreme Court dissent. O’Neill, a Chagrin Falls Democrat, is among six Democrats running for this year’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

At issue in the Supreme Court case was a bid by Munroe Falls, the Akron suburb, to prevent Beck Energy Corp. from drilling an oil and gas well in Munroe Falls. In contrast, the Natural Resources Department – big surprise – had issued a permit for the Munroe Falls well.

The Ohio Supreme Court sided with Beck Energy. O’Neill opposed the Supreme Court’s ruling. O’Neill’s dissent included this take on the court’s decision: “Under this ruling, a drilling permit could be granted in the exquisite residential neighborhoods of (Franklin County’s) Upper Arlington, (Greater Cleveland’s) Shaker Heights, or the (Hamilton County) village of Indian Hill – local zoning dating back to 1920 be damned.”

Litigation over the 2004 law, and over fracking, continues. Meanwhile, though, amnesia is an Ohio politician’s best friend. So here, in alphabetical order, are people who today hold elected state office but in 2004, as Ohio House or Senate members, voted “yes” to pass House Bill 278 and thus strip Ohio cities and villages of power over oil and gas drilling: State Rep. Keith Faber, a Celina Republican running for state auditor; Rep. Theresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat running for the state Senate; Sen. Randy Gardner, a Bowling Green Republican; Sen. Jay Hottinger, a Newark Republican; then-Rep. Nancy P. Hollister, a Marietta Republican, later Ohio’s interim governor, now a State Board of Education member; Rep. Larry Householder, a Perry County Republican aiming to be elected Ohio House speaker in 2019; Rep. Jim Hughes, a Columbus Republican; then-Rep. Jon Husted, now Ohio’s secretary of state, a Republican running for lieutenant governor on Mike DeWine’s GOP gubernatorial ticket; Sen. Scott Oelslager, a North Canton Republican running for the Ohio House; Rep. Thomas F. (Tom) Patton, a Strongsville Republican; then-Sen. Joy Padgett, a Coshocton Republican running against former Ohio Attorney General Betty D. Montgomery for Montgomery’s Republican State Central Committee seat; Rep. Tim Schaffer, a Lancaster Republican; Rep. William Seitz, a suburban Cincinnati Republican; Rep. Kirk Schuring, a suburban Canton Republican running for the state Senate; Sen. Michael Skindell, a Lakewood Democrat running for the Ohio House; and Rep. Ron Young, a LeRoy Township Republican.

Those now in state office who voted “no” on HB 268: Rep. Thomas Brinkman, a Cincinnati Republican – and then-Rep. Mary Taylor, a suburban Akron Republican, later Ohio’s auditor, now its lieutenant governor. Taylor is competing with Mike DeWine for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

Voters added home rule to the Ohio Constitution in 1912 to fight Statehouse end-runs – by big lobbies – that ignored communities’ health, safety and quality-of-life concerns. Those concerns are still pressing. But so are the lobbies. And, at the moment, they’re winning.

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