Linda Harris PAYING RESPECTS – Steubenville Council stands with heads bowed as Councilman Tracy McManamon reads the names of Steubenville’s war dead into the record Tuesday.

STEUBENVILLE — Voters will have the final say on proposed charter changes in Steubenville, including one that would make it possible for council to select an applicant with the abilities but no college degree to serve as city manager.

At Tuesday’s meeting, council voted to submit the proposed changes to the Board of Elections for placement on November’s general election ballot after Committee Chair Willie Paul, a former councilman, told them he was not going to withdraw any of the items members had agreed to put before voters.

“We’re going forward with this, we’re not changing anything now,” Paul said.

Steubenville’s charter currently requires the city manager to have an undergraduate degree in public administration, business administration, accounting, or a related field and at least two years’ experience as a city manager/county administrator or comparable position, or at least five years’ experience as an executive officer or chief fiscal officer of any business or governmental entity.

The proposed change would allow council to consider candidates who may not have a degree in public administration but do have strong managerial skills.

Paul said he was in the process of securing signatures of each of his committee members on the revisions being submitted for voter approval, which Law Director Costa Mastros had requested, when he was asked to consider changing the “and” to “or,”

“You think that’s a small word but it’s not,” Paul said. “If this passes, you won’t have to have both – if it’s changed to ‘or’ you could have one of the four (qualifications) and be city manager.”

Paul said “four individuals” were okay with the idea so he didn’t reach out to the other three “because they had the majority.” He recalled the charter commission to hear the final proposed change and reports seven of his nine charter committee members were present for that vote.

“We debated it for a half hour, 45 minutes,” he said. “There were a lot of pros and cons to it but went 6-1, there was one vote against changing that word from ‘and’ to ‘or’ so I…submitted (them) to Costa.”

Paul pointed out proposed charter changes will be numbered and voted individually, so opponents will have the opportunity to wage a campaign against the ones they don’t like before election day.

“I’ve told you before there is no rule on doing this,” Paul added. “They don’t give you a rule book and say, ‘Follow this.’ What we did was go from the very first word of the charter to the very last word.”

Councilman Mike Hernon said the eleventh-hour change “obviously didn’t come from all of council.”

“Going from ‘and’ to ‘or’…that stinks, having people reporting to them who have higher requirements,” Hernon said.

Paul reminded council the changes only take effect “if the voters say so, the voters make the final decision.”

(Harris can be contacted at lharris@heraldstaronline.com)