ROSSFORD – A move to give Rossford voters
a chance to decide whether or not to remain in TARTA has hit a roadblock.Though Citizens Choice, the
group that circulated the petition, thought they’d submitted their paperwork in ample time to meet
statutory guidelines, it appears they did not do so.Donald Montague, one of the three founding members,
said the group submitted the petitions with 395 signatures to the city on July 26. That gave the city
the needed 10 days it had to hold the petitions until they needed to be submitted to the county Board of
Elections.Montague said the members did not know about another period of up to 10 days that the Board of
Elections had to certify the petitions.During that period, said Terry Burton, director of the Board of
Elections, officials made sure that petition had the required 275 valid signatures. Of those submitted,
he said, 340 were valid.The petitions were then returned to the city, and which in turn formally filed
them with the county.City Administrator Ed Ciecka said all this shuffling of paperwork was done by hand
delivering the petitions and picking them up, so time wasn’t lost in the mail.The county then had the
petitions in hand on Aug. 13.At issue is whether the date submitted according to law is Aug. 6, which
the Citizens Choice made, or Aug. 13, a week after the statutory deadline. That would determine whether
it was placed on this year’s general election ballot on Nov. 5, or the next in November, 2014.That issue
is now in the hands of County Prosecutor Paul Dobson.Linda Holmes, an assistant county prosecutor in the
civil division, said she was working on the determination and hopes the decision will be made by the end
of the week.Elections officials will wait until the prosecutor’s office gives the go-ahead to put it on
the November ballot."I find that to be an unlikely scenario," Burton said. He said his office
"is not processing it at this point.""It’s in the prosecutor’s hands to render a decision
as to the placement," Montague said. If the referendum does not appear this year, TARTA will be a
dead issue because the legislation, proposed by State Sen. Randy Gardner, to allow communities to leave
the system expires at the end of the year.The referendum was prompted by a vote by city council earlier
this year to stay with the regional transit system. Those opposing that decision insisted that voters
should have the right to make that decision.Ciecka said the city did everything according to the city
carter and state law, and facilitated the process by driving to Bowling Green with paperwork."I
don’t believe the Board of Elections or the city did anything wrong."