Inventory of the Citizens for a County Charter Committee Records, 1976-1979

History of Citizens for a County Charter Committee

February 1979 was the beginning of the drive to place a Summit County Charter on the November ballot that year for Summit County, Ohio. The effort was announced by officials of the Akron Regional Development Board (ARDB), the Summit County League of Women Voters, and the Goals for the Greater Akron Area (GGAA). A bi-partisan twenty-five member committee was formed on March 14, 1979 to work on the charter and drafted a proposed charter by March 29th. The final draft of the document, which came out on May 11, 1979, called for the following changes in Summit County government:

1. Replace the three county commissioners with a seven-member county council and a county executive, whose combined salaries would total less than those of the commissioners'.

2. Provide home rule for the county by dividing executive and legislative responsibilities.

3. Annual submission of balanced operating budgets and capital improvement programs by the county executive to the council.

4. The proposed changes would take effect on January 1, 1981.

Once the final draft was approved by the ARDB, the GGAA, and the League of Women Voters, the Citizens for a County Charter embarked on a petition drive to secure the 14,700 signatures required to place the charter on the November ballot. On July 3, 1979, the Akron Area Board of Realtors joined the charter effort. Petitioners managed to collect over 18, 000 signatures before the July 13th deadline, placing the charter on the ballot as Issue 2.

On September 20, 1979, The Akron Beacon Journal reported that most county residents contacted by a phone survey did not understand the proposed Summit County Charter. This news was discouraging, considering that four previous attempts to adopt a charter in that decade had not succeeded. The poll, however, was conducted before the mailing of the text of the proposed charter to the 260,000 voters registered to Summit County. The Citizens for a County Charter Committee campaign efforts continued until the County Charter was adopted by the people of Summit County on November 6, 1979

Scope and Content

The records of the Citizens for a County Charter Committee document the 1979 campaign for the placement of a Summit County Charter on the fall ballot in Summit County, Ohio. Folders one through four contain copies of the advertising and media publicity of the charter in addition to Ohio campaign laws, drafts and final copies of campaign literature, and newspapers clippings, organized chronologically. Folders five through eight contain the Coordinators reports, general correspondence between the Citizens for a County Charter and local officials and organizations, and endorsements and direct mail. Folders nine through twelve consist of various notes and memos and lists of members and resources. Folder twelve contains a letter in opposition to the proposed charter. Folders thirteen and fourteen contain information regarding speeches given by members and voting patterns. Some of these materials include regional statistics and notes concerning voter demographics as well as lists of members' speeches delivered at various conferences and meetings. The final folder contains a list of petition circulation contacts and letters sent between the GGAA and The University of Akron regarding students in the University's Social Work program becoming involved in community organizations.

The Citizens for a County Charter Committee Records will be useful to researchers interested in the 1979 campaign for a Summit County Charter or insight into the workings of a successful political campaign.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

Copyright restrictions may apply. Permission to reproduce or publish materials in this collection must be secured in writing from Archival Services, University Libraries, The University of Akron.

Restrictions on Access

No restrictions on access; except not available through interlibrary loan. Copyright restrictions may apply. Permission to reproduce or publish materials in this collection must be secured in writing from Archival Services, University Libraries, The University of Akron.

League of Women Voters

Akron Regional Development Board

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Organizations/Corporations:

Preferred Citation

[Identification of Item], Citizens for a County Charter Committee Records, Archival Services, University Libraries, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio.

Acquisition Information

The Citizens for a County Charter Committee Records were donated to the University of Akron in 1979.

Processing Information

Archives staff, 1980; re-housed and finding aid updated by Chelsi King, student assistant, 2013.

Detailed Description of The Collection