Did the Mayor miss an ORC deadline?

As we mentioned in our blog directly below, Councilperson Schneider read from Title VII of the Ohio Revised Code at the 1/9/07 council meeting. Curious, we decided to take a look at ORC 705.18 ourselves and also publish it here in its entirety:

§ 705.18. Annual appropriation ordinance; supplemental appropriation.

“An annual appropriation ordinance shall be prepared by the legislative authority of a municipal corporation from estimates submitted by the mayor, (our emphasis) the chairman of the commission, or the city manager, as the case may be, in the manner provided in section 705.17 of the Revised Code for the annual tax ordinance. The annual appropriation ordinance shall be submitted to the legislative authority at its first meeting in January, (our emphasis) and the total of any appropriation ordinance passed by such legislative authority shall not exceed the total balances carried over from the previous year plus the estimated revenue of the current year. Supplemental appropriations shall not be made during the current year except from a contingent fund regularly set aside by the legislative authority in the annual appropriation ordinance or unless by an ordinance passed as an emergency measure.”


There was no “annual appropriation ordinance” before council at the “first meeting in January” this past Tuesday, apparently because council did not receive the required estimates from Mayor Williams in time. Attorneys we aren’t, but after reading this statute, we can understand why Mr. Schneider called attention to it. If there’s been a violation, where does it rank on the scale of seriousness?