Union membership rules could change

Oct. 30, 2011, Marion Star

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining the most important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. Our goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

Topic: Who can join a bargaining unit

Currently: Lower-level supervisors are able to join a bargaining unit, along with department heads in colleges and universities. To dissolve a union, 50 percent of its members must petition for decertification.

What Senate Bill 5 would do: The bill would prohibit some people from joining unions. These include lower-level supervisors in police and fire departments, and department heads in state colleges and universities. The bill also states that supervisor pay cannot be tied to union contracts.

Law would require merit pay

Oct. 29, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining the most important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. Our goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls. You can read other parts of the series and view related videos at TheNews-Messenger.com/elections.

Topic: Merit pay

Currently: Much of the current public employment compensation system is based on seniority. The longer you're there, the more you get paid. Public employee pay also has built-in longevity increases – added boosts for sticking around. There also are increases built in if an employee attains more education. If there are layoffs, the last hired workers are the first to be fired.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Senate Bill 5 dictates that pay increases for all bargaining unit employees be based solely on merit. Automatic disappear.

PETA turns out to protest Ohio’s exotic animal law

Oct. 27, 2011, Zanesville Times Recorder

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

COLUMBUS — Birgit Nazarian, of Granville, never has been involved in animal rights activism before, but the tragedy in Zanesville was enough to get her out to protest on a busy Columbus street Wednesday.

It bothered her that law enforcement officials killed 48 wild animals near Zanesville, but it also bothered her the animals were owned legally.

“It doesn’t seem appropriate for a private citizen,” she said. “It’s like having that many loaded weapons. I was shocked we didn’t have a law.”

Nazarian participated in a small, last-minute protest thrown together by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in front of the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday.

Cash-strapped communities could alter contracts easily

Oct. 26, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. The goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

You can read other parts of the series and view related videos at TheNews-Messenger.com/elections.

» Topic: Entities under fiscal watch or fiscal emergency can alter a bargaining agreement.

» Currently: If a city, village, township or school district is in financial trouble, it can go to the State Employment Relations Board and argue that it faces “exigent circumstances” and can’t uphold current bargaining agreements.

SERB upheld a sudden contract change for Toledo police officers in April after determining the city faced a “situation that demands unusual or immediate action and that may allow people to circumvent usual procedures.”

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Senate Bill 5 makes it easier for entities in fiscal trouble to change collective bargaining agreements.

Under the bill, if a city, school district or village enters fiscal watch or fiscal emergency, it can automatically alter collective bargaining agreements before they expire, without going through SERB.

When this happens, the entity and employees will bargain for a new contract.

Fiscal watch and fiscal emergency are classifications set by the state auditor’s office to identify entities in financial trouble.

Minimum staffing levels may be altered

Oct. 25, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining the most important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. Our goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

» Topic: Elimination of minimum staffing requirements from the bargaining process, and anything that keeps an entity from privatizing.

» Currently: Minimum staffing requirements and restrictions on outside contracting can be part of negotiations between union and public employer.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Police and firefighters would no longer be able to negotiate for how many workers need to be on a shift. Teachers would no longer be able to set a maximum number of students in the classroom.

Issue 2 would end binding arbitration

Oct. 22, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

» Topic: Binding arbitration

» Currently: All non-uniformed bargaining units can strike, though it is rare. But police officers and firefighters cannot.

Uniformed units instead have a process called binding arbitration, where a neutral party is brought in to resolve the differences between them and their employer. The arbitrator’s decision stands.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: End this process. Requests for mediation would go through the State Employment Relations Board, and must be done 75 days before the agreement expires.

Under the proposed law, if an impasse still occurs 70 days before expiration, SERB must appoint a mediator.

Executive order from Ohio governor hopes to rein in exotic animal owners

Oct. 22, 2011, Zanesville Times Recorder

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

COLUMBUS — If an animal is seen being treated inhumanely, Ohio officials already have the ability to confiscate it and arrest the owner.

It doesn’t happen often with large, dangerous animals, Gov. John Kasich said in a news conference Friday, because state officials don’t know what to do with the animal once they have it in their possession.

Kasich promised Friday, via an executive order, to step up enforcement of Ohio’s existing animal laws and pursue new ones regarding private ownership of dangerous animals.

Ohio law mostly silent on regulating wild animals

Oct. 20, 2011, Marion Star

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

When animal sanctuary officials in neighboring states found out what happened in Zanesville, they said they weren’t surprised.

Ohio has some of the most lax laws regarding private ownership of exotic animals, being one of fewer than 10 states with no regulation.

“My reaction was, ‘Here we go again.’” said April Truitt, director and founder of the Primate Rescue Center in Nicholasville, Ky. “Ohio is simply full to the brim with exotic animal breeders. ... You can buy anything you want in Ohio.”

The same response came from Ohio’s eastern neighbor.

“We knew something like this was going to happen, we just hoped it wouldn’t be on this scale,” said Melissa Bishop, of the East Coast Exotic Animal Rescue in Fairfield, Pa.

Truitt and Bishop were responding to a situation that broke late Tuesday, when authorities killed 49 of 56 exotic animals that escaped from a Zanesville farm after owner Terry Thompson killed himself.

Expired Ohio rule regulated exotic animals

Oct. 20, 2011, Zanesville Times Recorder

By Russ Zimmer and Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

If you own a dog in Ohio, you have to license it every year. However, your neighbor can own 18 tigers and he doesn’t have to tell a soul.

A regulatory blind spot in Ohio explains how a private individual could have grizzly bears, African lions and Bengal tigers at their home without any state supervision — let alone someone like Terry Thompson, a man with a history of animal-related misdemeanors and fresh from a year in federal prison for illegally possessing a machine gun.

In his final days as governor, Ted Strickland, as part of a deal that resulted in the Ohio Livestock Standards Board, issued an executive order prohibiting the ownership or trading of certain species, deemed “dangerous wild animals.”

The language of the order would have made Thompson’s animal sanctuary illegal because of his conviction for cruelty to animals.

Tax breaks help, analysis shows

Oct. 15, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo and Russ Zimmer

CentralOhio.com

When President Barack Obama or Ohio Gov. John Kasich speak, voters want to know: Where are the jobs?

When local candidates filled out CentralOhio.com’s voter guide, many echoed the same theme: “Residents consistently tell me that they want officials to focus efforts on creating jobs.”

The state allows local officials to offer businesses tax breaks for adding or keeping jobs. A CentralOhio.com analysis shows beneficiaries of the programs have mostly kept their promises.

Since enterprise zones were created in 1983, businesses in the zones created or kept 73 percent of the jobs they promised in exchange for breaks on real and personal property taxes.

Redistricting map satisfies few

Oct. 3, 2011, Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

How hard is it to divide Ohio into 16 equal parts?

When politics are involved, it's a decennial political brouhaha.

The Ohio Legislature completed the politically charged redistricting process last week, in which politicians draw up the U.S. Congressional and Ohio legislative districts where they'll seek election for the next decade. It's a process that brings about a lot of numbers, confusing terms, political warfare and squiggly lines.

It's complicated, and much of it is classic inside political baseball.

So why should you care?

County keeping Balderson

Oct. 1, 2011, Zanesville Times-Recorder

By Carl Burnett Jr. and Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

ZANESVILLE — State Sen. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville, will continue to represent all of Muskingum County, providing he runs for re-election and wins in 2012.

He also will represent Lancaster — the hometown of State Sen. Tim Schaffer, who no longer will represent his home county after his fellow Republicans swapped districts and moved borders of Ohio’s new legislative districts Friday.

The state’s Apportionment Board approved changes to several districts after lawmakers approached them with concerns about original maps released Sept. 23., said State Rep. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark. Those maps placed Muskingum County in Schaffer districts.

Map shift brings Schaffer back

Oct. 1, 2011, Newark Advocate

By Jessica Alaimo and Carl Burnett Jr.

CentralOhio.com

NEWARK — Republicans moved the borders of Ohio’s new legislative districts Friday, putting state Sen. Tim Schaffer back into Licking County, although he won’t live in his remodeled district.

The moves cleared the way for state Rep. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, to seek his former Senate seat in 2014 when term limits force Schaffer, R-Lancaster, out of the Senate and Hottinger out of the House. Hottinger confirmed he might run for the Senate in 2014, a seat he once had for eight years.

Friday’s changes came after several politicians didn’t like what they saw when the new state legislative districts were announced this past week by the Apportionment Board.