AGO 1993-020.

• Case Date: September 16, 1993
• Court: Ohio

Ohio Attorney General Opinions 1993. AGO 1993-020. September 16, 1993OPINION NO. 1993-020The Honorable David W. Norris Portage County Prosecuting Attorney 466 South Chestnut Street, P.O. Box 671 Ravenna, Ohio 44266-0671 Dear Prosecutor Norris: You have requested an opinion regarding the effect of the separation of a municipality from a township on the elected township offices for the part of the township outside that municipality. Specifically, you ask:

1. Are residents of a municipality which is separated from a township still eligible to hold elected office for the township [outside the municipality]?

2. If not, do these positions become vacant, and if vacant when do such vacancies occur?

3. How are replacement officials appointed or elected?

4. If only one member of a township board of trustees remains in office after the statutory separation of a township and a municipality, how are the vacant positions of trustees and clerk filled?

Rather than discuss these questions serially, this opinion will discuss the issues you have raised in the context of each of the procedures provided in R.C. Chapter 503 for the separation of a municipality from a township and the subsequent treatment of the territory outside the municipality: 1) separation under R.C. 503.09; 2) separation under R.C. 503.07 that results in a reduced township under R.C. 503.08; and 3) separation under R.C. 503.07 that does not result in a reduced township.

Separation under R.C. 503.09

Pursuant to R.C. 503.09, if the electors(fn1) of the part of the township outside a municipal corporation petition the board of county commissioners to exclude the municipality from the township, the board must enter an order erecting the territory outside the municipality into a new township. R.C. 503.12 provides that "[u]pon entering an order under section 503.09 of the Revised Code, creating a new township, the board of county commissioners shall appoint all township officers to serve until the next township election." (Emphasis added.) Thus, when separation occurs pursuant to R.C. 503.09, R.C. 503.12 directs that none of the elected officers of the "original" township remain in office, regardless of whether they reside in or out of the excluded municipality. Rather, all the township offices of the territory outside the municipality must be filled by appointment. Only residents of the territory outside the municipality are eligible to hold office in the new township. See R.C. 3.15(A)(3); R.C. 503.241. The officers appointed under R.C. 503.12 serve until the next township election. At that election, R.C. 3.02(A) requires that successors be elected to serve any unexpired terms remaining until the next regular election for each township office.(fn2) See 1937 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 1021, vol. II, p. 1776 (syllabus, paragraph three) (holding that G.C. 3250-4 and G.C. 10, now R.C. 503.12 and R.C. 3.02, should be construed together). If the unexpired term ends within one year of the next election after the appointment, however, the appointee may serve out the unexpired term.(fn3)

Separation under R.C. 503.07 that Results in a Reduced Township under R.C. 503.08

R.C. 503.07 provides that the legislative authority of a municipality may petition the county commissioners to make the township boundaries identical to the municipal boundaries or to erect a new township out of the part of the township inside the municipal boundaries. When a municipality initiates the separation, as provided in R.C. 503.07, the effect on the remainder of the original township depends on the characteristics of that remaining territory. R.C. 503.08 provides that if the part of the township outside the separated municipality is reduced to an area of less than twenty-two square miles and there is no other municipality in the territory, the county commissioners may (1) annex the "reduced" township to any contiguous township, (2) erect a new township by annexing territory from a contiguous township to the "reduced" township, or (3) if petitioned to do so "by a majority of the householders of the reduced township," erect...