State ex rel. McNamara-Smith v. Grube

Summary

The Supreme Court of Ohio, in an original mandamus action, granted a peremptory writ compelling Ashville Fiscal Officer April Grube to certify the sufficiency and validity of a referendum petition challenging Resolution No. 06-2026 — which approved a term summary with EdgeConneX for a data-center and natural-gas power-generating facility — for placement on the November 2026 general-election ballot. The court held that the resolution's emergency clause lacked sufficiently specific reasons under R.C. 731.30 because it merely parroted the statute's public-peace-health-and-safety language and offered only a generic delay rationale, and that a fiscal officer lacks discretion to refuse certification by deciding the judicial question whether a measure is administrative rather than legislative. The court granted EdgeConneX's motion to intervene but denied its and Grube's motions for judgment on the pleadings, expressly expressing no opinion on whether the resolution is an administrative action exempt from referendum. Brunner, J., concurred in part and dissented in part and would have granted an alternative writ with an expedited schedule to address whether the resolution is not subject to referendum because it was an administrative action.