Citizens for Equal Representation for Lorain County is making another push to reformat county government, eliminating the three-member, at-large Lorain County Board of Commissioners in favor of a seven-member Board of Commissioners 

Instead of three at-large commissioners, the plan proposes seven elected county commissioners, one from each of seven districts representing about 45,000 residents. 

This guarantees residents have someone from each of their districts representing them, and "fosters communication" between county government and residents, Hoagland said. 

He said it is very expensive to campaign to more than 300,000 Lorain County residents as opposed to a district in which a candidate lives with only 45,000 residents. No other elected positions would be changed, eliminated or made into appointed positions, Hoagland said. 

The districts would be: 

1. All of Amherst; wards 4 and 8 of Lorain; all of Brownhelm Township including the portion of Vermilion in Lorain County; Amherst Township excluding the portion of the township within South Amherst; and all of Elyria Township except the portion not contiguous with and entirely surrounded by the city of Elyria. 

2. All of Oberlin and the villages of Wellington, South Amherst, Kipton, Rochester, LaGrange, and Grafton and Henrietta, New Russia, Camden, Pittsfield, LaGrange, Grafton, Brighton, Wellington, Penfield, Rochester and Huntington townships. 

3. Elyria Ward 3; North Ridgeville Ward 3 and precints 4A, B, C, F, and G in North Ridgeville; Camden Township excluding the Ward 5 extension of the city of Elyria; Eaton Township excluding any portion of the village of Grafton; and Columbia Township. 

4. Elyria wards 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 and the portion of Elyria Township entirely contained within and surrounded by the city; 

5. All of Avon and wards 1, 2 and precincts 4D and 4E of North Ridgeville; 

6. All of Avon Lake, Sheffield Lake, Sheffield and Lorain Ward

7. All of wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Lorain and all of Sheffield Township.

 7 Districts for Equal Representation •

 7 Commissioners by District of 45,000 vs. 3 At-Large of 300,000 residents 

• Why 7?
o 3 too few and we see the issues with 2 votes approving things
o 5 didn’t create Minority-Majority District
o 7 worked well
o 9 too many cities and wards split up 

• Map done by Dr. Mark Salling (a professor at CSU) and Bob Dykes (Triad Consulting)
o A lot of experience at making non-gerrymandered Districts and did so for Cuyahoga and Summit Counties
o Only thing we gave them as guidelines was to try to create a minority-majority district and split as few city wards as possible 

• Give each District a guaranteed representative o It ensures every area of the county will have a vote in every decision: policy, spending, appointments
o Greater chance for those in unrepresented areas of the county to have a representative and not feel alienated
o Better chance of residents knowing their commissioner and having more interaction 

• More opportunity for committee-work to get things accomplished without violating the Sunshine laws
o Committees will work on subjects and projects then report back to the Board for action
o Currently all 3 Commissioners have to do a deep dive into every subject
o 7 Commissioners will likely provide a broader skillset than 3 

• Will attract more candidates since run amongst piers in own area vs. county-wide
o Much less costly for candidates to run a campaign o Estimated expense for a newcomer to run in his/her District is $25,000
o Countywide expense to run has been around $100,000
o At roughly $56,000 salary plus benefits is very competitive for this “less-than-fulltime-job” 

• Less chance for “back-room deals” that erode public trust
o It will take 4 votes (1 per each District) to get things passed vs. 2 now
o Fight for control between the parties has cost millions of dollars in frivolous lawsuits and poor decisions that help a particular party but cost the County (and tax payers) a lot of money
o The savings from better decisions will save the County more than the additional positions will cost 7 Districts for Equal Representation

Citizens for Equal Representation of Lorain County • 2173 North Ridge Road East, Suite C • Lorain, Ohio 44055