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Letter: Writer objects to special election cost

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February 24, 2010

The recently failed Nordonia Hills levy was held as a "special" election -- a single-item election paid for by Nordonia Hills.

Though the final cost of this special election was not known as of Feb. 4, the deputy director of the Summit County Board of Elections provided us with the following information in response to an e-mail query:

The cost of the election will not be certified for several months, however recent history demonstrates that this special election can be expected to cost from $24,000 to $38,000.

Because no part-time staff was hired to conduct the election, the deputy director expects the cost to be closer to $24,000.

That's a lot of money for a cash-strapped school district when the superintendent himself was quoted in the News Leader as saying he was "not really optimistic" about passage of the levy (Feb. 10, "School officials regroup after failed levy").

The deputy director also informed me that levies placed on the primary (May) or general election (November) ballots in an even year are "essentially free to local school districts."

This means that waiting until the May primary election for this levy request would have saved Nordonia Hills School District (or more accurately, us taxpayers) between $24,000 to $38,000.

If the School Board chooses to re-address the levy again in August instead of May or December (also mentioned in the News Leader article), I would assume that we will have to, yet again, hand over an additional $24,000 to $38,000.

Daniel and Theresa Cary

Sagamore Hills




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