A Cuyahoga County judge ruled against the state this week, saying Republican legislators overstepped their constitutional bounds and infringed on cities’ “home rule” when outlawing local hiring quotas for locally funded projects.
And Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine intends to appeal the decision.
The Cuyahoga County ruling gives cover to cities that require contractors to employee local labor. The appeal, however, could put an end to guaranteed local hiring on projects like Akron’s massive sewer overhaul.
House Democrats who represent Akron applauded the decision.
“I commend this week’s commonsense ruling to block the state’s local hiring ban, because I believe working men and women deserve a fair shot at good-paying local jobs that can provide economic stability for them and their families,” said Rep. Emilia Sykes. “Local hiring standards are an effective tool for communities to combat high unemployment rates, especially among minority communities in our state’s urban cores.”
“Our constitution preserves and protects the right and responsibility of citizens to exercise self-governance in their community,” said Rep. Greta Johnson. “The ruling in Cleveland not only upholds this fundamental tenet of American democracy in Ohio, but it also preserves the freedom of local communities to make decisions that increase economic stability and ensure equal employment opportunities for citizens.”
Both lawmakers unsuccessfully urged the state not to fight the ruling.
“We will be appealing in defense of the state statute,” said Jill Del Greco, a spokesperson for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
The Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly passed the local hiring ban in May. The city of Cleveland sued in August, receiving a temporary injunction a week before the law went into effect.
Since then, the state and city have made their cases in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas before Judge Michael Russo, who ruled in favor of the city Tuesday.
Central to the city’s argument is the Fannie Lewis Law, passed in 2003 and named after a city councilwomen and neighborhood advocate who passed in 2008. Lewis’ legacy law requires city contracts to be completed with 20 percent city labor. Also, 4 percent must be low income.
Preparing for a federally mandated, $1.4 billion sewer and water overhaul, Akron council approved a similar local hiring goal of 30 percent in 2014, with a goal of reaching 50 percent by 2018. Before that, less than 20 percent of labor on city-backed projects was local, according to a report provided by the construction management company now overseeing the sewer project.
With some bids coming in below estimated cost and about a third of projects completed or underway, Akron contractors have hit their half-local-labor goal a year ahead of schedule.
Since the Cuyahoga County court put a temporary stay on the state’s local hiring ban in August, Akron continued to require the local labor quotas in its bidding. The permanent injunction this week extends that practice, at least until the state appeals the Cuyahoga County decision.
THE JUDGMENT
Judge Russo — last elected in 2014 after running unopposed in the Democratic primary — rejected the state’s argument that the local hiring ban brought equity to city projects.
Rural Republicans and the Ohio Contractors Association backed the state law, House Bill 180. They said it was unfair for municipalities to discriminate against out-of-town contractors whose employees do not live where the work would be done.
In court, the state’s attorneys said the local hiring ban followed the legislature’s duty to pass laws “for the comfort, health, safety and general welfare of all employees.”
Russo opined that the state’s ban on local hiring “seeks only to dictate the terms by which municipalities may contract for workers in construction projects within their realm. There are no protections afforded to employees under H.B. 180 …”
Furthermore, Russo dismissed the state’s law as an overreach, undercutting the authority of cities to govern themselves. “The Court finds that the enactment of H.B. 180 was undertaken to limit Home Rule authority as it relates to construction contracts,” Russio wrote in his opinion.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .