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Municipal Lavv Page 4 * - self-government and to aiiopt and enforce within their limits such local police, .. sanitary and other similar regulations; as are'not in conflictwith general laws. . .. . ' ' ' . . . What is a general law and the extent to which it supersedes a local ordinance or Charter has.been the. origins of a steady if not consistent stream of case -law. The decisions of Ohio courts have been incQnsistent, reflecting a lack of an unclerstanding of the origins.of municipal law and the partisari method by which .';juiiges are selected: On the whole, in spite of the iriconsistent court decisions,.cities • in.Ohio enjoy considerable latitude toconduct their. business.in their own fashion. This empowerment is exercised through a Charter Commission. Section 7 of .. the Ohio Constitutivn notes -that cities may exercise the. authority. -granted.in Section 3 by framing and adopting a Charter. Specifically, the section states: • . Any municipality may frame and adopt or amend acharter for its . government and may, subject to the provisions of section .3 of this article,. exercise thereunder all powers oflocal self-goverrjment.. Section 8 establishes the process for framing and adopting a Charter. Under this section candidates run in an at-large, non-partisan election for the fifteen (15) seats on a Charter Commission. At the same election, voters cletermine if there -is to be a Charter Commission. If a majority of the voters voting 'on the issue of establishing a Charter Commission vote yes, the top.fifteen (15) vote getters are elected as a Charter Commission. (Obviously, if a majority vote "no," the votes for members of the CQmmission are ignored.) If orie is established, it must clraft a Charter in t'ime for the next election in November. In reality, this means Charter Commissions must complete their work by mid-August or miss the deadline for placing the issue of aclopting the Charters they cirafted on the ballot. Section 9 requires ameridrnents to a Charter adopted under this article be submitted to the voters in a referendum. A Charter may add ways in which amenclments can be proposed but they cannot take effect unless adopted by a majority of those voting in an election. Note that if conflicting. amendments are adopted, the one with the most votes prevails. Conflicting amendments are possible because amendments may be proposed by a petition process, specifically the initiative. If a city does not opt for a Charter process, it is governed by the, statutes of . Ohio. Section 2 of Article XVIII of the Oh3o Constitution requires the legislature to aclopt a cornprehensive statutory system, including options for different forms of government. Currently, Ohio statutes provide for three forms of government -- Council-Mayor (called the Federal Plan in the statutes); Council-Manager; and Commission. A city must hold a referendum to adopt an optional feature rather than the default Council-Mayor system, such as the Council-Manager Plan. .