A Maumee resident has notified city officials of her intention to place a referendum on the November ballot to repeal Maumee’s sewer inspection and remediation ordinance.
A veteran Lucas County Commissioner, meanwhile, called on the city’s leaders to hold off on enforcing the controversial ordinance so other solutions to Maumee’s sewage management can be explored.
And during a Maumee City Council meeting Monday evening, Mayor Jim MacDonald proposed creating a sewer grants fund to assist affected homeowners financially.
The notice of a citizens’ initiative seeking to overturn the ordinance was filed with Maumee city officials at 1:21 p.m. Monday. Its text reads: “Ordinance No. 020-2024, as adopted on June 17, 2024, is hereby repealed in its entirety, including the adoption of codified ordinance sections 1390.01 through 1390.99.”
Ordinance No. 020-2024 is the law that requires Maumee property owners to have their sewer lines inspected and passed by the city before any real property can be sold.
The repeal measure is being spearheaded by Alicia Wagner, a Maumee resident who says she has been looking for a productive solution to the city’s sewer issues.
“This is the quickest and most cost-effective way to give residents a say on the issue,” she said. “It needs to go back to the citizens to be reworked. There’s a problem and it needs to be fixed. The citizens’ voice is how we’re going to get this overturned.”
As city council began its meeting Monday evening with an executive-session discussion about other matters, county Commissioner Pete Gerken told the meeting’s audience he had approached several councilmen about a sewer-inspection moratorium after his office spoke Friday with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
“They were concerned about the solution that has been proposed by Maumee City Council,” he said. “They indicated it was unlike many others they’ve seen.”
Mr. Gerken said he was asked to offer suggestions.
“There’s probably other ways to do this,” he said. “A moratorium gives people a chance to settle down and see all the solutions.
“From the county’s aspect, this affects our auditor’s office, our recorder’s office,” Mr. Gerken said. “I think it’s time — as an elected official by the citizens of Maumee, as a county commissioner — that we speak up and say there may be some other paths to do this.”
The county commissioner said he met Monday morning with councilmen Margo Puffenberger and Scott Noonan to ask them to consider a moratorium.
“Just say stop, everybody take a breath,” he said. “A solution’s going to cost money. There’s no free car in this.”
Petition drives supporting the repeal referendum’s placement on the Nov. 5 ballot were under way Monday evening in front of city hall, at the Elks Lodge, and at Parkway Plaza.
Nicole Wiczynski, of Chantilly Drive, had collected 15 signatures over a few minutes before the council meeting started.
“This is just the craziest thing you’ve ever heard,” she said. “This is a working-class community, and they come out and they expect you to pay $40,000 to fix something in your home that was there when you bought it. It absolutely makes no sense whatsoever.”
Ms. Wiczynski said city officials shoulder the blame for the uproar over what they have advanced as a remedy for years of illegal municipal sewage dumping into the Maumee River.
“The solution was that they should have been paying attention,” she said. “If you read the emails from the EPA, they’ve been waiting to hear from the City of Maumee for a couple years now.
“Now, everything’s due today?” Ms. Wiczynski said. “They’re going to submit their plan on the last day. We could have gotten grants, we could’ve gotten money if they’d been paying attention.”
Before the council meeting, a line of 100 people snaked down the sidewalk waiting to get into council chambers.
Kate Welch, of Holgate Avenue, said she was there early to make sure she had her voice heard, and to sign a petition. She expects her 75-year-old home would fail a sewer inspection.
“I’m retired. I’m 73 years old. I’m raising my grandson who’s 17 and all of a sudden I hear from 30, 40 years ago that I’m responsible for the sewers of the city?” she said. “That’s ridiculous.”
Ms. Welch said the city should explore getting grants. She said she personally called the Ohio EPA to inquire about funding.
In order to appear on the November ballot, the initiative will first have to attract the signatures of at least 10 percent of the Maumee voters who cast a ballot in the last gubernatorial election. That number has been variously calculated as between 500 and 800.
The time to collect those signatures is very short, but attorney Andrew Mayle, who is representing a group of citizens opposed to the sewer inspection ordinance, said his clients expect to have all the signatures they need by Tuesday.
“I’ve never seen anything so unpopular in my career,” said Mr. Mayle, who has extensive experience in litigation with governmental entities.
Once petitions are submitted, the city administration and Lucas County Board of Elections also have procedural steps to take.
“We will be keeping an extremely close eye on the Maumee administration,” Mr. Mayle said.
“The city’s approach to this problem makes me extremely sad for Maumee citizens,” Ms. Wagner said. “I think of the young couples with children, the older people nearing retirement. This is not the right approach.”
Petition organizers expected to return to the Maumee Elks Lodge and Parkway Plaza on Tuesday morning.
Mayor MacDonald said later in the council meeting that he had challenged his administration to find a way to help homeowners ordered to repair their household sewers pay for the work.
“We have to provide some sort of assistance,” he said.
As proposed Monday night, the program will have household-income requirements and will not be unlimited, Mayor MacDonald said. Money will come from the city’s sewer fund.
Council is expected to vote on the assistance ordinance when it meets Aug. 22.
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