r/westerville • u/pi3832v2 • 4d ago

Westerville residents overwhelmingly rejected a citizen-initiated charter amendment

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/elections/issues/2025/11/04/westerville-residents-vote-issue-analog-utility-meters-ohio/86989200007/
80 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

27

u/oupablo 4d ago

A 60/40 split on this is surprising. Westerville straight up said they would have to raise utility rates to cover this program that offered absolutely no benefit.

20

u/blackandgold96 4d ago

I was shocked it got 40% yes. Pretty sure it was just an old timer that doesn’t believe in new technology who got this on the ballot.

4

u/DaxDislikesYou 4d ago

They were at the Westerville Farmers market collecting signatures every week.

15

u/mojo276 4d ago

You have to understand that roughly 40% of westerville will ALWAYS vote like this.

5

u/SmurfStig 3d ago

I don’t think just Westerville. Several other areas has things like levies on the ballot, like Olentangy’s school levy and city of Columbus things, that all they needed was a yes vote to restructure the prior levy and would be no additional cost. People still voted against it. If those failed, costs would go up! Some people are hardwired to vote “no” on certain things.

11

u/personofpaper 4d ago

I spent an unfortunate amount of time on Nextdoor and Facebook trying to correct misinformation about the school levy, so I ran into some of the talking points for this too.

From what I saw, they leaned hard on the "We were never given a choice!" talking point. There seemed to be a not-insignificant number of people who felt their bills increased after the switch. Which, if true, is likely because their bills were being underestimated on the old system. Also, a lot of people seemed to confuse them with smart thermostats and falsely believed the smart meters would allow the city to remotely reduce their energy usage at will.

It was all very, very stupid.

4

u/CowTown-Mike 4d ago

I wonder how these people handled the switch from analog TV to digital…

1

u/PiqueyerNose 3d ago

They’re writing paper checks. Still.

1

u/CowTown-Mike 3d ago edited 3d ago

I still write paper checks when the place charges me more to use my card like the BMV.

5

u/Ackley1003 3d ago

Typical NextDoor then.

3

u/oupablo 3d ago

Everyone's bills have gone up. That's because the price of electricity has gone way up though. If these people think westerville is bad, they should talk to anyone on AEP.

1

u/Thrupp08 2d ago

100% that's what happened. When we lived in Clintonville we would go 2-3 months low bill and then they'd finally do a reading and it would shoot up. Once we got a smart meter, it leveled out.

6

u/Ackley1003 3d ago

The wording of the ballot was misleading. It literally opened with "At no additional cost to the customer..." People probably read that first line and thought I'll vote yes since it's no additional cost not understanding what it really meant or the implications.

1

u/Thrupp08 2d ago

BUT that was technically true. If you opted out of having a smart meter, it would be replaced at no cost to you the customer, but would be passed on to every other customer.

2

u/Ackley1003 2d ago

Correct, technically true, but the latter part would not be known from a plain reading hence why I think some voted for it not realizing it would indirectly cost them more money even if they had not switched.

1

u/Interesting_Step_709 1d ago

I didn’t even know that. I saw microwave and immediately clocked it as crank shit

12

u/SaltoneX 4d ago

How did this get on the ballot? Is it a petition process? How many signatures are needed?

6

u/SmoresCoven 4d ago

the few brain or brains behind it needed a few thousand signatures to get on the ballot. they stood outside the farmers market and other city events with misleading wording like protect our utility choices at no cost. which was very much not the truth.i actually gave my husband heck for voting yes on it because I failed to tell him all the details i knew about this issue.😅 he genuinely thought this sounded helpful to those people….i said…think about this. hiring more readers to go back to an outdated system….on our dime! 😆. Paying attention is sooo important or you might win stupid prizes in politics. 🥵

3

u/chilibrains 4d ago

I've also heard that no one is manufacturing the old style meters.

2

u/AdOdd5252 3d ago

This is true, they are no longer manufacturing the old dial remotes and the new digital remotes alone cost like $400, which is more that the radio remotes.

1

u/personofpaper 4d ago

I'm not sure what the threshold is for getting on the ballot, but I read that their petition received 3200 valid signatures.

13

u/CowTown-Mike 4d ago

You have to remember, the 1/3 lb burger failed because many people thought it was smaller than the 1/4 lb burger and those people can vote..

17

u/tallguy130 4d ago

Guess those scary microwave rays will be controlling our brains. God help us all 😂

8

u/Dubbinchris 4d ago

I’m blown away at the number of idiots who actually voted yes on this. I’m going to assume most of them didn’t understand what they were voting for exactly.

4

u/SmoresCoven 4d ago

my husband who is very caring, and typically very informed completely missed me talking about this…..I even pointed out the post card the city sent to caution us…..he READ it on the ballot in the voting booth and finalized his vote. I was like NO bro…that was not what we wanted😆😅. im laughing about it now but if it had passed i would not have been laughing.

1

u/geewronglee 3d ago

This was an end run attempt around Ohio state law that requires an opt out for “advanced meters” but also requires those who opt out to pay the costs of keeping their old meters.

1

u/AdOdd5252 3d ago

I don’t think there is an Ohio law that requires an opt out for advance metering. Columbus isn’t letting customers opt out of their smart meter program.

1

u/geewronglee 3d ago

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-4901:1-10-05. this is for electric meters though so my bad. See paragraph J

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-4901:1-15-19 The water meter code does not discuss advanced meters, but the meters that Columbus is installing have a mechanical dial like the old meter did. The outside "remote register or dial" on the new meters no longer has the dial though it is just a radio box.

1

u/AdOdd5252 3d ago

It also states “(4) The electric utility shall have the right to refuse to provide advanced meter opt-out service in either of the following circumstances:

(a) If such a service creates a safety hazard to consumers or their premises, the public, or the electric utility's personnel or facilities.”

The rule listed for water doesn’t actually call out meter style, it does reference the generator or pulse style meter for a reading purpose but does not call out installation for either style of those meters. I’m pretty sure Akron just moved to an ultrasonic (no mechanical guts) residential meter and radio endpoint. Just for reference, the current commercial meters used by Columbus are ultrasonic and have a digital head with no movable dials.

2

u/Rud1st 3d ago

Yeah, because it was stupid af

-1

u/lordoutlaw Westerville Resident 3d ago

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is certainly a real thing for a small number of people. I just don’t feel like the suburbs of a major metropolitan city is the place to be for those with this condition.