LISBON –Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge C. Ashley Pike ruled in favor of a citizens group seeking repeal of East Liverpool’s traffic camera law, but that does not mean the issue will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Pike issued his final ruling on Monday in favor of the East Liverpool Concerned Citizens Against Traffic Cameras, several weeks after he issued a preliminary announcement telling the group he was going to decide the case in their favor.

Wednesday was the filing deadline for placing issues on the ballot, but the traffic camera repeal initiative was not on the list presented to the newspaper. County elections board director Adam Booth said the reason is Pike’s ruling was silent as to whether they were supposed to put the traffic camera issue on the ballot.

“The ruling says nothing about what election it is supposed to go on,” Booth said.

In his ruling Pike wrote that “City Auditor Marilyn Bosco may not fail to certify initiative petitions to the County Board of Elections because the effect of the initiative, if approved by the voters, would be to repeal existing legislation previously passed by City Council.”

Pike issued a preliminary announcement in advance due to the time-sensitive nature of the litigation. This was after attorney Mark Hanni, who represented the citizens group, conceded during a motion hearing the group’s petitions targeted the wrong legislation and new petitions would have to be circulated to meet the filing deadline, depending on Pike’s ruling. Specifically, Hanni agreed that the legislation was an initiative petition and not a referendum.

Without any further direction through new petitions, the court order or action by Bosco, the issue was not placed on the ballot by the elections board.

The lawsuit was filed after Bosco failed to certify the group’s petition to the board of elections a year ago. During the case, the city through Law Director Charles Payne had argued the petitions should have been for a referendum instead of an initiative petition and the deadline for a referendum was well past when the citizens group collected the signatures for their initiative petition in July of 2017. The city began using the cameras on April 27, 2017. Payne had argued there is a difference between what can be accomplished by an initiative petition and a referendum.

Hanni had asked Pike to rule an initiative petition seeking to repeal an existing law is valid and is not a referendum.