6. Board of Trustees & Term of Office

As Trustee positions become vacant, they will be filled as follows:

A. Wood County Commissioners

One Trustee shall be appointed by the Board of County Commissioners of Wood County, Ohio each year. The Board of County Commissioners shall meet to make the appointment no later than 60 days prior to expiration of the term of the current appointee. The Trustee must live in the unincorporated areas of the Wood County or within a member Wood County municipality. A majority vote of the Commissioners is required for the selection.

B. Townships

One trustee shall be appointed each year by the townships which comprise part of the District, whether as initial petitioners or townships which became a part of the District after the District was initially established. The trustee must live in one of the townships unincorporated areas of the District. The appointment will be made no later than 60 days prior to expiration of the term of the current appointee. The voting procedures are described below in Section 6E.

C. Municipalities

One trustee shall be appointed each year by the mayors of the municipalities which comprise part of the District, (Note: charter municipalities will make their appointments per their charter provisions), whether as initial petitioners or municipalities which became a part of the District after the District was established. The trustee must live in one of the municipalities of the District who are legal petitioning members. The appointment will be made no later than 60 days prior to the expiration of the term of the current appointee. The voting procedure is described below in Section 6E.

D. Henry County Commissioners

One Trustee shall be appointed by the Board of Commissioners of Henry County, Ohio. The Board of County Commissioners shall meet to make the appointment no later than 60 days prior to the expiration of the term of the current appointee. The Trustee must live in the unincorporated areas of the Henry County, within the unincorporated area of Providence Township, Lucas County, or within a member Henry County municipality. A majority vote of the Commissioners is required for the selection.

E. Future Appointments

Future Appointments to the Board shall be accomplished by the appropriate appointing authorities set forth in paragraph A, B, and C (above), pursuant to procedures established by the Board of Trustees as described below.

All appointees shall serve until their successor is appointed and qualified.

F. Nominations for Board Trustees

The Board of Trustees Clerk of the Board shall notify the clerk (or fiscal officer) of each government entity (county commissioners, townships, and municipalities) of the expiration of a term of a trustee 120 days prior to said expiration and invite the appointing entities to nominate individuals for the expiring seat.

The board’s governance committee will review nominations for a seat on the board. The committee will review the nominees’ experience and qualifications and recommend suitable nominees as candidates for the expiring seat. The governance committee may also nominate individuals not named by one of the appointing entities. Any and all nominations for the board seat will be reviewed no later than 60 days prior to the board seat’s expiration.

Official ballots listing all nominees will be sent to all appropriate municipal and township subdivisions of the District for their vote and return no later than 30 days prior to the end of the expiring term of the board member in question. Each appointing entity shall use the ballot to rank all candidates in order of preference, with “1” indicating first choice,“2” second choice, and so on.

The District uses the Instant-runoff voting (IRV, also known as preferential voting) electoral system to elect a single winner from a field of more than two candidates for a board seat. Under this system, ballots are initially distributed based on each elector's first preference. If a candidate secures more than half of the votes cast, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots assigned to eliminated candidates are assigned to one of the remaining candidates based on the next preference on each ballot. This process continues until one candidate wins by obtaining more than half the votes.

If a majority of the municipal and township subdivisions return the ballots with a single candidate as a first choice, that candidate will be declared the winner. If no single candidate earns a majority of the first-choice ballots, then the ballots of the lowest vote earner shall be redistributed to the next-preferred candidates as described above. The ultimate winner of the IVR process will be seated on the board at the next available meeting.

G. Successor Appointees

All appointees shall serve until their successor is appointed and qualified.

H. Vacancy

Any vacancy on the District Board shall be filled for the unexpired term by such appointing authority(ies) whose member ceases to serve. The Board will immediately notify the Clerks of these authorities by certified mail of such vacancy. The appointing authority(ies) shall employ the process set out in Section 6E to fill the vacant seat.