State ex rel. Citizens for Responsible Green Govt. v. Green (Slip Opinion), 118 N.E.3d 236

Nexus sought to build an interstate natural-gas pipeline through Green; federal and state approvals issued in Aug–Sept 2017, and Nexus pursued eminent-domain litigation in federal court.
City of Green settled its litigation with Nexus on Jan 31, 2018, agreeing to easements in exchange for $7.5 million; City Council passed a resolution approving the settlement on Feb 7, 2018, but the council clerk crossed out the emergency clause and certain certification material on the certified resolution.
Citizens for Responsible Green Government (the committee) submitted 71 part-petitions on Mar 8, 2018, seeking a referendum on the resolution; the attached copies were of the introduced (not certified) resolution and omitted the settlement agreement and certain signatures/roll-call.
Summit County Board of Elections validated enough signatures for qualification; Green’s Finance Director Schmidt refused on Jun 11, 2018 to certify the petition to the board as "facially invalid and insufficient," citing the differing attached copy and possible nonreferable administrative action.
The committee waited 56 days (filed Aug 6, 2018) to seek mandamus to compel Schmidt to certify and the Board to place the referendum on the Nov 6, 2018 ballot; the Supreme Court dismissed on laches grounds and denied leave to supplement evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether committee's delay barred relief under laches	Delay excused by awaiting supplemental city legal opinions and by sending a demand to the interim law director on July 30	Unreasonable 56-day delay after Schmidt's Jun 11 refusal; committee knew of refusal by Jun 13 and offered no adequate excuse	Dismissed: laches applies — unreasonable delay, knowledge, no excuse, and prejudice from practical need to expedite proceedings
Whether petition copy discrepancy rendered petition insufficient	Petition attached the introduced resolution; committee argued substantive referendum right and did not concede defect	Schmidt said petition was misleading/"facially invalid" because attached copy omitted clerk's edits, signatures, roll-call, and settlement agreement; also suggested ordinance may be administrative and nonreferable	Court did not reach merits on sufficiency; dismissed on laches without deciding substance
Motion to supplement the record with emails/YouTube links	Proposed Exhibit 11 (emails) and 12–13 (video links) would show city acted or opined in ways relevant to diligence and whether ordinance was legislative	City opposed; court found the proffers did not justify delay or rebut laches and were unauthenticated or irrelevant to laches inquiry	Motion denied; supplements would not cure the laches problem and court declined to reach merits

State ex rel. Ebersole v. Powell City Council, 149 Ohio St.3d 501 (2017) (elements for mandamus relief)
State ex rel. Greene v. Montgomery Cty. Bd. of Elections, 121 Ohio St.3d 631 (2009) (timing/urgency in election matters)
State ex rel. Monroe v. Mahoning Cty. Bd. of Elections, 137 Ohio St.3d 62 (2013) (need for "utmost diligence" in election cases)
State ex rel. Fuller v. Medina Cty. Bd. of Elections, 97 Ohio St.3d 221 (2002) (laches doctrine in election litigation)
State ex rel. Carrier v. Hilliard City Council, 144 Ohio St.3d 592 (2016) (elements of laches)
State ex rel. Duclos v. Hamilton Cty. Bd. of Elections, 145 Ohio St.3d 254 (2016) (prejudice presumed when delay causes automatic expedited status)
State ex rel. Willke v. Taft, 107 Ohio St.3d 1 (2005) (prejudice in expedited election cases often tied to absentee-ballot preparation)
Blankenship v. Blackwell, 103 Ohio St.3d 567 (2004) (relators must act with utmost diligence in election cases)