(A) Each member of the Legislative Authority shall have resided in the municipality for at least one year immediately preceding the member’s election, and shall be an elector of the municipality. No member of the Legislative Authority shall hold any other public office, be interested in any contract with the municipality, or hold employment with the municipality, except that the member may be a notary public, a member of the state militia, or a volunteer firefighter of the village; provided that the member shall not receive any compensation for his or her services as a volunteer firefighter of the village in addition to his or her regular compensation as a member of the Legislative Authority. Any member who ceases to possess any of these qualifications, or who moves from the municipality, shall forfeit his or her office.
(B) The purpose of establishing a one-year residency requirement in this section is to recognize that the municipality has a substantial and compelling interest in encouraging qualified candidacies for election to the office of member of the Legislative Authority by ensuring that a candidate for the office has every opportunity to become knowledgeable with and concerned about the problems and needs of the area the candidate seeks to represent. In enacting this requirement, the municipality finds that the one-year period is reasonably related to this purpose, while leaving unimpaired a person’s right to travel, to vote, and to be a candidate for public office.
(R.C. § 731.12) (Rev. 1999)