Except as otherwise provided in this charter all legislative and executive powers of the city shall be vested in a commission of not less than five members, either elected or appointed. One member shall be elected from each ward in the manner hereinafter provided. Commissioners from wards shall have resided in their respective wards for at least one year preceding their election or appointment. All Commissioners shall be elected from the city at large, and the person from each ward receiving the highest number of votes from the city at large shall be the commissioner from his ward. The terms of members of the commission shall begin on the first Monday in January next following their election, and they shall serve for a term of four years or until their successors are chosen and qualified, except that the three members elected at the first election by the lowest number of votes shall serve for two years only. Members of the commission shall be qualified electors of the city and shall not hold any other elective office or municipal position or employment for the City of Piqua, Ohio with the exception of the office of mayor. If a vacancy occurs in the commission except as the result of a recall election, the commission shall forthwith fill the place vacated for the unexpired term, within the sixty days, by the appointment of an elector from the ward in which the vacancy occurs. If such vacancy has not been filled by appointment within sixty days, then said vacancy shall be filled by a special election. Such special election shall be called by the commission to be held not less than forty nor more than sixty days after the failure of the commission to appoint an elector to fill the vacancy. The special election shall be held at the same time as any other general or special election held within such period; but if none such election is to be held within such period the commission shall call a special election to be held within the time aforesaid. A member ceasing to possess any of the qualifications specified in this section or convicted of a felony, adjudicated mentally incompetent, or removing from his ward, or from the city, shall forfeit his office.
Redistricting of the wards shall occur every ten years using the census. The redistricting shall be based on an equitable balance of population and shall commence with the 2010 census figures, having the new boundaries of the wards in effect for January 1, 2012. After January 1, 2012, said boundaries of the wards if redrawn shall go into effect at the earliest possible time that the census information can be verified and the boundaries redrawn. In the event the redrawing of boundaries results in a commissioner being located in a different ward than the ward he ran from for election to commission, the commissioner in office at the time of the redistricting shall remain in office for the balance of his term.
(Adopted by electorate, November 6, 1979 – Amending Ordinance No. 40-79; Adopted by electorate, November 2, 2010 – Amending Ordinance No. 3-10)