ADAMS TWP — Voters in two townships may decide in the Nov. 4 election whether to change the number of township supervisors.

However, the supervisors in one of the townships are not going down without a fight.

The five supervisors in Adams Township Monday night voted unanimously to have the board’s solicitor ask Butler County court to strike from the fall ballot a proposed referendum to reduce the number of supervisors from five to three.

Supervisors Vice Chairman Tom Franceschina said the courts already have held that such a move is unconstitutional.

The supervisors would not comment further on the motion.

Also, in Middlesex Township, an effort is under way to increase the number of supervisors to five from three.

The Butler County commissioners, who also serve as the county election board, are to vote Wednesday on placing referendums on Adams and Middlesex township ballots regarding the number of supervisors in each township.

Shari Brewer, director of the county elections bureau, said residents of each township circulated petitions supporting the referendums.

To be eligible for referendum consideration, a petition must have a number of signatures amounting to 5 percent of a municipality’s voters.

Adams has 8,854 voters, meaning the minimum number of signatures needed is 442. The petition has 491 names.

In Middlesex, the minimum number of names needed is 150. The petition got 243.

Middlesex has 3,008 registered voters.

Charles Clark spearheaded the effort to circulate the petitions in Adams.

Clark said while the impetus for the petition was the supervisors’ treatment of the parent group that is against shale gas drilling within two miles of the Mars School District schools, he stressed that the effort to reduce the number of supervisors is a community one aimed at electing supervisors who will listen to citizens’ concerns.

Clark said the supervisors refused to allow the parent group to present its PowerPoint presentation on the dangers of shale gas drilling near schools. He said both the planning commission and the supervisors told the group they would be placed on a meeting agenda to give the presentation, then were neither on the agenda nor permitted to give their presentation.

“The way the supervisors and planning commission handled themselves is atrocious,” Clark said. “These are our representatives, and they have an obligation to listen to what we have to say.”

He said the supervisors only would allow those who “have something new to say” to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting.

“They spent more time not letting the parent group present information than it would have taken to present the information,” Clark said.

He said a handful of people going from door to door got the signatures in three days. He said those in favor of fracking also gave their signatures, especially after Clark described the parent group’s treatment at the meetings.

“They all basically said ‘We need government that’s more responsive and is going to give us the courtesy of listening to what the people have to say,’” Clark said.

He said if the voters in November pass the referendum to go to a three-seat board, all five current supervisors would be swept from office and three new candidates would run. Clark said the former supervisors or anyone else could run for the three seats.

Brewer said, however, it is unclear what would happen if the referendum passes.

She said a referendum in 2012 to reduce Center Township’s supervisors from five to three members passed because township code said it could be done. But according to the state Constitution, reducing the number of supervisors does not meet the criteria for removing a local official from office.

County court overturned the referendum in Center Township.

“So I’m not sure what would happen,” Brewer said. “I leave that to the lawyers.”

Clark said it could be argued that a growing township needs five supervisors to manage the business of the community.

“But I would rather have three people who would listen than a five-member board who won’t,” he said.

Crystal Yost, who spearheaded the effort to get the signatures in Middlesex, also bemoaned the treatment she said the Mars parent group received from the Middlesex supervisors. But she agrees that the attempt to move from three to five supervisors is a community one.

“After attending some meetings, I feel like adding two (supervisors) would give a better representation to the township as a whole,” said Yost, who is also a member of the Mars parents group.

She said her door-to-door canvas revealed that many residents have long been unhappy with the township government and would welcome a change to the board. She said the issue of the elimination and eventual reinstitution of a reduced police force in 2006 came up frequently.

She also said that the supervisors do not take seriously the concerns and opinions of those who are new to the township, instead favoring the views of longtime residents.

“We’re a growing township, and we need more diverse representation,” Yost said.

If the referendum passes in Middlesex in November, the current supervisors would remain in their seats. New candidates would run for the two new seats, and the two successful candidates would take office in January.

“It would be two more opinions, two more thinkers,” Yost said. “More representation is better in this case.”

County solicitor Mike English said at the commissioners’ meeting Monday that the proposed Adams reduction could run into the same problem as Center Township.

County Judge Michael Yeager in January 2013 ruled such a referendum was unconstitutional because it eliminated supervisor posts before the terms were done.

Middlesex supervisors Mike Spreng, Don Marshall and James “Hap” Evans did not return calls from the Eagle on Monday.

Eagle staff writer Tom Victoria contributed to this report.