NorCo Home Rule Charter Study Series - Article I

Northampton County's Home Rule Charter consists of 13 articles. I intend to do a report on what changes should be considered for each of them.

Article I is entitled "Elected Officials." Those include the Executive, Council, Controller and District Attorney.  I have noticed nine problems in this Article alone. 

Should there be term limits? - In Article 102(a), the Charter establishes that elected officials serve for four years. It imposes no term limits. If there is a desire to impose term limits, this is where it would need to be placed.

I agree completely with the argument that people in federal and state offices tend to become entrenched and are hard to weed out. But in a local government, especially a county government where there is little or no pay, I believe that long-serving members provide institutional knowledge.

I would like to hear from others on this point.

Should legislators be called Council members or Commissioners? - Two years ago, believe it or not, Seth Vaughn and Ken Kraft actually pushed for Charter change so that they would be called Commissioners instead of council members. I consider the name deceptive because it gives the incorrect impression that the person bearing that title has the same executive powers as a Commissioner in a three-Commissioner form of county government. On the other hand, Lehigh County's governing body is called the Board of Commissioners.

Should district Council seats be retained? -  Currently, four of Council's nine members are district representatives, and those districts change after each census. District Council members are elected by citizens who live in that district. The other five are county-wide.

In a district race, money does not matter as much as knowing people and being responsive to them. In a district race, a Republican or even an Independent who is responsive can be elected in a predominately Democratic district. An at-large race can be affected by the national mood.

Because district seats are more democratic, I think they should be retained.

Qualifications - Under the current Charter, a person is qualified to run for Council or even Executive if he is a citizen who has lived continuously within the county for one year before his term starts. There is no minimum age or requirement that the person running be a registered voter. I am completely satisfied with these minimum standards except that I believe that a person should be 18 years old.

Should Council members be barred from serving in another elective offices?  - Section 104 provides as follows: "During his term of office no elected official shall hold any other elective public office or hold other employment with the County for which he receives compensation."  This poorly drafted sentence has created confusion. I think the intention was to rule out anyone on County Council who holds any other elected office as well as any paid County employee. But it has been interpreted to mean that an elected official can serve on County Council or be the Executive or Controller.

At the same time, state law prohibits a school board member, who receives no salary at all, from serving on County Council. A quo warranto action was brought against Ron Angle when he sat on the Bangor School Board without pay, but Tony Branco was able to sit on both Hellertown Borough Council and County Council and draw a salary from both. The same is true of Joe Capozzolo, who was Bangor's Mayor and a Council member.

Judge Zito, who was Council's Solicitor at the time, ruled that only the state legislature could determine which offices were incompatible. But the whole point of home rule is to enable local governments to make these decisions except where pre-empted.

The basic principle here is that no man can serve two masters. There is divided loyalty when someone sits on two different local governing bodies. This, I would amend Section 104 to read as follows:

"During his term of office no elected official shall hold any other elective public office in government; nor shall he hold any other employment with the County for which he receives compensation in any way."

I would make clear that the elected public office must be in government to prevent the argument that a county committee person from any party is unable to hold county office.

Should elected officials be barred from acting as officials within their own party? -  Section 104 attempts to remove the taint of partisan politics from government with this prohibition: "During his term of office no elected official, except any member of the County council, shall serve as an official, other than as a candidate of a political party."

I have no problem with someone acting as a county committee person. But I think Council members, the Executive and Controller should be barred from serving on the state committee or as an officer in the county party. I would change Section 104 as follows: "During his term of office, no elected official shall serve on the state committee of any political party, nor shall he serve as the Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer or in any officer position of any local political party."

Should Vacancies Be Filled by Persons of the Same Political Party? - In the Lehigh County and Allentown Home Rule Charter, persons who are appointed to vacancies must belong to the same political party as the person who sat in the office being vacated. I believe a similar restriction should be inserted in our Charter.

How Should Elected Officials Be Compensated? - Section 106 states that Council members can set salaries, but not during their term of office. What has happened is that someone will propose an increase, and then everyone will grandstand about it for hours.  What I would do is establish appropriate salaries for elected officials and tie them to the Consumer Price Index. That way the issue is never visited.

Office Forfeiture Provisions Need to Be Removed. - Article 107 contains office forfeiture provisions that provide an elected official can be removed for violating the Charter or various other kinds of misconduct. Article 108 provides for removal after a six month absence. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that elected officials can only be removed by the state legislature, the Governor and Senate or the court after conviction of a serious crime. So both of these articles need to be stricken.