Luzerne County Councilman outlines possible home rule changes

Luzerne County Councilman Carl Bienias III said he intends to propose several home rule charter amendment ballot questions, including one reducing the size of council from 11 to seven members.

Other possible amendments, crafted with several council colleagues, would change the makeup of the county election board and also the retirement board, which oversees the employee pension fund, he said.

Bienias spoke about the plans Tuesday as evidence he and others are serious about their pledge to recommend charter improvements in-house instead of resorting to an outside study commission.

He is among a majority of council members publicly stating they do not support an ordinance up for a council vote next week that would ask May 16 primary voters if they want to convene a seven-citizen, elected commission to reconsider the county government structure.

If the study commission ordinance is unexpectedly approved by council next week, citizens interested in serving would simultaneously run in the primary, with the top seven vote-getters taking office if the ballot question passed. These commission members would then have up to 18 months to study the current structure and decide if they want to keep it intact as-is, make changes, switch to a different structure or revert back to the three-commissioner system, officials have said.

Any commission-recommended change would have to be approved by future voters to take effect, which is what occurred before the county’s 2012 switch to home rule.

Council Vice Chairman John Lombardo worked with Bienias on the possible existing charter amendments and said he received encouraging initial feedback from the county law office that these alterations could be permitted without the need to form a study commission.

Lombardo said the legal input is that council has more latitude to directly bring proposed changes to voters since the charter passed its five-year anniversary in January 2017.

He is proceeding with the understanding that amendments that structurally change the charter are permitted as long as they don’t structurally change the form of government.

“Having fewer council members is permissible without a study commission from what I’ve been told,” Lombardo said.

While a final law office review would be necessary, Lombardo said he and others would not be talking about reducing the size of council or other suggestions if they did not have confidence they were allowable because that would be wasting everyone’s time.

Bienias said he and others were careful about formulating amendments that do not change the form of government.

Stressing input is still needed from all council members, Bienias said he also worked with Council members Gregory S. Wolovich Jr. and Tim McGinley on the possible changes, with the idea this is only the “first round.”

His goal would be placing the question to reduce the size of council on the Nov. 7 general election ballot, when more voters would be expected to participate in the decision, he said. Pennsylvania has closed primaries, which means voters not registered as Democrats and Republicans may be less likely to turn out for a primary ballot question because they can’t nominate candidates, Bienias said.

The elimination of four council seats could occur by putting two less seats on the ballot in both 2025 and 2027, he said.

Other questions

Under the charter, the election board has four council-appointed citizens — two Republicans and two Democrats. Those four then choose a fifth member of any or no affiliation to serve as chair.

Bienias suggests a question to keep the four council-appointed citizen seats to ensure representation from both major political parties but change the chair seat to a county council member chosen by a council majority.

“This is just an idea for further discussion by council,” he said, noting the change would allow council to have more awareness of and input on election matters through one of its members.

The county retirement board currently consists of two county council members, the manager, budget/finance division head and an employee/retiree.

Bienias said the suggested alteration would replace the manager or budget/finance seat with a third council member based on the premise that council is the entity responsible for ensuring the pension plan receives county budgetary contributions required to stay stable.

Another possible amendment would allow employees of companies with county contracts to serve on boards and commissions at council’s discretion following mandatory public disclosure and discussion, Bienias said.

County voters had approved an identical amendment for appointments to county authorities in 2016 but, to the puzzlement of officials, rejected the one pertaining to boards and commissions.

The push to allow council discretion on appointments stemmed from complaints that qualified citizens were turned away from serving.

Lombardo and Bienias said they may seek council discussion about the amendments at Tuesday’s work session.

Council must hold a public hearing and vote on the study commission decision before the work session.