Rick Morelli set to brief Luzerne County study commission Thursday

As part of its ongoing information gathering, Luzerne County’s Government Study Commission is speaking to some prior home rule charter drafters, starting with Rick Morelli on Thursday.

In addition to serving on the 11-member study commission that wrote the voter-approved charter in effect since January 2012, Morelli, of Sugarloaf Township, is currently on the county’s five-citizen volunteer Election Board and previously served as a county councilman twice and as a member of the county manager search committee that had been activated in 2021.

While he strongly supports the current charter, Morelli said he will appear before the commission with an open mind about suggested improvements.

“I don’t want anyone to think I’m coming in to tell them what to do or not to do. I’m providing a perspective of why we did things the way we did,” Morelli said.

The size of council is one issue that already has come up. Commission members agreed 11 is too many and have voiced support for five, seven or nine.

Thinking back to 2010, Morelli said he initially favored seven, while the majority of his fellow commission members supported nine or 11. One member advocated 15, he said.

Morelli said he ended up voting for 11, largely because it would require more council members to eliminate the county manager.

“It’s a very, very tough job for anyone to do, and it’s very hard to find good managers — I think we’ve seen that,” Morelli said.

The charter ended up requiring a supermajority of seven council members to both hire and terminate the manager.

Morelli had also said in 2010 that a larger council would give southern county residents a greater chance at representation, particularly because a commission majority had chosen election of council members at large countywide, instead of by districts.

The late Jim Haggerty, chair of the past commission, had said larger councils increase checks and balances. with more representation, participation and eyes, a past-published report said.

Morelli said he had supported an elected executive instead of an appointed manager but subsequently publicly said many times he was thankful he was in the minority on that decision.

“I think a hired manager is better because you have someone with credentials who understands the responsibility, rather than someone being popular and being owned by people who give large contributions to their election campaigns,” Morelli said.

If warranted, council can terminate the manager at any time, while the county would be stuck with an elected manager for four years, he said.

Elected manager supporters argue the top overseer would be more independent and less beholden to council, but Morelli believes the result could be an executive and legislative branch that “butts heads” and “argues all the time” with less accomplished.

The past commission vote in favor of an appointed manager was 7-4 and followed a four-week debate among panel members, guest speakers and legal consultants on which option would better serve citizens, reports said.

Election board

The structure of the county election board is expected to be a key discussion topic for the current commission, which will now be in a position to start methodically analyzing potential changes now that it has a solicitor, Curtin and Heefner LLP and consultant, the Pennsylvania Economy League, on board.

Under the current structure, council appoints two Democrats and two Republicans, and those four citizens then select a registered voter of any affiliation or no affiliation to fill the fifth seat and serve as board chair.

Based on his experience to date, Morelli said he doesn’t see a problem with the way the board is structured now.

The county manager is ultimately responsible if election problems occur because the manager oversees election staff, he said.

“It’s about accountability. Somebody has to be responsible. Eventually you have to tie it down to one person, rather than having multiple people pointing fingers,” Morelli said.

Morelli said all contemplated changes with the election board should include an informed assessment of how they could improve elections. That question about whether anything will be improved applies to all changes, he argues.

“When you break this all down, everybody wants more power,” he said.

Commission Chairman Tim McGinley said he is working to schedule other prior charter drafters because he believes it is “important to have that background.”

Commission Vice Chairman Vito Malacari said during Monday’s meeting he believes more perspective on the intent of original drafters will help the current panel in its assessment.

Thursday’s meeting is at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, with instructions for the remote attendance option posted under the commission’s section on the main page at luzernecounty.org.

Authorized by county April 23 primary election voters, the current seven-citizen commission will have nine months to determine if it wants to make changes and, if so, another nine months to draft them. An extra two months is allowable if the commission is recommending electing council by district instead of at large.

Voters must ultimately approve any commission recommendation for it to take effect.

County voters approved the current charter in the November 2010 general election, putting an end to the commissioner/row officer structure in effect more than 150 years. As previously stated, it has 11 council members elected countywide and an appointed manager, with the district attorney and controller serving as the only elected row officers.

A majority of voters had rejected two prior proposed charters in 2003 and 1974.

Both defeated charters called for a nine-member council and elected county executive and elimination of all elected row officers except for the controller and DA.

The one before voters in 2003 would have had six council members elected by district and the remaining three chosen countywide. The 1974 proposal had all nine council members elected by regional districts.