Term limit reset prompts citizen complaints to Luzerne County study commission

Luzerne County’s Government Study Commission received a flurry of citizen email complaints Thursday about its proposal to erase past terms of elected officials when tallying the three-term limit.

The citizen commission is drafting a revised county home rule charter for voters to consider adopting in November.

Term limits apply to the county’s elected council, district attorney and controller.

A commission majority voted in March to keep the three-term limit in the current charter but not count elected or appointed terms of two years or less toward the limit. It also voted to provide a clean slate to incumbents by not counting terms prior to the new charter’s effective date toward the three-term limit — the decision that prompted complaints Thursday.

The commission plans to vote again on the clean slate provision at its next meeting Monday to determine if a majority wants to proceed as planned or eliminate it.

The greatest impact of the clean slate provision would be on county District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce.

More than four years were cut from the maximum Sanguedolce can serve under the current charter because he was initially appointed and then elected to partial terms when predecessor Stefanie Salavantis resigned to run for county judge. Sanguedolce was elected to his first full four-year term in November 2023.

Under the recommendation approved in March, the DA would be eligible to seek three more four-year terms.

Thirteen citizens submitted email comments opposing a reset in calculating term limits and/or expressing strong support for term limits.

“Term limits exist so that new voices can be heard, and they are essential to fair representation and accountability. It goes against the purpose of term limits to reset simply because we have a new charter,” wrote Helen Davis, of Wright Township.

John Sudol, of Pittston, said the resetting of term limits “is an idea that only benefits government officials. This is not an action that benefits the county citizens as a whole.”

In addition, Beth Gilbert, of In This Together NEPA, emailed a letter about a survey completed by 1,282 county voters that found 90.8% opposed resetting term limits for current elected officials.

Gilbert said the survey was sent to all 124,882 county voters with cell phone numbers available.

According to Gilbert, the survey also found a majority of respondents preferred some or all council members to be elected by districts and supported continuing the county ethics commission.

If the proposed charter includes a reset of term limits and elimination of the ethics commission, 75.7% of survey respondents said they would be unlikely or very unlikely to support it, Gilbert said.

Commission Chairman Ted Ritsick said he has extensive experience with surveys as a professional planner and replied that In This Together would have to release the entire survey results before he could assess if it was conducted in a format that yields accurate conclusions.

For example, he said he knows of numerous Democrats who received the survey on Monday and Republicans who did not receive it until Wednesday, providing them with less time to respond. He also questioned if the survey response pool was large enough.

Regarding districts, the commission voted in February to continue electing all council members countywide instead of carving out regional zones for some or all seats. The primary concern was that council members are supposed to base decisions on the county as a whole, not a zone.

The commission revisited the topic Thursday but decided to stick with its original plan of no districts.

Ritsick had performed extensive research on potential district maps earlier this year but said Thursday the commission does not have time to pursue that option if the panel wants to put its proposed charter on the ballot in November.

The ethics commission recommendation was approved last month. The study commission’s charter will require council to keep an ethics commission and code.

Under this plan, council would have to vote within nine months to either ratify or amend the existing ethics code. The existing ethics commission structure would remain in effect if council does not approve a new composition. The commission is currently composed of the county district attorney, manager, controller and two council-appointed citizens (one Democrat and one Republican).