Group advocates adding insider stock trading prohibition to Luzerne County’s home rule charter

Action Together NEPA is advocating for a referendum on the November 2026 general election ballot asking voters if they want to add an insider stock trading prohibition to Luzerne County’s home rule charter, the organization announced Wednesday.

If all petition requirements are met, this would be the first time citizens have placed a proposed home rule charter amendment on the ballot for voter consideration. Since the county charter took effect in 2012, only the County Council has placed charter amendments on the ballot.

Petitions seeking a charter amendment referendum must be signed by at least 10% of the number of county residents who cast ballots in the governor’s race in the last gubernatorial election, according to the state Governor’s Center for Local Government Services home rule guide.

A total of 116,153 county votes were cast in the last gubernatorial general election in November 2022, which means at least 11,615 signatures would be needed to meet the 10% threshold.

Action Together is also pursuing a similar stock-trading prohibition referendum to amend the home rule charter in Lackawanna County, where at least 8,900 petition signatures would be necessary to meet the 10% minimum.

Luzerne County resident and Action Together Executive Director Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich said referendum planning has been in the works since the end of 2025 to ensure all legal requirements are met.

Charter amendment referendum petitions cannot be circulated before the twentieth Tuesday preceding the election, which was Tuesday this week, according to the state guide.

Completed petitions must be filed with the county election board by Aug. 4, which is the thirteenth Tuesday before the general election, based on information from the guide.

Hoffman-Mirilovich said her organization started collecting signatures Tuesday.

Action Together publicly launched the signature collection drive Wednesday evening in its regional headquarters, 30 E. Northampton St., Wilkes-Barre.

Registered voters of any party affiliation or no affiliation may sign the petition, Hoffman-Mirilovich said.

The proposed charter amendment would prohibit insider trading by county elected officials and employees, she said.

The referendum question wording in Luzerne County, as stated on the petition: “Shall the Luzerne County Home Rule Charter be amended to require specifically that the Accountability, Conduct, and Ethics Code prohibit County elected officials and employees from engaging in individual stock trades or predication market bets that are based on nonpublic information obtained in the course of their official County service and provide annual reporting of ethics complaints and stock trades involving County, state, and federal elected officials representing the County?”

The county ethics code covers all county government employees and elective county officials, as well as members and employees of county authorities, boards, and commissions.

The proposed change would require the county ethics commission to produce an annual report that includes:

• All ethics complaints to “relevant regulatory bodies” made against elected state and federal officials who represent county citizens, including all relevant information, findings, and conclusions. Disclosure of privileged information is not required.

• A summary of individual stock trades by volume made by county, state, and federal elected officials who represent county citizens based on publicly available information.

• Recommendations of ethics code changes to “regulate emerging unethical practices or ones that are not sufficiently regulated.”

Hoffman-Mirilovich said her organization routinely interacts with voters in both counties, and corruption is always among the top concerns identified in both counties.

“While Congress continues to allow blatant stock trading conflicts of interest, we are moving forward at the local level to ensure our own house is in order and send a message to politicians everywhere: enough is enough,” she said in the announcement.

The Lackawanna petition contains similar charter amendment wording for its Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics. Dalton resident Jennifer K. Partyka is listed as the filer for the Lackawanna petition.