Luzerne County Council to discuss county home rule charter study commission possibility

Luzerne County Council may seek a reconsideration of the entire county home rule charter, according to Tuesday’s work session agenda.

Up for council discussion is an ordinance that would ask November general election voters if they want to form a Government Study Commission.

A study commission would independently decide if it wants to keep the current home rule structure, modify it or revert back to the old structure.

If council proceeds with placing the question on the November ballot, voters also would simultaneously elect citizens to serve on the study commission.

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

Tuesday’s work session follows a 6 p.m. voting meeting at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, with instructions for a remote attendance option posted under council’s online meeting link at luzernecounty.org.

Public comment

Council also is slated to discuss a bylaw change removing one of its public comment periods.

Citizens have three opportunities to comment — before voting meetings on agenda items only and after both voting meetings and work sessions on any county matter.

Each allotment is three minutes per person, allowing each individual up to nine minutes total.

Stormwater agreement

A revised partnership agreement impacting county government’s stormwater fee is on Tuesday’s council voting agenda.

Its annual stormwater fee to the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority is approximately $192,653.

In addition to a $77,061 credit due to in-house stormwater compliance obligations, the county could save an additional $81,625 by providing access to county property/mapping data and other services and granting permission for the WVSA to construct and maintain a rain garden at the county-owned sports/recreation complex in Forty Fort and complete stream bank restoration on county land along Abrahams Creek in Forty Fort.

That left $33,967 for the county to pay annually in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Under the revised agreement, the county could entirely eliminate this remaining payment and future fees by allocating $2 million of its American Rescue Plan funding to help pay for the rain garden and stream bank restoration, it said.

A $2 million credit bank would be set up to cover future county government stormwater fees, it said.

Separate from this agreement, council is not yet scheduled to vote on the administration’s proposal to allocate $15 million in American Rescue funding on projects that could reduce stormwater fees for all property owners impacted by pollution reduction programs managed by the WVSA and the Dallas Area Municipal Authority in the Back Mountain.

Ethics

A resolution is on Tuesday’s voting agenda to censure and fine Councilman Stephen J. Urban $100 as proposed by the county ethics commission.

It stems from his February 2021 acceptance of an election board chairmanship seat. Urban’s 10 council colleagues had unanimously voted the following month to remove him from the election board because the charter states elected county officials can’t be appointed to the election board. The two citizen board members who made him chair also were removed by council.

Urban has said further action is not warranted because his colleagues had already publicly acted by removing him from the seat.

Vacant seat

As of Friday afternoon, council had received 14 applications from county Republicans interested in filling the council seat vacated by Walter Griffith now that he is controller, said council Chairwoman Kendra Radle.

It’s unclear if more will be received because council is accepting mailed applications postmarked on Feb. 3, which was the deadline to apply.

Griffith’s council replacement will serve through Jan. 2, 2024 and receive $8,000 annually.

Council plans to publicly interview applicants at 6 p.m. Feb. 16 and make a selection at its Feb. 22 meeting.