Luzerne County study commission debates option to elect council by regions

Luzerne County’s seven-citizen Government Study Commission dissected the county council section of the home charter Thursday, including the question of whether some or all council members should be elected by districts instead of at large countywide.

Under the county charter currently under review, all 11 council members are elected at large.

Five of the eight home rule counties in Pennsylvania have districts, said the Pennsylvania Economy League, the commission’s consultant.

Of those five, four have a hybrid combination of district and at-large members. Erie County is the only one solely with council members elected by district, the consultant said.

In addition to Luzerne, the two home rule counties with all at-large members are Delaware and Lackawanna, the consultant’s chart said.

Commission Chairman Tim McGinley said he supports a hybrid structure. For example, if the commission ends up recommending a council of nine members, there could be four or five selected in districts and the rest at large, he said.

Commission member Stephen J. Urban said he is against districts, maintaining they would confuse voters, put “politics back into play” and lead to more parochialism and candidate entrenchment.

Urban also disputed the argument that countywide races prevent residents from some areas, such as the county’s southern half, from getting elected. He said several southern county residents have served on council since home rule’s 2012 implementation.

He also advocated a decision on the matter at an upcoming meeting, saying majority approval to keep at-large members would negate the need to spend time talking about the potential shaping of regional zones.

Commission member Mark Shaffer agreed with Urban. He used Wilkes-Barre as an example, saying there’s a “bad dynamic” in district elections in the city because incumbents have a “real strong advantage.” At-large campaigns focus on a government entity as a whole, but he said city district races often end up dwelling on why the challenger believes the incumbent should be replaced.

Commission member Matt Mitchell, a prior county councilman like McGinley and Urban, said he won’t make up his mind until he receives more information on how the districts would be carved out. However, he said he and his past council colleagues made decisions based on the county as a whole under the at-large election system.

Commission Secretary Ted Ritsick said the matter is not “black and white” and reiterated feedback he has received that residents may prefer selecting someone from their region.

Ritsick said council candidates could meet and interact more with voters if they are running in a district of possibly 65,000 residents instead of an entire county of 326,000 residents.

Running countywide is also more expensive, he said, noting some candidates in last year’s county council election had campaign mailers funded by political action committees outside the county. Ritsick said he’d rather voters be influenced by personal interactions so candidates are not seeking money from entities in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.

Concerns about entrenchment could be addressed by keeping term limits, he added.

Commission Vice Chairman Vito Malacari has said he is concerned districts would create “fiefdoms” that battle over limited county resources.

Voter approval will be required for the commission’s proposed changes to take effect.

As part of assessing a potential switch to districts, the commission agreed Thursday to Ritsick’s suggestion to seek county GIS/Mapping department assistance in developing maps.

Purely for discussion purposes, Ritsick compiled a spreadsheet grouping the county’s 76 municipalities into five districts, each containing an average population of around 65,000 and labeled as the following: Greater Pittston, West Side/Back Mountain, Wilkes-Barre/Mountain Top, Lower South Valley and Greater Hazleton

GIS/Mapping expertise would help the commission visualize this conceptual idea and any others, Ritsick said.

Mitchell thanked Ritsick for initiating the discussion and said voter registration should also be considered to avoid the implications of gerrymandering to favor one political party.

McGinley and Malacari agreed the voter registration data must be considered along with the population.

The Pennsylvania Economy League cautioned council districts must be based on population because the number of voters can vary.