Petition signature challenge hearing scheduled in Luzerne County anti-discrimination ordinance repeal effort

Luzerne County’s Election Board will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 16, to rule on petition signature challenges stemming from the effort to repeal the county’s new anti-discrimination ordinance, said county Assistant Solicitor Gene Molino.

As part of a phased process, citizens supporting an ordinance repeal referendum had to submit at least 1,162 signatures within two weeks of the ordinance’s June 9 passage.

A citizen committee submitted 1,899 within that deadline.

Council Clerk Sharon Lawrence accepted all but 63, which means the group currently has 1,836 submitted, or 674 over the minimum threshold.

County Councilman Chris Belles, an ordinance advocate, is contesting 475 signatures, arguing the election board should throw them out for a range of reasons, including issues with dates, handwriting, abbreviations, and addresses.

Meanwhile, prior county controller Walter Griffith, who is heading the group seeking a repeal referendum, has asked the election board to count approximately 60 signatures rejected by Lawrence, saying he has evidence these signers are county-registered voters.

Thursday’s hearing will be on the second floor of the county’s Penn Place Building at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street in Wilkes-Barre.

The five-citizen, volunteer election board will also hold its regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, Molino said.

Wednesday’s meeting will focus on the protocol for conducting Thursday’s hearing, Molino said.

Adjudication procedures must be established because this is the first time a citizen-initiated referendum has been attempted under the county’s home rule charter, which took effect in 2012, Molino said.

Belles and Griffith will also have the option to appeal the election board’s decisions to the county Court of Common Pleas, Molino said.

Molino said the board must also decide Wednesday or Thursday if it will grant Belles’ request to potentially challenge any of the approximately 315 petition signatures that were not made available until this week. Lawrence said those signatures were not on the original flash drives due to a computer error that occurred during the data transfer.

The home rule charter says signature challenges must be filed within 10 days after the council clerk’s determination on which signatures were accepted, which was July 6.

Belles faces an uphill battle stopping the referendum movement at this stage because he would need to prove at least 675 signatures have fatal defects to drop the count below the minimum threshold. The number thrown out also would have to rise accordingly if Griffith convinces an election board majority to accept any signatures rejected by Lawrence.

Griffith and citizen Ben Herring said they are prepared to present arguments against tossing out any signatures contested by Belles.

As this challenge proceeds, those seeking a referendum are working to complete the final step of the process to get a repeal question on the ballot for voters to decide. They must collect at least 11,615 signatures by Aug. 8, and Griffith said they have more than 4,000 signatures in addition to the 1,899 already submitted.

The ordinance establishes the creation of a county human relations commission to hear discrimination complaints involving employment, housing, healthcare, education, and establishments that sell goods or services to the general public. Council must still adopt an ordinance on the commission makeup.

Supporters said the ordinance will protect classes not already covered in state and federal laws and speed up processing of complaints due to a state backlog. Critics argued the county should not get involved in such matters and raised concerns about potential liability, litigation, and added expenses.

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