Citizen submits necessary signatures for Luzerne County insider stock trading prohibition referendum

Fairview Township resident Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich has submitted petition signatures required to place a referendum on the Nov. 3 general election ballot seeking to prohibit insider stock trading in Luzerne County government, county Election Director Emily Cook said Tuesday.

The referendum asks voters if they want to amend the county’s home rule charter to ban county elected officials and employees from engaging in individual stock trades or prediction market bets based on nonpublic information obtained in the course of their county service. It would also require annual county reporting of ethics complaints and stock trades involving county, state, and federal elected officials representing the county.

Petitions seeking a charter amendment referendum must be signed by at least 11,615 county voters, based on 10% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, which took place in 2022.

Cook said the petition paperwork accepted by the county election bureau on Monday contained approximately 21,000 signatures. That figure may not include supplemental filings submitted Tuesday, which was the final deadline.

This will 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.

Hoffman-Mirilovich, executive director of Action Together NEPA, has said referendum planning was in the works since the end of 2025 to ensure all legal requirements were met.

Action Together plans to release a statement on the referendum Wednesday.

As with past requests for candidate or petition information, the county election bureau is requiring those interested in obtaining a copy of the petition signatures to submit a form.

This form requires the requester to affirm the voter registration information won’t be published online, stating that such publication is prohibited by state law.

There’s a seven-day window for petition signature challenges, although it is unclear whether any will be sought, given the significant cushion of additional signatures Hoffman-Mirilovich obtained beyond the minimum.

If the referendum is approved in November, the stock trading prohibition must be incorporated in the county ethics code, which 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 pertinent 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.”

Now that the petition has been submitted, County Manager Romilda Crocamo said the administration will be assessing these proposed reporting requirements to project the impact on the county budget and staff.

Other referendum

Hoffman-Mirilovich’s petition has nothing to do with another still being circulated to place a referendum on the 2027 primary election ballot asking voters if they want to repeal the county’s new anti-discrimination ordinance.

The same number of signatures is required for that referendum.

Prior county controller Walter Griffith, one of the leaders of this effort, said his citizen group will be filing its petition signatures on Monday.

The filing deadline is Aug. 8, or 60 days from a council majority’s June 9 passage of the anti-discrimination ordinance. However, Griffith said the county charter allows the filing on Monday because Aug. 8 falls on a Saturday.

Griffith said he remains confident his group will exceed the signature threshold.

This referendum would also make history. As an added check on council, the county’s home rule charter gave citizens the power to put ordinance repeals on the ballot for voters to decide. This option has not been exercised since the 2012 implementation of home rule, largely due to the steep signature requirement and tight turnaround.

The anti-discrimination ordinance requires local adjudication of complaints that extend beyond county government and involve employment, housing, healthcare, education, and establishments that sell goods or services to the general public.

Under a separate proposed ordinance pending council approval, a 13-citizen commission appointed by council would be vested with the authority to administer and enforce the ordinance and must receive “sufficient administrative and legal support” from the county Human Resources Department and Office of Law to carry out its powers and duties, including assistance with the intake of discrimination complaints and investigation of filed complaints.

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