EMPORIUM – Gov. Ed Rendell still has his eyes on little Cameron
County.
Two representatives of Rendell will be in town next month to
help township supervisors, borough council members and county
commissioners work on a plan to ease financial pressures in the
county.
Howard Brush, director of the Governor’s Northwest Pennsylvania
Regional Office, and Lance Simmons, special assistant to the
governor, will meet with elected officials sometime on Sept. 10 in
Emporium to offer their support in crafting a plan from
“scratch.”
On July 30, Grove, Gibson, Portage and Lumber townships shot
down a proposal that would have let residents have the final say on
whether to alter their government. Emporium Borough Council tabled
the issue, while Driftwood Borough Council and the Shippen Township
supervisors voted for it.
If the townships and boroughs would have given it the green
light, then a question would have landed on the November ballot.
Voters would have been asked if they would want to put into motion
a home rule charter/consolidation plan that would have dissolved
the townships of Grove, Lumber, Portage, Shippen and Lumber and the
boroughs of Emporium and Driftwood.
It would have also eliminated about 32 county positions in the
process.
“We don’t want this to drop,” Brush said, during a special
session Monday night at the Emporium municipal building. He has
offered his buttress to borough council.
Councilman Max Narby pointed out the townships and boroughs are
against a governmental consolidation.
He feels a home rule charter, which would bring the county from
under its form of rules, is a versatile concept.
“I think there is fear of consolidation of power,” he said.
Emporium Mayor Bruno Carnovale contested because he’s got all
but five calls of positive feedback on the plan.
But council vice president LuAnn Reed disagreed. She said due to
the wording of the home rule charter, she could not “lie to the
people.”
The home rule charter stated that the elected officials helped
draft and also that they agreed to the document. But that was not
the case, she said.
“Cameron County Commissioners did not follow the law,” Narby
said.
Thomas Callahan, a county commissioner candidate for the
upcoming election, aired opposition to Carnovale’s claim.
“You seem to think the people were cheated,” he said. “I don’t
know.”
While bowing to the realization that something needs to change,
Reed said altering the state laws to fit the needs of the county
would be cost-savings.
She said if a tax collector could work for the whole county
instead of one in each township and borough, a significant amount
of money can be saved.
Reed also found fault with the plan’s figures “because there
were some big holes in there.”
But what’s next for the plan is really up to the citizens.
Residents might have the choice to cast their ballots on whether
they want to vote for or against the plan in the May 2008 primary
election. If passed, then voters would decide if they would want to
change their system of government in the November 2008
election.
The Pennsylvania Election Code says the signatures on the
petition must equal at least 5 percent of the number residents who
cast ballots in the last gubernatorial general election. This type
of movement is called the “Citizen Initiative.”
Only 80 signatures are needed from people in townships and
boroughs in order to get a referendum on the May primary ballot.
However, the petitions may only be distributed from Dec. 4 through
Feb. 22.
“I think it’s a more difficult route to go,” Cameron County
Commissioner Tony Moscato said at a commissioners meeting Monday.
“But it is the route we have to us.”
