During a meeting last week, Plains Township resident Gerald Cross respectfully urged Luzerne County’s Government Study Commission to reconsider its recommendation to reduce the size of council from 11 to seven members.
The commission has been assessing potential county home rule charter changes and aims to place its proposal on the November 2025 ballot. Voters will then decide whether to accept the new design or keep the system in effect since January 2012.
Cross thoroughly understands the charter because he was executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League when it served as a consultant to the commission of citizens that drafted it. A nonpartisan/nonprofit public policy organization, the league is serving as a consultant for the current commission, although Cross has retired and spoke last week as a resident/taxpayer.
Modifying the council size rises to the level of changing the form of government, he said.
Cross said he observed more commission discussion, thought and investigation into other “less consequential” revisions also under consideration.
“To me, changing the form of government is a high bar, and you need to be sure whether or not the size of government is causing ineffective and inefficient government for citizens,” Cross said. “Outside of anecdotes about a council of 11, I can’t recall this commission doing the same level of review or study that you gave these other items.”
Cross argued a council size alteration warrants more “discussion of the merits or deficiencies of the current form” because it will have lasting effects, some not easy to foresee.
Critics have said 11 members is too unwieldy. Charter drafters chose a larger council so more people would be involved in decisions. Those seeking approval from council must convince a majority of at least six.
Commission Chairman Tim McGinley told Cross there were several discussions about the council size and noted it was a “strong majority but not a unanimous” decision to recommend seven. He also stressed the commission is free to change positions because no decisions are final until the panel prepares a final document to put before voters.
Five of seven commission members voted for the recommended reduction to seven.
Council districts
The study commission is still contemplating whether to recommend keeping council seats at large or switching to election by regional districts — or a hybrid of both options.
Commission Secretary Ted Ritsick and member Matt Mitchell have been working with the county Mapping/GIS Department to plot out exploratory maps of various scenarios.
Ritsick said he expects these maps should be available for the next commission meeting on Jan. 16.
These initial maps will show potential layouts of three, four, five and seven districts and include the number of registered voters and their political party affiliations, total population and municipalities in each zone.
Ritsick emphasized these maps are solely for research purposes because extensive due diligence is required before the panel reaches a decision on the matter.
Board seats
County council’s Authorities, Boards and Commissions Committee is scheduled to publicly interview citizens interested in board seats at 5 p.m. Monday (Jan. 6) in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.
Instructions to attend remotely will be posted under council’s online public meetings link at luzernecounty.org.
Council Chairman John Lombardo said council may fill at least some of the vacant seats at its next meeting Jan. 14.
Among the seats that must be filled due to terms expiring the end of 2024, according to the county:
• One seat on the five-citizen county Flood Protection Authority, which oversees the Wyoming Valley Levee system along the Susquehanna River.
• Three seats on the 15-citizen board of trustees that oversees the Luzerne County Community College.
• Two seats on the county’s five-citizen Redevelopment Authority, which administers various government programs and a short-line railroad.
For some vacancies, those in the expired seats are seeking reappointment.
Information, including applications, is posted in the council section at luzernecounty.org.
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