Home Rule Charter Debate

More than 35 people crammed into Mount Joy’s small Borough Hall, Tuesday night, for a chance to air their questions and comments regarding the Government Study Commission’s Draft of a Home Rule Charter (available here).

Among its more significant changes, the Charter proposes to:
> increase the number of Commissioners to 5, with staggered terms and with 1 seat guaranteed to the minority political party
> create the position of a County Executive to oversee the administrative functions of County government
> establish an Office of Management and Budget
> establish a politically balanced Board of Elections
> consolidate certain row offices, and> allow citizens to place, by collection of a thousand signatures (”initiative”), resolutions before the Commissioners for a vote.

One point of division among the audience (and the Commission) concerned whether citizens, after collecting signatures, should have the ability to place questions on the ballot. Unlike most initiative processes, the draft Charter does not call for a public vote.