With the voting finished, the studying starts.
Lackawanna County's newly elected government study commission is likely to begin work next month with the probable goal of having something for voters to decide on next year, perhaps as early as the May primary, the study's chief advocate said.
Insurance executive Chuck Volpe, the commission member who succeeded in getting the study commission question that voters approved Tuesday on the ballot, said times have changed since four decades ago when county voters rejected the executive-council form of government he's advocating.
"I think the reason this movement sprung up is dissatisfaction," Mr. Volpe said. "We have had scandal going back well over a decade now. Unemployment, we've led the state three years in a row. ... People want change."
By state law, Mr. Volpe and the other six commission members - Mary Jo Sheridan, Robert Weber, Michael Giannetta, Marilyn Ruane, Jerry Notarianni and David Wenzel - must take the oath office within 10 days after their election is certified. They must meet for the first time to organize within 15 days of certification. Organization means electing a chairman and vice chairman and setting a meeting schedule. Certification could happen as late as the first or second week of June, a county election official said.
The commission has nine months after the election Tuesday to study and issue a report. Nine months from Tuesday is Feb. 21.
Mr. Volpe said he expects the commission to meet weekly or bi-weekly at various locations across the county. All meetings must be in public and advertised in advance.
"The emphasis is on public participation, openness at meetings, explanation and education because obviously people are going to be voting on this at some point down the road in next year's election," Mr. Volpe said. "We're not going to rush the process, we're going to give everybody a chance to participate. We're going to bring in what we consider to be experts and talk about the various forms of government."
Mr. Volpe said he expects witnesses to include people from counties with a county executive-council form of government such as Allegheny and Luzerne, and advocates of the present three-commissioner form of government.
Five of the study commissioners - Mr. Volpe, Ms. Sheridan, Mr. Weber, Ms. Ruane and Mr. Giannetta - were part of Mr. Volpe's slate of candidates, and he advocates electing a county executive overseen by a part-time council elected at least partly by region.
"That's what we're advocating and we believe very strongly that the mandate of the people (in the election), that's what they wanted us to do. That's really the basis of what we ran on," he said. "Having said that, ... we're going to have it open and we want people to participate and be able to present all evidence, including evidence that may be not particularly in favor of the plan that I've been advocating. Everybody will have their say."
In the primary Tuesday, voters also rejected the notion of eliminating election of four row offices, the sheriff, register of wills, recorder of deeds and clerk of judicial records on Tuesday, an idea proposed by County Commissioners Jim Wansacz and Corey O'Brien, who said it would save $2.2 million.
Mr. Volpe said the commission is not required to study that.
"Again, we're going to have input on that, people are going to want to talk about it and discuss those issues," he said. "But again, ... the people spoke, I believe loudly, on the plan that I've been advocating and ... they spoke loudly on the commissioners' plan of consolidating those offices."
He promised the commission would hear testimony on consolidating from row officers themselves.
Mr. Giannetta said he favors keeping elected row offices.
"I think we really have to abide by what the voters wanted," he said.
Mr. O'Brien said he hopes the study commission will conduct a thorough, independent review of county government but is not confident that will happen.
"I am hopeful that all seven (members) will look at this in an independent way to make the best judgment, decision, they can based on all of the information and not on a campaign they may have run in a primary election, but that they will take a step back and propose what they feel is right," he said.
At the end of the day, the study commission is not going to decide how the county is governed, Mr. O'Brien said.
"The people are going to tell you how you're governed, and while this is an imperfect system ... when all the information comes out and it's decided, I think people will make the right choice," he said.
If voters approve a change in the structure of county government next year, then candidates for executive and county council - instead of county commissioner - would run for election in 2015 and take office in January 2016, Mr. Volpe said.
He said he could give no estimate of what the commission's work will cost taxpayers. Under state law, the county is supposed to pay commission expenses. Commission members, who must work for free, are allowed to claim travel expenses, but Mr. Volpe said travel will likely be limited to local venues. Transcription of meetings likely will be the commission's major expense.
"We're going to try to keep costs to a minimum," he said. "We're going to make sure that our consultants charge no fee and people that do any work for the committee charge no fee that they donate their services."
Administration officials have projected the study will cost taxpayers between $60,000 and $100,000, based in part on the experience in Luzerne County.
The government study commission that recommended Luzerne's switch to a council-manager form spent just over $60,000. The county commissioners allocated $89,400 for the commission's operations but $29,121 was not spent.
Mr. Notarianni said he has no preconceived notions of which direction the commission will go.
"We'll see how it plays out," he said.
Ms. Sheridan said she's definitely inclined toward a council-executive form.
"I can tell you that I am not satisfied with the current form of government that we have in place," she said. "I have every intention of (thoroughly) examining all the possible forms that we can have here."
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com