Oct 29, 2021 5 min read

As Washington County voters prepare to vote on whether to create a government study commission (GSC), I am sharing my experience of serving on a GSC in Chester County.

There are good things about forming a study commission. It is good to study anything if it leads to learning more about it and how it can work better. That is the basic idea of a GSC, and it can be done by those who are elected and are willing to put in lots of time and effort.

Of course, the voters first must agree to the study, and it means they must have the thought that the current system needs to be improved or at least studied to see if it can be better. No matter what the GSC does, the voters have the final say on any recommendations it makes. So the voters are significant players in the GSC process from beginning to end.

But voters are sometimes suspicious, and here are some of the things individuals or groups of voters think may occur, should the GSC be approved:

• Taxes will go up (But government could also become more efficient);
• It will create a dictator (If a stronger executive function is needed, more ability to lead could result);
• We will lose representation from our commissioners (All resulting structures will provide representation);
• The GSC will be dominated by a political party or other group (Highly unlikely with the number and variety of candidates);
• Our form of government will be upended (Could occur and may be improved);
• We will be forced to have home rule (Voters have the final say if they don’t want it).

Some of these concerns are quite valid, others are fears that are not going to happen, or at least are not going to occur without voter input.

First, let’s look at the process. The law provides that you vote for or against creating a GSC as well as for those who will serve on the commission, if there is a yes vote. This was written in the law so that two separate elections would not have to be held. The number of people filing in Washington County is large, and that is not unusual.

If the GSC is approved, the commission will organize and develop a plan to study the structure of the county government. The commission will have 18 months to complete its tasks, so do not expect things to happen rapidly.

The GSC I chaired held hearings in the courthouse as well as around the county, and we had studies done on various questions, such as what does home rule actually mean in practice and how does it work in other states. There are a handful of counties in Pennsylvania that have adopted home rule, and each has put home rule into practice differently. For example, in Delaware County, the row offices of Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts were combined into an Office of Judicial Records. Some counties have chosen large boards of commissioners, some small, some elected by district, and some elected at-large.

Home rule charters are not the only form of government that a GSC can recommend to voters. There are also optional plans that provide for structural changes but that do not change the actual form of government. For example, the type of board could be changed as described above, or a managing director could be adopted who would be an overall county administrator. In some home rule counties, there is an elected county executive who functions much like a mayor in a city.

My point is that there is a spectrum of choices available to the voters, who, after all, are the ones who choose whether to accept the recommendations. I recently heard someone say that a home rule charter is a “Declaration of Independence” from Harrisburg. That is not the case; many state laws explicitly include all local governments whether they have home rule or not. And under the U.S. Constitution, states may establish, regulate or even abolish local governments within them.

A final personal note: After a year of hearings and studies, our GSC decided not to recommend home rule and instead recommended an optional plan with a managing director and a five-member board of commissioners elected by district with no guaranteed minority representation, as the current third-class county code requires.

The voters voted it down. There was a strong sense among voters that taxes would go up. But, based on the idea that I was well-versed in county government, I was elected to serve as a commissioner, and ultimately was able – and here is the important point -within the third-class county code to do most of the things we had hoped to accomplish with our optional plan. Our county is known for its effective government, and we have a bond rating that is tops in the state.

So, a GSC is not necessary to have a good government, but there are situations in which it could be a necessary ingredient in setting up an effective government.

Earl Baker is the former chairman of the Chester County Government Study Commission. He later became a county commissioner and state senator.