News Release
For Immediate Release
June 20, 2001
Greenleaf Local Government Bills Clear House Committee
HARRISBURG –The House Local Government Committee has approved three bills sponsored by Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf to clarify that municipal officials have the right to vote on issues on which they may have previously expressed an opinion.
Greenleaf’s Senate Bills 218, 219, and 220 would amend the local government codes for first class townships, second class townships, and boroughs to prevent local elected officials from being restricted by court actions blocking local elected officials from indicating a prior bias on an issue that they may vote on later. The court interpretation is that township supervisors and commissioners and borough council members are acting in a judicial capacity when they vote on municipal matters, and that, like judges, they cannot express opinions beforehand on those matters either in an official or unofficial capacity.
"My legislation, which has passed the Senate and is now moving forward in the House, would restore the right of local residents to representation and the right of elected local officials to speak and vote. Council members, commissioners and supervisors are elected to represent their constituents. They were not elected as judges. There should be no doubt that an elected municipal official has the right to speak and vote on behalf of his constituents on issues impacting on their health, safety, and quality of life," Greenleaf said.
The senator noted that he first introduced the bills in 1993 because of an Abington Township case in which the vote of a commissioner was disallowed because he had previously testified before the zoning board on the same issue. In that case, the commissioner had testified before the zoning board on behalf of constituents who feared a proposed development would increase flooding and sewage problems in their neighborhood. The negating of his vote on the matter resulted in the approval of the proposed development.
In a subsequent case in western Pennsylvania, a borough council member’s vote was blocked because he had expressed an opinion, in an unofficial capacity, on a proposed shopping center development.
"The way the courts have decided, local elected officials have the choice of being either gagged or bound. They must submit to being gagged prior to a vote, or they will have their hands tied when the vote occurs. These court decisions are an impediment to representative government. The goal of my legislation is to restore democracy at the local level," Greenleaf said.
