Philadelphia Home Rule Charter reform campaign

Last updated

The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter reform campaign is a campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to rewrite the city's 1951 Home Rule Charter. The campaign began in response to several local political scandals, the most recent being City Council members' participation in DROP, a Deferred Retirement Option Plan originally intended for civil service.

Contents

Home rule in Pennsylvania

A home rule municipality in Pennsylvania is one incorporated under its own unique organic charter or constitution, created pursuant to the state's Home Rule and Optional Plans Law and approved by referendum. [1] Local governments without home rule can only act where specifically authorized by state law; home rule municipalities can act anywhere except where they are specifically limited by state law.

History of home rule in Pennsylvania

Municipal home rule, a political reform of the early 20th-century progressive movement, was introduced in Pennsylvania by a 1922 amendment to the Pennsylvania State Constitution of 1874, but was generally limited to cities, and until Philadelphia, was never used. In 1949, with the City of Philadelphia on the brink of financial collapse, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted what is commonly known as the "Lord Home Rule Bill," [2] named after a Pennsylvania state senator who was member of Philadelphia's infamous Republican machine. [3]

In 1968, Pennsylvania enacted a new state constitution which allows any Pennsylvania municipality to adopt a home rule charter or an optional form of government, [4] and in 1972 enacted a uniform Home Rule Act which provides the procedures for municipalities to adopt home rule charters. [5] However, that 1972 Act (re-enacted in 1996) [1] does not apply to Philadelphia, which remains under the 1949 Lord Home Rule Act.

History of home rule in Philadelphia

Philadelphia became the first municipality in Pennsylvania to enact a home rule charter, approved by the voters on April 17, 1951. [6] Among the reforms was the prohibition of elected city officials running for another office, such as a City Councilman running for mayor, without first resigning his existing office, and creation of a professional managing director.

Existing home rule reform campaign

However, as a result of political unrest caused by repeated financial crisis and political scandals, Philadelphia political activists, from the Tea Party, reform Democrats and "loyal opposition" Republicans, have launched a citywide petition drive to have voters approve a referendum to create a new government study commission that essentially would write a new Home Rule Charter for Philadelphia. [7]

DROP

In the sixty years since the 1951 Home Rule Charter adoption, Philadelphia has continued to be rocked by multiple political scandals and is in such financial straits as to be under the state version of municipal bankruptcy, its finances governed by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority. [8] PICA was charged with "restoring the financial stability" and "achieving balanced budgets" for Philadelphia.

However, Philadelphia politicians remain embroiled in the extremely unpopular DROP controversy. DROP, short for Deferred Retirement Option Plan, was introduced by then Mayor Edward G. Rendell (later Pennsylvania's governor) to facilitate orderly transition from seasoned civil service employees to their successors. However, City Council elected to include itself. [9] The Philadelphia City Solicitor opined that City Council members and other elected officials could effectively resign for one day, collect their DROP benefits, in many cases, up to $450,000 or more, then return to work the following day. In an appeal in April 2011 of an election dispute to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Justice Thomas Saylor, in a blistering dissent, wrote that City Council's “supposed ‘retirements” amount to a mere pretense, or sham, designed solely to obtain the lump-sum DROP benefit involved and then to continue on the same position as before.” [10]

Urban blight

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is likewise drawing public ire, by his refusal to comply with the existing Home Rule Charter, [11] in failing to send a proposed out-of-court settlement agreement between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, the City of Philadelphia, and The Germantown Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) community development corporation, for appointment of the CDC as the court-appointed conservator under Pennsylvania's Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act. [12] Philadelphia has over 40,000 abandoned buildings and vacant lots, costing homeowners $3.6 billion in lost homeowner equity. [13] The Mayor is also refusing to collect a penalty tax levied against slumlords and other abandoned property owners as required by the Philadelphia City Code, [14] losing up to $94.6 million a year.

City-wide canvass campaign

Organizers, which formed the We the People of Philadelphia Committee, are seeking to obtain 30,000 signatures to be filed with election officials on Tuesday, August 9, 2011. A Save Our City canvass will commence from Thursday, July 28 through Saturday, August 6. Sunday, July 31 will be Holy Experiment Sunday, with over 1,000 houses of worship participating. Pastors are to read William Penn's Prayer for Philadelphia, then ask congregants who are registered Philadelphia voters to sign the Government Study Commission ballot question petition.

Commonwealth Court proceedings

Several of the proponents circulating the Government Study Commission ballot question petition, have filed a Petition for Review in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court seeking the Lord Home Rule Bill, enacted in 1949 solely for Philadelphia which while allowing citizens to petition to create a government study commission, the government study commission members are appointed by the mayor and city council president; be declared unconstitutional; because the more recent Pennsylvania State Constitution, enacted in 1968, through a 1972 Act, provides the right for all citizens to vote for candidates for the government study commission. [15] The proponents argue it is unconstitutional to deny a right to elect government study commission members to Philadelphia voters which is granted to all other Pennsylvania voters.

Related Research Articles

A recall election is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of office has ended. Recalls appear in the constitution in ancient Athenian democracy. Even where they are legally available, recall elections are only commonly held in a small number of countries including Peru, Ecuador, and Japan. They are considered by groups such as ACE Electoral Knowledge Network the most rarely used form of direct democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honolulu City Council</span> City council in Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu City Council is the legislature of the City and County of Honolulu, the capital and largest city in Hawai'i, the fiftieth state in the United States. The City and County of Honolulu is a municipal corporation that manages government aspects traditionally exercised by both municipalities and counties in other states. Each of the nine members of its city council is elected to a four-year term and can serve no more than two consecutive terms. Council members are elected by voters in nine administrative districts that, since 1991, are reapportioned every ten years. Like the Honolulu mayor, members of the city council are elected via nonpartisan elections.

The government of the U.S. state of Ohio consists of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. Its basic structure is set forth in the Constitution and law of Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Local government in the United States</span> Governmental jurisdictions below the level of the state

Most U.S. states and territories have at least two tiers of local government: counties and municipalities. Louisiana uses the term parish and Alaska uses the term borough for what the U.S. Census Bureau terms county equivalents in those states. Civil townships or towns are used as subdivisions of a county in 20 states, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.

Massachusetts shares with the five other New England states a governmental structure known as the New England town. Only the southeastern third of the state has functioning county governments; in western, central, and northeastern Massachusetts, traditional county-level government was eliminated in the late 1990s. Generally speaking, there are four kinds of public school districts in Massachusetts: local schools, regional schools, vocational/technical schools, and charter schools.

The Optional Municipal Charter Law or Faulkner Act provides New Jersey municipalities with a variety of models of local government. This legislation is called the Faulkner Act in honor of the late Bayard H. Faulkner, former mayor of Montclair, New Jersey and chairman of the Commission on Municipal Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Act of Consolidation, 1854</span> 1854 Pennsylvania law

The Act of Consolidation, more formally known as the act of February 2, 1854, is legislation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly that created the consolidated City and County of Philadelphia, expanding the city's territory to the entirety of Philadelphia County and dissolving the other municipal authorities in the county.

A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural council, village council, or board of aldermen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Home Rule Cities Act (Michigan)</span> Legislation

The Home Rule City Act was a statute enacted by the Michigan Legislature as Public Act 279 of 1909. It provides the framework by which a new city may become incorporated and provide for its own government by adopting a city charter, and the method by which an existing city may amend or revise its city charter.

A special charter allows a New Jersey municipality to operate under a charter that differs from those of the traditional forms of government or the many options available under the Faulkner Act. Under the terms of the New Jersey State Constitution of 1947 and the Faulkner Act of 1950, a municipality may obtain a special charter form from the New Jersey Legislature, providing a unique form of governmental organization for that community.

The state of Michigan is largely divided in the same way as many other U.S. states, but is distinct in its usage of charter townships. Michigan ranks 13th among the fifty states in terms of the number of local governmental entities.

In the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a home rule municipality is one incorporated under its own unique charter, created pursuant to the state's home rule and optional plans law and approved by referendum. "Local governments without home rule can only act where specifically authorized by state law; home rule municipalities can act anywhere except where they are specifically limited by state law". Although many such municipalities have retained the word "Township" or "Borough" in their official names, the Pennsylvania Township and Borough Codes no longer apply to them. All three types of municipalities may become a home rule municipality.

The Government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the governmental structure of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as established by the Pennsylvania Constitution. It is composed of three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The state capital of Pennsylvania is Harrisburg.

Local government in New Jersey is composed of counties and municipalities. Local jurisdictions in New Jersey differ from those in some other states because every square foot of the state is part of exactly one municipality; each of the 564 municipalities is in exactly one county; and each of the 21 counties has more than one municipality. New Jersey has no independent cities, or consolidated city-counties.

Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U.S. 385 (1969), was a United States Supreme Court case.

Local government in Pennsylvania is government below the state level in Pennsylvania. There are six types of local governments listed in the Pennsylvania Constitution: county, township, borough, town, city, and school district. All of Pennsylvania is included in one of the state's 67 counties, which are in total subdivided into 2,560 municipalities. There are currently no independent cities or unincorporated territories within Pennsylvania. There is only one incorporated town in Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg.

The government of Washington State is the governmental structure of the State of Washington, United States, as established by the Constitution of the State of Washington. The executive is composed of the Governor, several other statewide elected officials and the Governor's cabinet. The Washington State Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and State Senate. The judiciary is composed of the Washington Supreme Court and lower courts. There is also local government, consisting of counties, municipalities and special districts.

The administrative divisions of Ohio are counties, municipalities, townships, special districts, and school districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1951 Philadelphia municipal election</span> 1951 municipal election in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The 1951 Philadelphia municipal election, held on Tuesday, November 6, was the first election under the city's new charter, which had been approved by the voters in April, and the first Democratic victory in the city in more than a half-century. The positions contested were those of mayor and district attorney, and all seventeen city council seats. There was also a referendum on whether to consolidate the city and county governments. Citywide, the Democrats took majorities of over 100,000 votes, breaking a 67-year Republican hold on city government. Joseph S. Clark Jr. and Richardson Dilworth, two of the main movers for the charter reform, were elected mayor and district attorney, respectively. Led by local party chairman James A. Finnegan, the Democrats also took fourteen of seventeen city council seats, and all of the citywide offices on the ballot. A referendum on city-county consolidation passed by a wide margin. The election marked the beginning of Democratic dominance of Philadelphia city politics, which continues today.

References

  1. 1 2 Act of December 19, 1996, P.L. 1158, No. 177, 53 Pa.C.S. § 2901 et seq.
  2. ↑ Act of April 21, 1949, P.L. 665, No. 155, First Class City Home Rule Act, 53 P.S. § 13101 et seq.
  3. ↑ Charlton F. Chute, Philadelphia Disconnected 3 (Penna. Economy League, May 15, 1951)
  4. ↑ Penna. State Constitution, Article IX, Section 2
  5. ↑ Act of April 13, 1972, P.L. 184, No. 62, the Home Rule Charter and Optional Plans Law, 53 P.S. § 1-101
  6. ↑ The Committee of Seventy, The Charter: A History (1980)
  7. ↑ WethePeoplePhila.com
  8. ↑ Act of June 5, 1991,P.L. 9, No. 6,Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority Act for Cities of the First Class,53 P.S. § 12720.101, et seq.
  9. ↑ "Committee of Seventy: DROP/Pensions". Archived from the original on 2011-08-05. Retrieved 2011-07-19.
  10. ↑ In re Nomination Petition of Frank Rizzo___A.2d___ (Pa. 2011) (Nos. 23 EAP 2011, 24 EAP 2011, 25 EAP 2011)(April 29, 2011)
  11. ↑ Philadelphia City Charter, Section 4-400
  12. ↑ Act of November 26, 2008, P.L. 1672, No. 135, The Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act, 68 P.S. § 1101-1111
  13. ↑ Econsult Corp., Vacant Land Management in Philadelphia (Nov. 2010)
  14. ↑ Philadelphia City Code Chapter 19-2500, Real Estate Non-Utilization Tax
  15. ↑ Wirs et al v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 335 MD 2011 (Pa.Cmnwlth 2011)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.