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July 31, 2008

Proposed bill would allow recall of officials

By John K. Manna

Long before former Lawrence County Treasurer Gary Felasco was convicted of malfeasance in 2006, citizens wanted him removed from office.

However, Pennsylvania law prohibited his removal based solely on the evidence against him. Instead, voters had to hope for a conviction or wait until the time they could vote Felasco out of office.

State Rep. Jaret Gibbons of Ellwood City wants to change the law and allow voters to recall state and local elected officials for illegal conduct or for not doing their jobs. Judges would be excluded.

The Democrat is drafting two pieces of legislation: One to amend the state’s constitution to cover state officials and another to amend the state election code for local officials.

Gibbons said he was approached by Lawrence County’s treasurer, Richard Rapone, about other state’s laws. He then met with Rapone and the county commissioners last week to receive “their input.”

“Right now, we’re still in the drafting process,” said Gibbons, a first-term legislator, adding he is talking with legislative research staff in Harrisburg in writing a bill. He plans to meet with the county officials again next month, circulate the bill for co-sponsors and introduce it in September when the House reconvenes. He said he has yet to discuss the idea with other legislators.

Gibbons said the proposed legislation is an amalgamation of other states’ recall laws. Eighteen states permit the recall of state officials and at least 36 states allow the recall of local officials, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Under the bill, a court hearing would be required to determine whether there are probable grounds for recall. Grounds for recall would include malfeaseance or nonfeaseance during an official’s current or any previous term.

If the court determines there is probable cause, then voters could circulate petitions to place a recall referendum on the ballot at the next election.

The reason for establishing grounds, Gibbons explained, is “we don’t want this to be a retaliatory political tool.”

A school board increasing taxes, for example, shouldn’t be a reason for recalling the members, he said.

“Our goal is to get officials who are misusing or not doing their jobs, when somebody is doing something extremely wrong.”

The requirement for a court hearing is based on Minnesota’s law.

“If you’re going to have grounds, I believe you have to have that procedure in place,” Gibbons said.

A conviction would not be required to trigger a recall petition.

“There just has to be probable cause that something has happened,” he said. “You’re talking about a much lower standard.

Judges are not included in the legislation, he said, because the judicial system already has its own method for reviewing judges.

“The profession is pretty much self-regulating,” said Gibbons, who is a lawyer.

Noting that other states also exclude judges, Gibbons said he was concerned that if judges were included it could “bog down” the rest of the legislation.

Rapone said that after taxpayers had expressed their concern to him about the inability to recall officials guilty of malfeaseance, he contacted Gibbons about developing legislation.

“You have to be careful,” Rapone said. “You don’t want a witch-hunt.

“I just really feel that what Jaret put together is a solid recall plan.”

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