Should the city of Erie move to a new form of government?
Voters could be asked to weigh in as soon as 2025.
Erie City Council, at its regular meeting Wednesday morning, signed off on requesting that City Solicitor Ed Betza draft a resolution that would authorize the creation of a ballot question regarding what’s known as a home rule form of government for the May 2025 primary.
The seal of the City of Erie is shown, Nov. 9, 2016, on the north wall of the Bagnoni Council Chambers at Erie City Hall.
Betza said his resolution, if approved, “would authorize the creation of the ballot question and that question, in essence, would ask voters if they want to create a commission to study the possibility of going to a home rule charter.”
City voters would be asked, via the ballot question, to both approve the study commission and select its members.
Betza said he expects to have a draft resolution ready for City Council’s review sometime in January.
“None of this puts home rule in place,” Betza said. “If the ballot question were to pass, if citizens want it, there would be a study of what the best route for the city might be. If a study is approved by the voters, you’re looking at a process that could take years.”
What is home rule?
Erie currently adheres to the state’s Third Class City Code, with an optional charter, in terms of how its government operates.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, “the basic concept of home rule is relatively simple. The basic authority to act in municipal affairs is transferred from state law, as set forth by the General Assembly, to a local charter, adopted and amended by the voters.”
Home rule would essentially allow the city to create its own constitution with greater flexibility and independence, regarding issues such as city operations; taxation; and executive/legislative structure.
“Home Rule municipalities can act anywhere except where they are specifically limited by state law,” according to DCED.
‘A lot of unknowns’
City Councilman Chuck Nelson is advocating for a home rule study and sponsored the resolution council approved 7-0on Wednesday.
Nelson said during that meeting that City Council would have little say in how the process moves forward if voters OK a home rule study.
“All City Council would really get to do is leave it up to the people, rather than the state, as to how we’re governed,” Nelson said.
Nelson added that Lancaster voters recently approved a home rule study, and two other third-class cities in Pennsylvania, Reading and Allentown, adopted home rule decades ago.
Betza said a move to home rule “could give us much greater leeway to operate city government… But there’s a lot of unknowns here. There’s no way to know right now what this might look like. We’d have to see what a commission would ultimately recommend for Erie.”
Renee Lamis, Mayor Joe Schember’s chief of staff, said Schember’s administration has no issue exploring home rule.
“We just don’t know ultimately what this could mean,” Lamis said. “There are a lot of questions. We’d have to see what a commission would ultimately recommend.”
Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X at @ETNflowers.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: City of Erie, PA, could study home rule form of government