Carbondale to consider referendum for home rule charter update
Carbondale City Council will consider adopting an ordinance during its June 16 meeting to add a referendum question to the Nov. 4 ballot addressing the personnel section of the city's home rule charter, according to Mayor Michele Bannon and a public notice published Friday in The Times-Tribune. If approved, the referendum will ask city voters whether to amend Article IX of Carbondale's home rule charter concerning its municipal personnel system, according to the notice. The charter is the city's governing document.
The potential referendum comes as city officials are working to update their legislation, namely Carbondale's 1974 home rule charter, Bannon said.
'Government always needs to be transparent,' Bannon said. 'We always need to be responsive, and we need to be aligned with the evolving needs of our community.'
Enacted in 1972, Pennsylvania's Home Rule Law increased local autonomy, according to the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Home rule charters transfer the basic authority to act in municipal affairs from state law to a local charter that is adopted and amended by voters, according to the DCED.
The goal in Carbondale is to modernize its charter, clarify outdated language and 'ultimately enhance our operational efficiency within municipal government,' Bannon said.
Elements of Carbondale's home rule charter don't reconcile with each other, Bannon said, which prompted her to speak with city council, their solicitor and members of the public.
'It's obviously clear that we need to make some changes in the charter, so we figured we'd start with personnel, simply because that's the heart and soul of who we are,' she said. 'The city of Carbondale provides service to our residents, so we want to make sure everything is lined up there and … that our staff gives our residents the best service they possibly can.'
Councilman Dominick Famularo, who introduced the ordinance, echoed Bannon.
'The language of our charter is 50 years old, and there are many spots throughout the charter where either the understanding of the passage has changed or the language seemed inappropriate,' Famularo said.
Carbondale last amended its home rule charter in 2004 when residents approved a referendum allowing the mayor to fill the position of managing director if he or she met the qualifications.
Amending the home rule charter has to be done by referendum, Bannon said.
According to the draft ordinance, there would be amendments to three items under the personnel section.
First, appointments and promotions of subordinate officers and employees within departments shall be made by the mayor/managing director, not the department head. That conflicts with other parts of the charter, and the mayor/managing director already handles appointments and promotions, Bannon said.
Second, any employee who files a petition for election of office would have to obtain a positive opinion from the State Ethics Commission and any other relevant agency.
Currently, the charter stipulates that no city employee shall serve as an officer of a political party; any city employee who files a petition for election to a partisan political office and does not withdraw shall be required to take a leave of absence for the duration of the campaign. If not elected, the employee shall promptly be restored to the previously held position without losing any rights, according to the current charter language.
While campaigning for mayor in 2023, Bannon had to take a leave of absence from her longtime position as city clerk. That became an issue for the city, Famularo said.
'She had to leave her position for several months during the campaign, and of course what happens then is we have a gap in leadership in the city,' he said. 'I really don't think that was anyone's intention when they wrote the charter.'
Third, the amendment would remove 'cumbersome language' regarding civil service, Bannon said. According to the proposal, the home rule charter would only say, 'All full-time police and fire employees of the city shall be covered by civil service,' deleting a line saying, 'with the exception of the managing director, the city solicitor, department heads and the city clerk.'
City council will meet June 16 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1 N. Main St.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
21 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's unprecedented show of force in L.A., Washington are pushing norms, sparking fears
In downtown Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a news conference with Democratic leaders when the Border Patrol showed up nearby to conduct a showy immigration raid. In Washington D.C., hundreds of National Guard troops patrolled the streets, some in armored vehicles, as city officials battled with the White House over whether the federal government can take control of the local police department. President Trump has long demonized 'blue' cities like Los Angeles, Washington and New York, frequently claiming — often contrary to the evidence — that their Democratic leaders have allowed crime and blight to worsen. Trump, for example, cited out-of-control crime as the reason for his Washington D.C. guard deployment, even though data shows crime in the city is down. But over the last few months, Trump's rhetoric has given way to searing images of federal power on urban streets that are generating both headlines and increasing alarm in some circles. While past presidents have occasionally used the Insurrection Act to deploy the military in response to clear, acute crises, the way Trump has deployed troops in Democratic-run cities is unprecedented in American politics. Trump has claimed broader inherent powers and an authority to deploy troops to cities when and where he decides there is an emergency, said Matthew Beckmann, a political science professor at UC Irvine. 'President Trump is testing how far he can push his authority, in no small part to find out who or what can challenge him,' he said. State and local officials reacted with shock when they learned Border Patrol agents had massed outside Newsom's news conference Thursday. The governor was preparing to announce the launch of a campaign for a ballot measure, which if approved by voters, would redraw the state's congressional maps to favor Democrats before the 2026 midterms. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino told a Fox 11 reporter: 'We're here making Los Angeles a safer place since we won't have politicians that'll do that, we do that ourselves.' When the reporter noted that Newsom was nearby, Bovino responded, 'I don't know where he's at.' However, local law enforcement sources told The Times that the raid was not random and that they had received word from the federal authorities that Little Tokyo was targeted due to its proximity to the governor's event. The raid, the sources told The Times, was less about making arrests and more of a show of force intended to disrupt Democrats. Whatever the reason, the raid generated news coverage and at least in the conservative media, overshadowed the announcement of the redistricting plan. Trump's second term has been marked by increased use of troops in cities. He authorized the deployment of thousands of Marines and National Guard troops to L.A. in June after immigration raids sparked scattered protests. The troops saw little action, and local leaders said the deployment was unnecessary and only served to inflame tensions. The operation reached a controversial zenith in July when scores of troops on horseback wearing tactical gear and driving armored vehicles, rolled through MacArthur Park. The incident generated much attention, but local police were surprised that the raid was brief and resulted in few arrests. After the MacArthur Park raid, Mayor Karen Bass complained 'there's no plan other than fear, chaos and politics.' Beckmann said the situation is a 'particularly perilous historical moment because we have a president willing to flout constitutional limits while Congress and the court have been willing to accept pretext as principle.' UC Berkeley Political Science Professor Eric Schickler, co-director of the university's Institute of Governmental Studies, said the recent military displays are part of a larger mission to increase the power of the president and weaken other countervailing forces, such as the dismantling of federal agencies and the weakening of universities. 'It all adds up to a picture of really trying to turn the president into the one dominant force in American politics — he is the boss of everything, he controls everything,' Schickler said. 'And that's just not how the American political system has worked for 240 years.' In some way, Trump's tactics are an extension of long-held rhetoric. In the 1980s, he regularly railed against crime in New York City, including the rape of a woman in Central Park that captured national headlines. The suspects, known as the Central Park Five, were exonerated after spending years in prison and have filed a defamation suit against Trump. Trump and his backers say he is simply keeping campaign promises to reduce crime and deport people in the country illegally. 'Our law enforcement operations are about enforcing the law — not about Gavin Newsom,' said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. Federal agents 'patrol all areas of Los Angeles every day with over 40 teams on the ground to make L.A. safe,' she said. In Washington D.C., where the federal government has began assuming law enforcement responsibilities, the business of policing the streets of the nation's capital had radically transformed by Friday. Federal agencies typically tasked with investigating drug kingpins, gunrunners and cybercriminals were conducting traffic stops and helping with other routine policing. Twenty federal law enforcement teams fanned out across the city Thursday night with more than 1,750 people joining the operation, a White House official told the Associated Press. They made 33 arrests, including 15 people who did not have permanent legal status. Others were arrested on warrants for murder, rape and driving under the influence, the official said. Thaddeus Johnson, a senior fellow with the Council on Criminal Justice, said the administration's actions not only threaten democracy, but they also have real consequences for local leaders and residents. Citizens often can't distinguish between federal or local officers and don't know when the two groups are or aren't working together. 'That breeds a lot of confusion and also breeds a lot of fear,' Johnson said. Thomas Abt, founding director of University of Maryland's Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction, emphasized that pulling federal agents from their jobs can hurt overall public safety. 'There's a real threat to politicizing federal law enforcement, and sending them wherever elected officials think there's a photo opportunity instead of doing the hard work of federal law enforcement,' Abt said. Already, D.C. residents and public officials have pushed back on federal law enforcement's presence. When federal officers set up a vehicle checkpoint along the 14th Street Northwest corridor this week, hecklers shouted, 'Go home, fascists' and 'Get off our streets.' On Friday, the District of Columbia filed an emergency motion seeking to block the Trump administration's takeover of the city's police department. 'This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,' D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement on Friday. 'The Administration's actions are brazenly unlawful. They go well beyond the bounds of the President's limited authority and instead seek a hostile takeover of MPD.' The show of force in L.A. has also left local officials outraged at what they see as deliberate efforts to sow fear and exert power. Hours before agents arrived in Little Tokyo, Bass and other officials held a news conference calling for an end to the continued immigration raids. Bass said she believes the recent actions violated the temporary restraining order upheld this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting agents from targeting people solely based on their race, vocation, language or location. The number of arrests in Southern California declined in July after a judge issued the order. But in the past two weeks, some higher profile raids have begun to ramp up again. In one instance, an 18-year-old Los Angeles high school senior was picked up by federal immigration officers while walking his dog in Van Nuys. On Thursday, a man apparently running from agents who showed up at a Home Depot parking lot in Monrovia was hit by a car and killed on the 210 Freeway. Bass appeared to be seething as she spoke to reporters after Newsom's press conference on Thursday, calling the raid in Little Tokyo a 'provocative act' and 'unbelievably disrespectful.' 'They're talking about disorder in Los Angeles, and they are the source of the disorder in Los Angeles right now,' she said.
Los Angeles Times
21 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Sierra Club in turmoil after board fires executive director
The Sierra Club, one of the nation's oldest and most prominent nonprofit environmental groups, was thrown into upheaval this week after its executive director was fired. In an email to staff Monday, Sierra Club President Patrick Murphy said the board of directors had voted unanimously to terminate Ben Jealous after conducting 'an extensive evaluation of his conduct.' Jealous' tenure had been tumultuous. He clashed with staff over sweeping layoffs and faced sharp criticism from ousted high-level employees, volunteers and some notable environmental advocates. They said the Oakland-based organization had stifled differing opinions and had become weakened as the Trump administration rolled back environmental protections. The group's board had placed Jealous on leave in July. Murphy said in the Monday email that the board's decision was 'a difficult but principled one' to 'ensure every individual at the Sierra Club is held equally accountable, with no special treatment or favor for those holding influence and power.' The Sierra Club declined to give specific details on why Jealous, who ran the organization out of Washington, D.C., was fired. Jonathon Berman, a spokesperson for the Sierra Club, said that Jealous had 'engaged in conduct that constitutes cause under his employment agreement.' Berman clarified that the decision had 'nothing whatsoever to do with layoffs' or controversial hiring moves by Jealous. In a statement to The Times, Jealous defended his record, saying he strengthened the organization's finances and achieved a 'progressive union contract.' He said that he would contest the move to fire him, and that he 'remained proud' of what he had accomplished at the Sierra Club. 'It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support,' he said in a statement. 'I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail.' Sierra Club had been in the process of negotiating the terms of Jealous' exit, but talks had broken down, leading to the vote to fire the executive, according to a source with information on the board's discussions who was not authorized to comment. Jealous took over the organization in 2023, after it went through a wrenching internal reckoning over the racist views of its founder, John Muir, more than a century ago and allegations of sexual abuse by a former senior employee. Staff members have said they were initially excited about the hiring of Jealous, who voiced support for the union at the beginning of his tenure. But the relationship began to sour when he announced deep cuts to staff and several organizational overhauls, citing a budget deficit. The union publicly accused Jealous of hiring friends for costly management posts and spending lavishly on executive salaries. Laid-off workers said efforts toward environmental justice for communities of color had been unraveled, with community organizations in California's Inland Empire and other areas facing major congestion and pollution feeling betrayed and abandoned. Last June, unionized workers who were poised to strike sent a letter to the Sierra Club's board of directors informing them they had issued a vote of no confidence in the leadership. The Sierra Club had previously defended hiring moves by Jealous, saying it had 'moved quickly to fill those key roles with seasoned leaders.' Jealous told The Times in an interview last year that deep cuts were necessary and that he had been transparent throughout the process. 'These are the hard decisions that you have to make when you lead a more than century-old institution and you're committed to it having a future as long as its past,' Jealous said then. The organization also faced internal scrutiny over the hiring of a senior manager who was registered as a lobbyist for the cryptocurrency firm at the same time he worked at the Sierra Club, which has been politically critical of the polluting effects of the crypto industry and supports tighter regulations. 'The environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining are well known,' said Dylan Plummer, an elected representative for the Sierra Club's union, which is affiliated with the broader Progressive Workers Union. 'To have hired an active lobbyist for at the highest ranks of our organization is so inappropriate it boggles my mind.' Sierra Club did not respond to a question about the hiring of the lobbyist. Erica Dodt, president of the broader Progressive Workers Union, said in a statement that she hopes Jealous' departure 'will open the door for a stronger relationship between workers and management, and allow the Sierra Club to better focus our efforts on fighting the Trump administration and protecting the environment.' Jealous, who was formerly the chief executive of the NAACP and a 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, is Black and was the first person of color to serve at the helm of the organization. Some of his supporters have suggested racism played a role in his firing, which Sierra Club staff members have disputed. 'There are serious racial implications in firing a Black man of Ben's caliber, in this fashion, at a time when diversity is under attack,' civil rights leader Al Sharpton said in a statement to Politico. Some of the turmoil roiling the national organization is mirrored in its California advocacy arm. The state plays an outsize role in the club, home to its headquarters and roughly 134,000 members. Sierra Club California, which is one of the most influential environmental voices in Sacramento, has in recent years seen plummeting membership, dropping by roughly 19% between 2019 and 2024, and revolving leadership — with the group cycling through four leaders in a four-year period. Jason Mark, who served as editor-in-chief of the organization's 'Sierra' magazine for about nine years until December, when he was removed from his leadership post, welcomed Jealous' termination. 'It was sad and demoralizing to watch the Sierra Club under Ben's leadership,' Mark said in an interview. 'Still, I'm convinced the Sierra Club is a vital force of nature and truly an irreplaceable pillar in the American environmental movement.'
Axios
2 days ago
- Axios
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell indicted
A federal grand jury indicted New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Friday, according to Fox 8, The Times-Picayune and multiple outlets. The charges have not been released yet. Why it matters: She's the city's first mayor to be indicted while in office. The big picture: Cantrell's former bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, was also indicted, according to the reports. The U.S. Attorney's Office has a press conference at 2:45pm to release more information. Cantrell's attorney told Axios around 1:30pm that he had not received a copy of the indictment yet. He did not make any further comments. The mayor's office has not responded to the allegations yet. Zoom in: Vappie was indicted last year and was accused of falsifying timesheets, lying to the FBI and taking other actions to conceal his romantic relationship with Cantrell. He and Cantrell hired separate criminal defense attorneys last year amid the federal investigations. What they're saying: Cantrell and Vappie have both previously denied allegations they are romantically involved. The U.S. Attorney's Office last year included a photo of a handwritten note investigators say Vappie and Cantrell shared, which includes a heart and the use of the term "baby" as a term of endearment. Previously, Cantrell said that as the city's first female mayor and as a Black woman, she faces more intense scrutiny and has been held to different standards than her predecessors. Between the lines: Vappie's wife filed for divorce in January 2023 and accused him of having an affair with Cantrell in the documents, Fox 8 reported at the time. Cantrell's husband, Jason, died in August 2023 from a heart attack. They were a month shy of 24 years of marriage. State of play: Cantrell has been dogged by scandals since she was elected in 2018. The Democrat says many of the controversies are Republican-led attacks. Along with the alleged affair, other political tussles include a state ethics investigation into her international travel, the City Council evicting her from a city-owned apartment, and a stalking lawsuit she filed against a woman who took pictures of her and Vappie. (A judge dismissed the stalking case.) She also was the target of a failed recall effort last year.
