Blair County Commissioners Talk Home Rule At Chamber Event

The Blair County Commissioners were the guest speakers at the monthly Blair County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Club held at the Casino at Lakemont Park on Thursday, Jan. 10.

Commissioners Terry Tomassetti and Bruce Erb and former Commissioner Donna Gority, sitting in for Ted Beam, who was unable to attend due to illness, answered pre-selected questions. Gority did not give her own opinion on the subjects discussed, but relayed Beam's prepared answers .

The topic of home rule, a subject first brought up by Tomassetti in October, was one of the main focal points of the discussion.

Tomassetti, who is not seeking re-election, is advocating for the county to explore switching from its current three-commissioner form of government to one modeled after the state and federal government, with an executive branch and a legislative branch.

The three-member board of commissioners effectively acts as both the executive and legislative branch in county government, and Tomassetti says that with only two votes required to control the decision-making process, it is too much power for one board to have.

"You have two votes on the board of commissioners who control everything," he said. "There is too much power there. Not because it's abused, it's just too much power."

Tomassetti said the current three-commissioner form of government is an old caretaker form, and that county government has evolved past it.

"County government has become increasingly complex and involved," he said. "Home rule is an issue we need to address."

Commissioner Bruce Erb, while not endorsing a home rule, said the idea is completely new to him.

"I never considered, or thought about it before Commissioner Tomassetti introduced it," he said.

Erb said he disagrees with Tomasetti's assertion that the current form of county government is no longer working, but said it is not necessarily a bad thing to look at different ways.

"I don't think the current commissioner form of government in Blair County is broken, but I also think that looking at other options is always very constructive," he said.

Erb said that it's the people who serve in government, not the form of government, that determines its success.

"I think any form of good government is determined far more by the quality of the people who are serving in the government than the form of government they are serving in," he said.

Beam was adamant in his opposition to any change in the current three-commissioner form of government.

In a statement read by Gority, Beam said:

"I will not support a vote of the commissioners to put this issue on the ballot. In my opinion, the current form of government is working. If some perceive problems that may have occurred, that was because of the people in those positions, not the form of government. This form of government isn't broken. Why fix it?"

Erb said there are two ways to get the issue of a home rule study on the ballot.

"There are two methods by which a home rule study can get on the ballot," he said. "One is for the board of commissioners to approve its placement on the ballot, the other is a petition signed by registered voters."

Erb said about 2200 signatures would be needed on the petition.

With Tomassetti being the only current commissioner in favor of a home rule study, and since he has announced he will not seek another term, the commissioners were asked if the home rule idea will die out once Tomassetti leaves office.

"No, it will never die, because there is always that second option to get it on the ballot," Erb said.

The commissioners were also asked about the recent reassessment that the county went through, something the commissioners were widely criticized for.

The 2016 property reassessment was the first for the county in more than 50 years, and Tomassetti said he would like to see it looked at possibly every eight years, but said there are difficulties in doing that.

"I believe it is something that should be looked at seriously on an eight-year basis," he said. "But you want to have a methodology in place because there is an expense. You want to see if it is necessary because of the expense. There is no legal requirement that it has to be done every so often."