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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 6, 2021 03:11 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Nick Pisciottano |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Helping Local Elected Officials Better Serve Their Communities |
| Current law prevents employees of a borough from running for elected office in the borough only if the borough’s population is greater than 3,000 people. Borough employees can be appointed to vacant positions, and often are in communities with many vacant elected positions. However, these individuals cannot file to pursue for office as a candidate. This statute prevents individuals from running to represent their borough and deprives the community of the opportunity to have a hard working, devoted public servant as both an employee and an elected official. To allow the option for boroughs to operate more efficiently and to encourage participation by individuals invested in the success of their community, I am proposing legislation that increases this population threshold from 3,000 to 5,000. Further, my bill eliminates outdated statutory language that refers to the 2010 census and bases the population determination on the most recent census. Pennsylvanians in approximately 120 boroughs, in every corner of our commonwealth, currently live in boroughs that have populations between 3,000 and 5,000 people. Many of these boroughs do not have enough candidates running for local elected positions in their municipal government and would benefit from this legislative change. This bill also promotes active participation in local government by allowing people to serve in the dual capacity of elected official and employee. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation to give borough employees the ability to also serve their communities as elected officials. Thank you for your consideration. |
Introduced as HB774