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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 9, 2013 09:27 AM |
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| From: | Representative Phyllis Mundy |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Reintroduction of Legislation: Requiring appointing authorities to select alternates in cases of conflicts of interests (Formerly HBs 1414 & 1415 of the 2011-2012 Legislative Session) |
| I will soon reintroduce legislation to address an oversight in state law pertaining to conflicts of interest. Last session, a township zoning hearing board member in my district had a conflict of interest in a matter before the board. Current law prohibited him from voting on the matter unless there was a tie between the other two zoning board members. At that time, he could vote to break the tie. I find it unacceptable that a member of a board who recuses himself for a conflict of interest could still vote on the matter in this circumstance. Simply put, if you have a conflict of interest, you should not be allowed to vote on that pending matter. I plan to reintroduce two pieces of legislation to address this oversight in state law. |
Document #1
Introduced as HB698
| Description: | The first bill (previously HB 1414) would amend the Municipalities Planning Code of 1968 to require the appointing authority to select a temporary replacement for a zoning hearing board member if he or she has a voting conflict in a particular proceeding. The alternate would only be appointed for that particular matter before the board. |
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Document #2
Introduced as HB699
| Description: | The second bill (previously 1415) which addresses this issue on a larger scale, amends Title 65 (Public Officers) by providing for alternate voting members for governing bodies/boards across the Commonwealth. I believe these bills are good government bills that encourage transparency and fairness from the bottom up. |
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