Lawrence County rejects a change

Study commission members still believe the effort was worthwhile.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County residents will see no change in the structure of their county government.
Voters defeated a referendum that would have replaced the current structure with a county council and county manager. It was defeated by more than 5,000 votes.
"I'm just happy the public had confidence in the elected officials," said Helen Morgan, county prothonotary, whose elected position would have been abolished if the referendum had passed.
A nine-member, nonpartisan study commission recommended to voters that they replace the current three county commissioners and other elected county officials with a seven-member council and an appointed county manager. The district attorney and controller would have remained elected offices under the proposal, but all other offices would have been replaced with department heads hired by the county manager.
Beth Verterano, a member of the study commission and part of the Vote Yes for Better Government Committee that supported the change, said she was disappointed by the referendum's defeat.
"In the final analysis, the people get the government for which they vote. We are sorry Lawrence County has lost the opportunity for a more professional, efficient and accountable county government," she said.
The proposed government would have instituted a merit hiring policy system for employees. Those supporting the referendum contended that there is now nepotism and political patronage in the hiring process.
Patrick Shea, who headed the Vote No committee and whose wife's position as a county jury commissioner would have been eliminated under the proposed referendum, called the 59 percent to 40 percent vote "a victory for the little people."
Publicity
Shea said his committee had to overcome nine months of publicity that the study commission received while it conducted its study.
But those who supported the referendum say they don't believe they had enough money in the end to get their message out to the voters.
The Vote No committee "managed to scare people. They also spent a lot of money on full page ads which we couldn't match," said Janet Verone, also a member of the study commission and the Vote Yes committee.
Janet Kalajainen, county register and recorder of deeds, said she believed there was misinformation spread about the current elected offices by those advocating change.
"The Yes committee said our offices were inefficient and had wasteful spending. In my case that's so untrue. All of our records are up-to-date and secure, and we always come in under budget," she said. She added that her office has no more staff members than it did 30 years ago.
Even though the referendum was defeated, Verterano said the nine-month effort by the study commission was not in vain.
"I think anytime you serve the people, I believe it's worthwhile. I think that this issue certainly helped generate a higher voter turnout than one might have expected, and if nothing else I think people know a little more about their county government today than they did nine months ago," she said.