MERCER COUNTY Farrell council rejects joint home-rule plan

Sharon City Council is to consider the same resolution Wednesday.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- City council failed to pass a resolution calling for the creation of a joint home-rule charter drafting committee that would put together a government plan for a possible Farrell/Sharon consolidation.
It wasn't that Farrell council members are particularly opposed to the idea of consolidation, it's just that they want to know where Sharon stands on the idea first.
The city councils from the two municipalities have been looking at a consolidation plan put forward by James DeCapua, executive director of the Mercer County Regional Council of Governments, for several months.
The next step is to create a charter drafting committee to come up with a recommended form of government for the new entity before the issue of joining the two municipalities is actually put before the voters in a referendum.
Sharon was to act on the committee creation last week, but its council meeting was postponed because of the death of City Treasurer Richard Fragle.
Council will vote on the issue Wednesday.
Tried to table issue
Farrell Councilman Lou Falconi at first sought to table the issue at Farrell's council meeting Monday, but that failed in a 3-3 tie. Falconi said he thinks the idea of a consolidation is "well worth looking into," but the two municipalities should act at the same time.
A motion to pass Farrell's version of the resolution on the charter committee then failed in the same 3-3 vote with Falconi, Jeannette Hooks and Rudy Hammond casting the opposing votes.
Olive Brown, Robert Burich and Mayor William Morocco voted for it. Councilman Mark Petrillo was absent.
The resolution calls for the creation of a nine-member committee with Sharon and Farrell councils each picking four, then those eight people picking a ninth member.
The committee is expected to largely follow the Farrell Home Rule Charter, which provides for a council-manager form of government.
Sharon has a strong-mayor form of government.
Irked council members
Morocco irritated Falconi and Burich when he publicly relayed what he said was a conversation he had with Fred Hoffman, Sharon council president, about the upcoming vote on the charter committee.
Morocco said Hoffman told him one or more Sharon council members may oppose the idea.
Both Falconi and Burich said that was a conversation Morocco should have kept to himself. Reporting it in public could anger some of the Sharon council members if they think Hoffman is telling people how they are going to vote, Burich said.
Morocco said he relayed the information in the interest of providing his council with every bit of information he could on the subject.
Hoffman, contacted after the meeting, confirmed the conversation and said he told Morocco that a couple of council members "semi-opposed" the idea of consolidation.
He said, however, he also told Morocco that Sharon council hasn't had a chance to sit down and discuss the idea yet.