A version of this story first appeared in Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA’s State College regional bureau featuring the most important news and happenings in north-central Pennsylvania. Sign up at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown.
STATE COLLEGE — Local governments of all sizes require committed leaders and staff to keep their communities running smoothly, but problems can arise when they don’t have the right people to do the job.
When city, township, or borough elected officials cannot effectively serve, residents are left with few options.
Spotlight PA Local Accountability Reporter Min Xian spoke with a panel of experts about the challenges local governments face in finding and retaining dedicated elected officials and the impacts those people have on residents’ lives.
Here are five key takeaways from the discussion, which can be viewed in full here.
Voice of the average citizen
Each government unit on the local level is run by a governing board in Pennsylvania. Varying numbers of members — generally between three and seven — make decisions regarding essential public services like fire and police, water, sewer, and parks.
The “amateur status of most elective officials” means that ordinary citizens can bring expertise from all walks of life into government operation, according to the Citizen’s Guide to Pennsylvania Local Government published by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
The fragmented and hyperlocal structure of municipal government gives the average person a voice, “and their voice counts,” John Brenner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League, said during the panel.
Training not required
Dan Murphy, a former State College Borough Council member, said he considered himself an atypical municipal government candidate when he ran for office in 2017. Murphy was a single, young professional who rented rather than owned a home and became the borough’s first openly gay council member. He said he wanted to represent those perspectives in his community.
He learned on the job to make up for his lack of experience holding elected office. Resources provided by professional associations like the Pennsylvania Municipal League, the knowledge of borough staff, and connections with other municipal leaders helped him mount the learning curve.
Even seasoned officials have to keep up with increasingly complex responsibilities due to changing technologies and ever-evolving regulations and mandates, Brenner said. While training and ongoing education opportunities are plentiful, they are not required for elected officials in the commonwealth.
Brenner said he would like to see state lawmakers make some essential training a requirement. “Someday we’re going to convince enough legislators that there should be a baseline training program.”
Increasingly vacant seats
Pennsylvania’s more than 2,500 municipalities require about 12,000 elected officials. A 2021 survey of nearly 900 of them found that about half ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections. It is also common for officials to vacate their positions before the end of their terms.
Tim Kearney served two terms as mayor of Swarthmore Borough before being elected to the state Senate, where he is minority chair of the Local Government Committee.
People don’t run for office for a variety of reasons, the Delaware County Democrat said, including the demands of their jobs, lack of recognition of the significance of local government, or fear of sacrificing their privacy.
“They’re things that we need to solve, and things that we haven’t come up with a solution yet,” Kearney said.
Municipalities of all sizes have trouble finding enough people to run them, said Brenner, who was a two-term mayor for the City of York. That brings into question whether having so many governing boards is the most efficient way to serve Pennsylvania communities.
Kearney said there have been legislative changes that allow lowering the number of members on borough councils.
‘Failure of decorum’
Milesburg Borough resident Bryce Taylor said he witnessed “kind of a worst-case scenario” in the governance of his community’s borough council because of high turnover and hostility among elected leaders.
“We had a pretty robust failure of decorum, and nobody wants to sit through that,” Taylor said.
His attempts to raise concerns within the borough and with outside agencies did not lead to any resolution. He said he was left with no other option but to take the borough to court himself over alleged violations of the state’s Borough Code and its open meetings law.
Personality conflicts and vitriol can easily derail a municipal government, Brenner said. In some places, developing a code of conduct or civility pledge can help guard against those behaviors.
Ideas to improve local governance
Citing personal experience researching Pennsylvania's laws, Taylor said enforcement of regulations meant to oversee local governance is lacking. He discussed the possibility of a third party that could provide a neutral viewpoint, raise red flags, and enforce corrective actions in municipalities.
Laws addressing higher pay for municipal officials were enacted this year, Kearney said. This will allow public servants to be better paid for the time commitment required of their positions. More people from different backgrounds might be better able to participate in local office because of this change.
SUPPORT THIS JOURNALISM and help us reinvigorate local news in north-central Pennsylvania at spotlightpa.org/donate/statecollege. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability and public-service journalism that gets results.
