Residents question appointments to elected positions

The act of voting has been advocated, by politicians and celebrities alike, as a precious right of every citizen.

From the smallest municipal offices to the leader of the nation, citizens are called upon to ensure the integrity of the voting process. So, when a group of Centre County residents saw what they perceived as a skirting of the election process, they brought their voice to the county Board of Commissioners.

The Issue

Bellefonte resident John Adams, who has protested corruption at the Centre County Courthouse, first brought his concerns before the commissioners at the beginning of February, citing a number of elected positions that have been recently vacated. These vacancies have led to several appointed positions throughout the county.

“The questions I have are, ‘Who’s appointing these people?’ ” Adams asked in February. “It looks like an elite group of people are able to pick and choose who they want to run where, and the voter is being kept completely in the dark.”

A vacancy is created when an elected official can or will no longer hold the position to which he or she was elected. Adams cited a recent appointment in Worth Township after the November election. According to the county Office of Elections and Voter Registration, incumbent Terry Simpson won by 11 write-in votes.

Behind Simpson was Port Matilda resident Dorie Adams — who has also participated in the courthouse protests — with 10 votes, according to online tallies.

Simpson declined his seat in January, Worth Township Chairman Keith Reese said. Simpson was appointed to hold the seat until the end of January when a replacement supervisor would be appointed.

Reese said a notice to apply for the position, which was advertised in the CDT, generated two letters of interest — one from Dorie Adams, and one from David Jones. At the township’s last meeting, both candidates were given the chance to express why they wanted to serve.

The floor was opened to nominations, he said. A motion for Adams was not seconded and died on the floor. A motion for Jones was seconded and passed, granting the seat to him.

He is not the only supervisor serving on the township board who has been appointed, Reese said. Vice Chairman Chad Smith was appointed to the board when former Supervisor John Poorman stepped down.

The Process

In order to be added to the municipal ballot, elections Director Joyce McKinley said, a candidate must have a petition with at least 10 signatures and fill out the appropriate paperwork provided by the office. If a write-in candidate is elected by receiving the highest number of votes, the person is notified and has the opportunity to accept or decline the position and submit the required paperwork.

A recent argument by John Adams stated that because all of Simpson’s paperwork wasn’t filled out at the time, it should have disqualified him from being able to accept the seat. However, McKinley said document requirements are canceled out when the person declines to take the seat.

Several vacancies have occurred across the county within the past year, and commissioners Chairman Michael Pipe said each municipality has a way of filling those vacancies.

Recently, Ferguson Township found itself short one supervisor. Following the November election, Colleen Unroe was named the winner of the township’s Third Ward.

Unroe declined her seat in January following claims by township officials that she did not meet the requirements to serve as a supervisor, creating a vacancy. Ferguson Township followed its charter, which stated the township had 45 days to appoint a replacement supervisor.

Applications were taken for the position, which was granted to Rita Graef in February.

The process worked so well for Ferguson, Reese said, that the same process was used when Worth Township chose its supervisor.

The process of advertising and interviewing to fill a vacancy is common among the municipalities. According to State College Borough Manager Tom Fountaine, replacing a borough council member would be handled in the same way.

“Council has 45 days to fill a vacancy in an elected office,” Fountaine said. “If after 45 days, council or the residents can petition the court to fill the vacancy. Whoever is appointed fills the role till the next municipal election.”

Every council can decide its own rules, he said, but a council-appointed individual is typically how it’s done. He said the charter is silent on the issue of advertising, but the borough would use local media, social media, neighborhood associations and any method to reach out to the community to gain interest in serving.

Municipal governments have even been called on to fill the position of mayor, which fell on the councils of both State College and Bellefonte. When State College Mayor Bill Welch passed away in 2009, the council appointed former councilwoman Felecia Lewis as interim mayor until Elizabeth Goreham was elected a few months later.

The Bellefonte Borough Council faced a similar situation in 2012 when Mayor Stanley Goldman stepped down. He was replaced by appointee Kent Addis.

In the case of a Board of Commissioners vacancy, Pipe said, the county president judge, currently Thomas Kistler, would name an individual within the former commissioner’s party to serve the remainder of the term. The last time the board experienced a vacancy was in 2006, when the seat vacated by Scott Conklin was filled by John Saylor.

Of the 396 municipal positions in the county, McKinley said, there are a total of 39 appointments. Of the 39, 23 are auditors and 10 are constables.

The remaining six appointees serve in municipal governments, she said, including the aforementioned Smith and Jones in Worth Township and Graef in Ferguson Township. Other appointees include Millheim Borough Councilwoman Patty Beckenbaugh, who replaced Kay Brown when she retired; Haines Township Supervisor Fred Lingle, who replaced Steven Breon when he passed away; and Penn Township Supervisor David Braught, who replaced Robert Confer when he retired.

The Solution

The high number of auditor and constable appointments can be explained as a simple lack of candidates, McKinley said. In the case of auditors, municipalities can choose to use an outside firm.

“At the end of the day,” Pipe said, “in order for there to be no appointees in any governing body in the county, there has to be individuals willing to go through the elective process. The challenge is attracting people and educating them on running for office and serving on boards.”

One way many counties have engaged citizens is through a “toss your hat in the ring”-type event, he said, where former or current elected officials — supervisors, school board directors and commissioners — take an evening and invite the public to discuss the elements of service and break down the election process.

An event like this could likely happen by December, he said, as the county prepares for the municipal elections of 2017. Hopefully, he said, this would reduce the gap that exists between asking questions about the process and taking the steps.

“We could remind people that we live in the greatest country in the world, and part of that is because of the local control we have in our system of government,” he said. “At the end of the day, we can’t draft people to run for office, so the more on-ramps to the process, the better.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Residents question appointments to elected positions."