Primary 2005: Will voters pull plug on Allegheny County row offices?: "all voters living in the state Senate's 42nd District, which covers parts of the South Hills, North Side, Downtown and western suburbs, can participate in the hotly contested special election to fill the seat vacated by Auditor General Jack Wagner. Republican Michael Diven, a state representative from Brookline, Democrat Wayne Fontana, a former county councilman from Brookline, and Libertarian Mark Rauterkus of the South Side are running.
'Independents should not stay home,' said Pat Clark, head organizer for the nonpartisan group Everybody Vote. 'This is your electoral process, too.'
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Primary 2005: Will voters pull plug on Allegheny County row offices?
Bad headline -- great article. This is MUCH MORE than a PRIMARY 2005. Oh well, you all know that. But, does everyone else know it too?
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Primary 2005: Will voters pull plug on Allegheny County row offices?
Ballot also has statewide question on 'green' funding
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Allegheny County has 877,488 registered voters. Every one of them can vote today.
Democratic and Republican primary races may be crowding the ballot, but Greens, Libertarians and any other voters who do not belong to the major parties -- there are 92,082 of you -- can pull the lever on two questions.
First, should six of the county's 10 elected row offices be merged and/or replaced by appointed positions?
Second, should Pennsylvania borrow $625 million for an environmental preservation initiative known as Growing Greener II?
Also, all voters living in the state Senate's 42nd District, which covers parts of the South Hills, North Side, Downtown and western suburbs, can participate in the hotly contested special election to fill the seat vacated by Auditor General Jack Wagner. Republican Michael Diven, a state representative from Brookline, Democrat Wayne Fontana, a former county councilman from Brookline, and Libertarian Mark Rauterkus of the South Side are running.
"Independents should not stay home," said Pat Clark, head organizer for the nonpartisan group Everybody Vote. "This is your electoral process, too."
Clark was at Community College of Allegheny County's North Side campus yesterday for a get-out-the-vote event for young people where many speakers voiced support for "yes" votes on both ballot questions.
If the row office referendum succeeds, the register of wills, prothonotary, clerk of courts and jury commissioners would be merged into one office, an appointed director of court records. The elected coroner would be replaced by an appointed medical examiner. The elected recorder of deeds would be replaced by an appointed real estate manager.
Four row offices -- treasurer, district attorney, sheriff and controller -- would not be affected.
The mergers would represent the most significant changes to county government since the home rule charter took effect in January 2000. Supporters, led by Chief Executive Dan Onorato and the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, say the changes will make county government more efficient, promote a better business environment, and help promote future government mergers.
"The row office referendum is an extraordinary opportunity to make a statement about where this region wants to go in the future," Court Gould, director of the smart-growth advocacy group Sustainable Pittsburgh, said at CCAC yesterday.
The Committee for Row Office Reform has been well-funded. Through May 2, it had raised $61,450, largely from corporate sources, including $15,000 from the Hillman Co. and $5,000 each from political committees for Mellon Bank, the Steelers and Duquesne Light. The money has been used to fund TV ads and campaign events.
The main opposition group, Citizens for Good Government, is led by two current row officers, Recorder of Deeds Valerie McDonald Roberts and Clerk of Courts George Matta.
If the referendum passes, both Matta and Roberts would be allowed to serve out the remainder of their terms, which run through 2007.
Roberts said she was not convinced the county would see savings from the mergers, and she thinks voters are reluctant to relinquish their power to choose row officers to the chief executive.
"To me, it's consolidating power," she said.
Her group did not report raising any money, but Roberts said volunteers have come forward to hand out literature at events across the county. "We don't have deep pockets," she said. "We're David and we're opposing Goliath."
All voters in Pennsylvania will have the chance to vote on extending the Growing Greener program, which, over the past five years, has funded a range of environmental initiatives across the state, including abandoned mine cleanups, stream restoration, farmland preservation, and municipal park and trail construction.
An infusion of $625 million in borrowed funds, if approved by voters, will help continue existing projects and start new projects.
"Without it, there are many, many things we can't do," said Heather Sage, Western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future. Proponents say new conservation programs will make the state more attractive to potential businesses and residents.
Critics include the Green Party, which argues that polluters, not taxpayers, should be responsible for cleaning up the state's environment. Some conservative groups are wary of taking on new debt.
Residents in the state Senate's 42nd District have been bombarded by advertisements, telephone calls and campaign literature, with Republican Diven and Democrat Fontana trading insults in a fiercely competitive and expensive race.
Diven has called Fontana "a party hack," while Fontana has faulted Diven for leaving the Democratic Party in February to run as a Republican in the heavily Democratic district.
At stake is a chance for the Republicans to widen their control in the state Senate to 31-19.
If the row office referendum succeeds, the register of wills, prothonotary, clerk of courts and jury commissioners would be merged into one office, an appointed director of court records. The elected coroner would be replaced by an appointed medical examiner. The elected recorder of deeds would be replaced by an appointed real estate manager.
(Staff writer Tim McNulty contributed. Jerome L. Sherman can be reached at jsherman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1183.)
Good luck today Mark.
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