Contention between proponents and opponents of home rule on the Government Study Commission continues even as today's deadline for the organization's work passes.

Greg Sahd, one of three dissenters on the 11-member commission, complains that the group at its Tuesday meeting:

• Made changes in the home rule document after saying no more changes would be made.

• Refused to remove the photographs of minority members from a postcard mailer describing home rule.

• Refused to agree not to run for any office created by the home rule charter.

Members of the commission must have made all changes to the charter by today, Sept. 4.

Voters will be asked to approve or disapprove the commission's proposal in the Nov. 4 election.

The commission approved the charter Aug. 19, by a vote of 8 to 3.

Voting for it were chairwoman Carol Phillips, Mary Clinton, Sam Mecum, James Miller, Joyce Moyer, Bill Saylor, John Smucker and Heidi Wheaton.

Voting against it were Sahd, James Bednar and Jim Huber.

At that meeting, Phillips was reported as saying that no more changes would be made to the charter.

Sahd, who did not attend Tuesday's meeting, said he had been told that changes were made.

Saylor, Wheaton and Mecum this morning said the only changes were minor editing corrections.

"Most of them were to the language in the mailer, not the charter," said Saylor.

"Nothing substantive has changed since the Aug. 19 meeting," said Mecum.

As to the mailer going out to all county voters, Sahd said either the three opponents of the charter proposal should have been deleted from the photograph or the copy on the postcard should have been changed "to reflect that the vote to pursue home rule was not unanimous."

He also said the postcard's brief description of home rule's advantages is slanted toward the proponents' views.

Proponents said it only made sense to print a photo of all members of the commission. They said Huber said he has no problem with that.

"Why would Greg Sahd have a problem with being shown as a member of the Government Study Commission?" said Saylor. "He was a member and a very vocal member."

Proponents also said the mailer does not take sides.

"It's not an advocacy piece. We don't tell people to vote for or against," said Wheaton. "We just say 'Please vote on Nov. 4."'

At the end of Tuesday's meeting, Douglas Mims, of Manheim Township, reportedly asked the commission to agree that none of its members would run for any of the offices they created as part of the home rule charter. (The charter increases the number of county commissioners from 3 to 5.)

The commissioners opposed Mims' suggestion 8 to 2, with Bednar and Huber voting in the minority.

"Clearly, some or all of the Government Study Commission members intend to run for some of the new offices they are creating," said Sahd.

A number of commissioners reportedly said they would not run for office.

Even so, said Wheaton, "There's nothing wrong with someone running for an office that is available to everyone else."


Staff writer Jack Brubaker can be reached at jbrubaker@LNPnews.com or 291-8781. blog comments powered by Disqus