County commissioners might have pulled the plug on funding a countywide mailer explaining a proposed Home Rule Charter, but some members of the commission that spent 21 months drafting the charter aren't ready to drop the issue just yet.

Lancaster County Government Study Commission, which drafted the charter, called a meeting for 9:30 a.m. Monday in Room 502 of the courthouse — right next to the county commissioners' offices. They're hoping commissioners will sit down with them to discuss exactly why they withdrew funding they promised last year.

Carol Phillips, who chairs the study commission, said even with all the press coverage of the proposed Home Rule Charter, people still don't know what it's all about.

The information mailer was meant to direct people to the commission's Web site where they can read the entire charter — which is important, considering that voters will decide via a referendum Nov. 4 whether the county ultimately restructures its government under the document.

"We're trying to make this an important ballot issue, and we want people to be informed when they vote," Phillips said.

"In a lot of smaller townships and counties, they mail out a full copy of the final report. We can't begin to afford that with over 200,000 households. But we wanted the mailer to garner the interest of people so they would take it upon themselves to visit the Web site to read the final report."

County commissioners agreed last year to give the study commission $50,000 in taxpayer funds to educate the public about home rule. Earlier this summer, the study commission opted to spend about $30,000 on a mailer to be sent to the county's more than 200,000 households.

The study commission also promised county commissioners not to advocate home rule — only to educate the public about it.

But on Sept. 8, the three members of the 11-person study commission who oppose the charter wrote the county commissioners, saying the wording of the mailer wasn't merely informing voters about home rule, but also selling it to them.

"We the undersigned urge you to prevent the use of any public funds from being expended to subjectively promote and advocate the proposed Home Rule Charter in such a manner that misleads and misrepresents by denying the use of taxpayer funds for this obvious pro-home-rule piece," Jim Huber, Jim Bednar and Greg Sahd wrote.

Some of the mailer's statements that Huber, Bednar and Sahd found objectionable include claims that the charter would create a government with "more accountability," "greater citizen access" and "better money management."

Commissioners Dennis Stuckey and Scott Martin — whose positions would be affected if the county adopts a home rule structure — agreed the mailer wasn't merely educating the public.

"This thing is just littered throughout with adjectives that suggest this is a better form of government than we have right now," Martin said earlier this week. "It's not educational. It's advocating for home rule."

In a Wednesday e-mail to Phillips, Stuckey said commissioners would not foot the bill for the countywide mailing because it is "clearly an advocacy piece in that all lead-ins are subjective and conclusory in nature."

Study commission member Heidi Wheaton sees censorship at the root of county commissioners' withdrawal of funding.

"I'm appalled they would take this action," Wheaton said. "They didn't approach us about this. They refused to even discuss it with us. It seems to me this is a blatant attempt at censorship. It seems to me they don't want people to know about (home rule). They're basically trying to undo everything we did as a commission."

Wheaton said if no county commissioners or representatives from their office appear at Monday's meeting to discuss rewording the mailer, the study commission will begin discussing other action.

"That's something we're going to have to talk about," Wheaton said. "We were elected as public officials to do this work. We're committed to making sure we do the best we can. We've done the final draft of the charter. Now the last portion of our job is to inform the voters that this has been drafted."

It is not clear if any commissioners will attend the meeting. Efforts to reach them late Friday were unsuccessful.

Six of the state's 67 counties are governed under home-rule charters, which allows a county to design its own government structure following some parameters established by the state.

In the case of Lancaster County, the proposed charter calls for expanding the number of county commissioners from three to five; having a county executive appointed by the commissioners to run the county at the board's direction; eliminating the row offices of register of wills, prothonotary and clerk of courts; and creating the elected position of clerk of judicial records to perform the functions of the three eliminated positions.

For more information about the proposed Home Rule Charter, visit co.lancaster.pa.us/lancaste... or homeruleinfo.com.

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com