Other ‘mandate relief’ measures are a high priority for this session

The Pennsylvania County Commissioners Association has high hopes for a number of “mandate relief” measures considered up at the Captiol, including three bills to abolish the mandated jury commissioner position.

Jury commissioners are responsible for selecting juries, a function handled by computers in most counties since the 1970s. Brinda Penyak, deputy director for the County Commissioners Association, said costs vary from county to county. The financial situation is made even more difficult by the fact there must be two jury commissioners – one Republican and one Democrat – for every county where they are still required.

“There are a couple counties that managed, through special legislation or by adopting a charter…[to] eliminate that office by changing the form of government,” said Ms. Penyak, citing York, Dauphin as of 1988, and Berks Counties as of 2002, as exempt from the mandate.

Illustrating the range of jury commissioner costs, Ms. Penyak pointed out the cost in Adams County is $18,777 per jury commissioner, per year while in Bucks County it costs $70,000 per jury commissioner, per year.

“In some cases it’s not just the pay for the jury commissioner, it’s also the benefits,” said Ms. Penyak. “If they offer other real officers benefits, they have to offer the same thing to the jury commissioner. It’s in the county code and there have been some court cases as a result of that.”

State Rep. Glen Grell (R – Cumberland), said he introduced legislation to exempt Cumberland County from the mandate until state Rep. RoseMarie Swanger (R – Lebanon) introduced two bills – H.B. 705 and 707 – to allow all counties in the state to abolish the position, if they so wish.

“We had this thing passed last session and the governor vetoed it for other reasons,” said Mr. Grell. “It was part of a bill he didn’t like. This doesn’t require it to be abolished; it simply tells the county commissioners that if they have upgraded their technology to make the position obsolete. It’s up to them to decide.”

Ms. Swanger’s office did not return calls for comment.

H.B. 705 states “The office of jury commissioner may be abolished in a county if the governing body of the county adopts, by a majority vote, a resolution abolishing the office of jury commissioner. Upon approval of the resolution, the office of jury commissioner shall expire at the completion of the current jury commissioners’ terms of office.”

H.B. 707 is identical except for modifying a different year’s County Code. There is also legislation in the state Senate – S.B. 386 – which is similar to the House bills but prevents the office from being abolished during an election year.

“We have every reason to belief the legislature would pass it again,” said Ms. Penyak. “There was not a lot of opposition because it is optional and it does make sense for some counties to make that decision. Let counties trim their cost b y relieving them of some of the mandates that may no longer make sense.”

The County Commissioners Association is pushing for other “mandate relief” bills, including raising the financial threshold for all contracts to be bid competitively, meaning more no-bid contracts. The current threshold of $10,000 was set in the 1980s.

With inflation, a $10,000 project in 1980 would cost over $25,000 today.

“It’s really difficult to find even small maintenance jobs that can be done under that threshold,” said Ms. Penyak. “The bidding requires counties to go out and…incur expenses. If the bid threshold were increased to something more reasonable, with inflation, it would reduce costs.”

Bidding expenses include advertising in local newspapers, another measure Ms. Penyak said the association was pushing to reform. Other “mandate relief” measures include the abolition of the prevailing wage law, where the highest wage in a county is applied to all government contracts; permission for counties to exact property taxes; and reforming how counties pay for county jail inmates’ medical costs.