Opinion: Voters deserve clarity before casting their vote

🔊 Listen to this Few people would disagree that elected officials should be prohibited from using confidential government information for personal financial gain. Insider trading is wrong. Public officials should be held to high ethical standards, and taxpayers deserve transparency from the people entrusted with public authority. However, supporting those principles does not require us to overlook vague or confusing language in a proposed amendment to the Luzerne County Home Rule Charter. The proposed ballot question asks: 'Shall the Luzerne County Home Rule Charter be amended to require specifically that the Accountability, Conduct, and Ethics Code prohibit County elected officials and employees from engaging in individual stock trades or prediction market bets that are based on nonpublic information obtained in the course of their official County service and provide annual reporting of ethics complaints and stock trades involving County, state, and federal elected officials representing the County?' The first part is relatively straightforward. It would require the county's ethics code to prohibit county elected officials and employees from making certain trades or bets based on nonpublic information obtained through their county service. The second part is much less clear. It requires annual reporting involving 'County, state, and federal elected officials representing the County.' What exactly does 'representing the County' mean? Does it include only officials elected from districts located entirely or partially within Luzerne County? Does it include Pennsylvania's two United States senators because they represent the entire state? Does it include the governor, attorney general, auditor general and state treasurer? Could it include federal officials from outside Pennsylvania who vote on grants, programs or legislation that provide funding to Luzerne County? The ballot question does not define the term, and voters should not be expected to guess. This is particularly important because Action Together NEPA's public statements repeatedly cite the stock-trading activities of members of Congress and Pennsylvania's U.S. senators as the motivation behind the initiative. Its recent press release refers to a November 'showdown' and says the proposal would end insider trading by local officials while also naming federal officeholders. That messaging could leave voters with the impression that approving this referendum would prohibit members of Congress or state officials from trading stocks. It would not. Luzerne County can establish rules governing its own officials and employees. It cannot use the Home Rule Charter to impose a stock-trading ban on members of Congress, United States senators, state legislators or statewide elected officials. The actual prohibition applies to county elected officials and employees who use nonpublic information obtained during their county service. State and federal officials appear in a separate reporting provision requiring the county's Accountability, Conduct and Ethics Commission to compile information using publicly available records. That distinction needs to be clearly explained to voters. The reporting mandate also raises practical questions. Which elected officials must be included? What types of transactions must be counted? What does reporting stock trades 'by volume' mean? Are trades counted individually, by their estimated dollar value or through some other method? Federal financial disclosures often provide transaction values in broad ranges rather than exact amounts. Reports can also be amended or filed late. Will Luzerne County be expected to verify those reports, interpret them or simply reproduce information already maintained by state and federal agencies? The proposal should also explain how much staff time and taxpayer money will be needed to research and compile this information every year. Before adding a continuing responsibility to county government, voters deserve to know what the responsibility includes and whether the county has the legal authority and resources to perform it properly. These questions are not an argument against ethics, accountability or transparency. They are questions about clarity, authority and implementation. More than 20,000 Luzerne County residents reportedly signed petitions supporting the proposal. Their participation in the democratic process deserves respect. But the number of signatures does not eliminate the responsibility to ensure the final ballot question clearly tells every voter what they are being asked to place in the county's governing charter. The role of the Election Board should not be viewed as simply placing submitted words on a ballot without concern for whether voters can understand them. A ballot question is not campaign literature or a political slogan. If approved, it becomes part of the Home Rule Charter and may impose lasting legal and administrative obligations on county government. Terms that determine the scope of those obligations should be clearly defined. The phrase 'representing the County' is not a minor technicality. Reasonable voters could interpret it in several different ways. When a ballot question is subject to multiple interpretations, the voters may not be voting on the same understanding of what the amendment will accomplish. The stated goal may be popular, and the intentions behind the initiative may be sincere. But good intentions do not excuse unclear legislation. Luzerne County voters deserve more than slogans about corruption and self-service. They deserve a direct and understandable explanation of who the amendment covers, what it requires, what it will cost and what authority the county actually possesses. If the purpose of this proposal is transparency, that transparency must begin with the ballot question itself. The opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Luzerne County Board of Elections and Registration or its other members. Rick Morelli is a member of the Luzerne County Board of Elections and Registration. Local journalism matters, and your support makes it possible. 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