Clearing up Communication

Along with a critical primary, on Tuesday there will be a ballot question that requires a yes vote. The question as we submitted it to the county was something to the effect

As required by State Statute ordinances must be advertised pre-enactment therefore Municipal Charter section 504, which requires post-enactment advertising, is an unnecessary expense and is hereby repealed.

While this is not the exact language submitted to the county it is the essence of our intent. In 1974 the framers of the Monroeville Home Rule Charter certified their concern for communication to citizens in 51.504.

After adoption, all ordinances shall be published one time in a newspaper circulating generally within the Municipality. The full text of the ordinance need not be published; instead the title and a general summary of the substance of the ordinance will be sufficient to meet publication requirement.

Except as otherwise provided in this Charter or by an applicable law of the General Assembly, ordinances shall be effective on the tenth day after publication, or at any later date specified therein, and each ordinance shall be prominently posted in the Municipal Building until the next Council meeting.

I applaud their decision. At the time superseding regulations in The Borough Code as determined applicable through case law didn’t exist. In 1976 The Borough Code Act of February 1, 1966 (1965 P.L.1656, No. 581) Article X § 1006 (4) which governs council’s requirements for advertising ordinances was revised.

Except where otherwise in this act provided, to publish every proposed ordinance or resolution of a legislative character once in one newspaper of general circulation in the borough not more than sixty days nor less than seven days prior to passage…

((4) amended Apr. 12, 1976, P.L.93, No.39)

Our law was written and approved in 1974 even though the charter did not enter full force until a number of years later. The modification of 1976 to the Borough Code used a different, conflicting approach that supersedes our own. The election board’s obfuscating wording should not stop you from recognizing that we are simply modifying our charter to remain consistent with revised State law while remaining true to our municipal framer’s intent on communication.

Shall Section 504, Publication and Effective Date of Ordinances, of the Monroeville Home Rule Charter be amended by removing the single newspaper publication requirement before an ordinance becomes effective?

I ask you to convey to everyone you know that a yes vote is the right vote for this question.