On Dec. 27, Jeff Hawkes railed: “For those trying to make this place better than they found it, two events in particular came as blows.
“Bowing to the howls of their constituents, the [East Hempfield Township] supervisors precipitously scuttled a sorely needed land-use planning process…
“As for the second setback? It arrived in November when voters followed the wishes of Republican party leaders and crushed hopes for a home-rule charter crafted to achieve greater financial controls, transparency and accountability in county government.”
WATCHDOG: NewsLanc, hardly the ‘cats paw’ of the local Republican Party, editorially opposed both the proposed change to the East Hempfield zoning code and the home-rule charter.
The advantages of the Village concept can be achieved under current planned residential development, and the proposal opened the door to rampant commercial development unrelated to the immediate neighborhood.
The home-rule proposal had several failings, the chief the abandoning of the current de facto arrangement for two commissioners from the majority (Republican) party and one from the minority (Democrats.) Also, home rule with its part time commissioners would create a county administrator that could evolve into a czar.
