Three dead in accident at Penns Valley farm

Moving away, prioritizing a health issue, and death are common reasons why local elected officials leave their seats before the end of their term. What happens then, and who gets to make the final call?

Different levels of municipalities in Pennsylvania — borough, township, county, and city — each have their own set of rules that govern vacancies in elected offices. 

Although the specifics vary, the general procedure for filling vacancies is “substantially similar,” according to Scott Coburn, education director and counsel for the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.

Generally speaking, the remaining members of a borough council or township board of supervisors appoint a qualified replacement. In most cases, they are given 30 days from when the vacancy is created to complete this task. A vacancy begins when a resignation is accepted, rather than when it was announced or submitted.

A vast majority of vacancies are filled this way, Coburn said, but in case the remaining elected officials can’t agree on a replacement, a critical fail-safe is a position called the vacancy board chair.

A vacancy board chair joins the remaining members and acts as a tiebreaker to fill the empty seat. Coburn said a big focus in his work is to make sure municipalities appoint this chair position every year so they can be in a good position if a vacancy occurs.

“If a municipality neglects to appoint a vacancy board chair, and the other members are in disagreement as to who to select, and at that point … you have to go to court, which would just cost additional money,” Coburn said. 

Some vacancy issues became so deadlocked that the court had to get involved, as the Somerset County Court of Common Pleas did for the Salisbury Borough Council in 1984. 

Even then, the court voiced its reluctance and wrote, “appointments to public office cannot be accurately described as a judicial task, although it is recognized that, as a practical matter, there are times when a neutral outsider is needed and the court can fulfill that function.” It stressed that “a local appointment is preferred.”

Filling vacancies is a political question that can feel emotionally difficult, Coburn said, especially at times of loss.

“On one hand, [remaining officials] want to grieve the loss of their official, colleague, friend, but on the other hand, they have a finite amount of time that they have to act within to appoint somebody else,” he said. “It’s not a complicated procedure … but you have to overlay the human aspect and the law’s process at the same time.”

—Min Xian, local accountability reporter