Carbon Council of Governments a positive step

Carbon County formalized its participation in the newly forming county council of governments.

We applaud the 17 Carbon County municipalities which have become charter members of the Carbon County Council of Governments. But what about the other six, which are not members?

The county commissioners on Thursday enacted an ordinance setting up the agreement among the 17 under the auspices of the state's Intergovernmental Cooperation Law. It all becomes official on May 14.

The 17 which plan to adopt local ordinances permitting participation are: Banks Township, Beaver Meadows, Bowmanstown, East Penn Township, Franklin Township, Kidder Township, Lansford, Lehigh Township, Lehighton, Lower Towamensing, Mahoning Township, Nesquehoning, Palmerton, Parryville, Summit Hill, Weatherly and Weissport.

We urge the six which are not now members to get in on a beneficial step at intermunicipal cooperation. The six are: East Side Borough, Jim Thorpe (considering joining), Lausanne Township, Packer Township, Penn Forest Township and Towamensing Township.

According to the commissioners and state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Carbon, the officials see the council as a mechanism to cooperate with each other on savings on bulk purchases and machinery, to enhance grant applications and to establish best practices which can be shared among the participating municipalities.

In case you think this concept is brand-new, it's not. In fact the first Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (Act 177) was adopted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and signed by Republican Gov. Edward Martin in 1943.

In 1972, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act was amended to parallel the same language as the state Constitution - "a municipality … may … cooperate … or agree in the exercise of any function, power or responsibility with one or more municipalities."

The act created recognition not only for councils of government but for the state Association of Council of Governments, the representative of these units.

In 1986, the act was amended to recognize councils of government as eligible to apply for state grants and financial aid.

Ten years later, the General Assembly revised the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act again and expanded the contents to include such topics as joint purchases and joint cooperation agreements.

In 2001, Act 13 established councils of government to be legal entities, and state agencies were ordered to recognize them officially.

There are about 50 councils of government already in operation in Pennsylvania. Those in our area include: the Mountain COG in the Hazleton area, Nazareth Area COG, Northern Schuylkill COG, Pocono Mountain COG, Saucon Valley COG, Slate Belt COG and Southern Schuylkill COG.

In an interview on the benefits of COGs, Champ Holman, chair of the Northern Schuylkill COG, said he believes that when many communities apply for a grant, it will get more attention and consideration than if the application comes from just one community. He also said the COG has purchased at least a half-dozen pieces of equipment which participating municipalities share on an as-needed basis.

Not all councils of government survive. There was a Central Schuylkill COG made up of10 municipalities - Blythe, Branch, Cass, East Norwegian and New Castle townships; and Minersville, Palo Alto, Pine Grove, Port Carbon and Saint Clair boroughs. The COG fell apart in 2014 primarily for lack of interest and the inability to get participating municipalities to attend the monthly meetings.

The formation of a COG is not a panacea for fragmented government, but it is a device to make government more efficient and more responsive to some of the needs of its residents. The success of the Carbon County group will depend on the enthusiasm and hard work of its members. Not only is this spirit important at the outset, but it must be sustained down the road.

We congratulate the organizers of the Carbon County COG and the participants, and we reiterate our hope that those now absent from the table consider taking their seats there.

After the official formation, the group will meet monthly on the fourth Tuesday in the commissioners' meeting room in the Courthouse Annex in Jim Thorpe.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com