Pennsylvania has 67 counties, 500 school districts and 2,560 municipalities.
With each step down that ladder, there are more and more opportunities for people to step up and participate in their government.
There are commissioners, controllers, registers and clerks at the county level. There are directors for school boards. There are supervisors and auditors for townships. There are mayors and council members for cities and boroughs. And on top of that is a long list of appointed positions on authorities, committees and boards.
And yet fewer people seem to be running for office.
In Pennsylvania, many municipalities have had their government shrink because of lack of involvement. The most recent example is in Westmoreland County.
Donegal Borough has just 103 residents. The borough council of five members was 5% of the whole population. If Pittsburgh’s city council were proportional, it would have 15,000 people. There would be more people at a council meeting than a Pirates game.
So perhaps it isn’t surprising that Donegal has had trouble getting five people to fill the seats. No one is running in the primary. Candidates usually just run a write-in campaign for the general election. But if finding enough people to run is a problem, finding people to show up for meetings is even harder.
“We’ve had (council) meetings where we can have discussions, but at times we’ve been unable to conduct business for lack of a quorum,” said Mayor Keith Deckinger.
So on Monday, Deckinger asked Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail Jr. to reduce the number of council seats from five to three. That means only two people would represent a quorum, giving a better shot at getting necessary business handled. The change won’t take place until the 2027 election, meaning Donegal has to power through for two more years.
Other municipalities have merged to stay alive or allowed themselves to be subsumed by a larger municipality. That can be a smart financial move as well as allowing a small community to wield more power through cooperation and regionalization.
But those are decisions that should be made thoughtfully. They shouldn’t be things that happen because of a lack of choices.
It is sad to see public service become a chore that people avoid. Serving your community isn’t a trap. It is an opportunity.
When people don’t participate in their government, they can misunderstand how and why things happen. It is easy to blame your elected officials if you have no idea what they do — and sometimes, more importantly, what they can’t do.
In a bigger city like Pittsburgh, there are so many people eager for the political limelight that a seat seldom sits empty. Even more people are uninvolved in government, but because of the number who are, you don’t notice.
In a borough as small as Donegal, there is nowhere to hide a lack of participation.
The new numbers will definitely let the business of government happen more smoothly. It is just unfortunate that residents don’t realize what they are losing for lack of stepping up.