Of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties (let’s set aside Philadelphia, which is a combined city-county and total it at 66) seven have adopted home rule charters, which allow for more local control by transferring the location of the “county constitution” from state codes to the local charter.  Of course, as we have seen in many cases, the state still has to act on certain items where the counties do not have control.  Much of the power comes in framing the form of the county government, combining row offices, etc.

When Allegheny County became home rule in the late 1990s, not long after the offices of county commissioner were abolished and replaced with the present form of a Chief Executive and a 15 member council.  Three other counties—Erie, Lehigh, and Northampton—have separately elected chief executives.  Next month, voters in the home rule county of Lackawanna will decide if it wants to eliminate the county commissioners and replace that office with an executive and seven member council. According to another article all seven council seats would be district based, meaning no council members would run countywide (at large).  Officials would be term-limited.

The Allegheny Institute produced a report in 1998 that examined the commissioner form of government and the executive form of government.