Court Opinion

ID: 9703268
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:48:21.474537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:35.144369
License: Public Domain

PELLEGRINI, Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. By allowing the Hazleton City Council to make appointments to authority boards rather than the mayor, that municipality’s chief executive officer, the majority misinterprets the plain language of Section 1221 of the Home Rule and Optional Plans Law. In the process, the majority ignores the rationale behind the General Assembly’s provision for Optional Plans and distorts the governmental scheme established by the General Assembly when it provided for Optional Plan forms of government.
*182To allow local municipalities flexibility in the organization and operation of municipalities, Article 9, Section 31 of the Pennsylvania Constitution mandated that the General Assembly provides for the adoption of optional plans of government for all municipalities in the Commonwealth. Carrying out that mandate, as well as the mandate contained in Article 9, Section 22 regarding Home Rule, the General Assembly enacted the Home Rule and Optional Plans Law, Act of April 13, 1972, No. 62, §§ 101-1309, as amended, 53 P.S. § 1-101 — § 1-1309. A municipality desiring to make a change in its form of government, besides having the right to draft its own Home Rule Charter, had the choice of choosing one of the Optional Plans that the General Assembly provided.3
*183By referendum placed before the voters through the Government Study Commission process, Hazleton chose to change from a commission form, where the council was both an executive and legislative body, to Optional Plan B. Executive (mayor) — council form of government. Optional Plan B provides for a strong mayor form of government, as all Optional Plans form a clear demarcation between executive and legislative powers. Under Optional Plan B, the executive power is vested in the Mayor, with council being limited to acting in a legislative capacity only. Section 511 of the Optional Plans Law. The mayor appoints and removes all department heads and has veto power over all legislation subject to override.
Section 1221 of the Optional Plans Law, 53 P.S. § 1-12214, consistent with the other provisions of Optional Plans Law to limit the co-mingling between the executive and legislative powers, vests in the chief executive the authority to appoint all members of all boards and commissions. It provides:
The appointment power of the chief executive [mayor] of the municipality under any of the plans authorized by this act shall include the appointment of members of boards and commissions authorized by this act, by general law now or hereafter enacted, or by action of municipal council. All such appointments shall be with the advice and consent of a majority of municipal council. (Emphasis added.)
Hazleton City Council, in a view adopted by the majority, would interpret away the mayor’s right to appoint under this provision. Central to the majority’s interpretation is its application of the maxim that when the legislature includes specific designations in an act, omissions from the list of items or things mentioned should be regarded as exclu*184sions.5 The majority holds that by not mentioning authority boards when it held that the mayor shall appoint members of boards and commissions, this omission should be regarded as an exclusion from the mayor’s power. This maxim simply does not apply. There are no lists of items or things mentioned that an omission which would even imply an exclusion and resort to this maxim. Section 1221 provides, in the broadest of terms with no exception, that the mayor should appoint all members of boards and commissions.
Not only did the majority err by resorting to application of this maxim, it also erred because it ignored the presumption the General Assembly indicated to be employed when interpreting one of the Home Rule and Optional Plans provisions. Section 403 of the Law, 53 P.S. § 1-403, provides:
The general grant of municipal power contained in this article is intended to confer the greatest power of self government consistent with the Constitution of this Commonwealth and with the provisions of and the limitations prescribed by this act. Any specific enumeration of municipal powers contained in this act or in any other laws will not be construed in any way to limit the general description of power contained in this article, and any such specifically enumerated municipal powers shall be construed as in addition and supplementary to the powers conferred in general terms by this article. All grants of municipal power to municipalities governed by an optional plan under this act, whether in the form of specific enumeration or general terms, shall be liberally construed in favor of the municipality. (Emphasis added.)
*185The General Assembly mandated an interpretation that would not limit any general description of power. Section 1221 provides that the chief executive appoints all members of all boards and commissions. To interpret it any other way is in direct conflict with this mandate.
A simple analysis of the Home Rule and Optional Plans Law shows that the General Assembly intended that the chief executive officer, in this case the mayor, to appoint members to authority boards. It provides that a chief executive officer shall appoint all members to boards and commissions created by:
1. the Home Rule and Optional Plans Act.
2. general law now or hereafter enacted.
3. action of the municipal council.
The Municipalities Authorities Act of 1945 (Authorities Act), Act of May 2, 1945, P.L. 382, as amended, §§ 1-19, 53 P.S. §§ 301-322, is a general law. It applies throughout the Commonwealth and is of general application. Department of Labor and Industry v. Altemose Cons. Co., 28 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 277, 288, 368 A.2d 875, 881 (1977). Because it is a “general law” and it establishes the authority board, ergo, the Home Rule and Optional Plans Law in clear and unequivocal language provides that the mayor is empowered to appoint authority board members created under the Municipal Authorities Act. The General Assembly could not have stated it any clearer.6
Not only is the language unambiguous, it is in harmony and consistent with both of the other provisions of Optional Plan B and those of other Optional Plans by not mingling traditional executive and legislative powers in the council. The power of appointment is an executive function that the General Assembly desired to vest in the municipalities’ chief executive officer. By interpreting away the chief execu*186tive’s power to appoint authority board members, this executive power is vested in a council, a result that the General Assembly did not intend. We are required to interpret those provisions with reference to the overall legislative scheme and to carry out their purpose. Commonwealth, Insurance Department v. Adrid, 24 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 270, 355 A.2d 597 (1976). The majority’s analysis results in an outcome that is simply inconsistent with the scheme set forth by the General Assembly, as well as the voters of the City of Hazleton’s intent and desire when they adopted Optional Plan B.
Accordingly, I dissent from the majority holding and would affirm the trial court.

. Article 9, § 3 provides:
Municipalities shall have the right and power to adopt optional forms of government as provided by law. The General Assembly shall provide optional forms of government for all municipalities. An optional form of government shall be presented to the electors by initiative, by the governing body of the municipality, or by the General Assembly. Adoption or repeal of an optional form of government shall be by referendum.

. Article 9, § 2 provides:
Municipalities shall have the right and power to frame and adopt home rule charters. Adoption, amendment or repeal of a home rule charter shall be by referendum. The General Assembly shall provide the procedure by which a home rule charter may be framed and its adoption, amendment or repeal presented to the electors. If the General Assembly does not so provide, a home rule charter or a procedure for framing and presenting a home rule charter may be presented to the electors by initiative or by the governing body of the municipality. A municipality which has a home rule charter may exercise any power or perform any function not denied by this Constitution, by its home rule charter or by the General Assembly at any time.

. Sections 2 and 3 of Article 9 were added to the Pennsylvania Constitution to free municipalities from the straight jacket imposed on their forms of government by the various city, township and county codes. Because the codes, for the most part, provided for commission forms of government where the executive and legislative branches were co-mingled, the Optional Plans, in order to provide an “option," split those powers, investing in “chief executive” officers more or less power depending on the Optional Plan adopted.

. While the case involves only an Optional Plan B municipality, since Section 1221 applies to all Optional Plans, our ruling affects who appoints to authority boards in all Optional Plan municipalities.

. Expressio unius est exclusio alterius. Expression of one thing is the exclusion of another. It is not a rule of statutory construction set forth in the Statutory Construction Act of 1972. 1 Pa.C.S. §§ 1921— 1939. See also Sutherland on Statutory Construction, §§ 47.23-47.24. Our Supreme Court has cautioned that to hold automatically that the legislature’s intent does not encompass something not specifically set forth in a statute can sometimes thwart that intent. Consumers Education and Protection Ass'n v. Nolan, 470 Pa. 372, 388-389, 368 A.2d 675, 684 (1977).

. 1 Pa. C.S. § 1921(a) of the Statutory Construction Act provides that "Every statute shall be construed, if possible, to give effect to all its provisions." The majority, by ignoring the “general laws” language, is not giving that language effect; it is making it surplusage which is disfavored. Matter of Employees of Student Services, Inc., 495 Pa. 42, 432 A.2d 189 (1981).