No oath of office ruling in Helfrich matter? No problem, attorneys say
As of Monday, it’ll be five months since the Commonwealth Court heard arguments regarding York City Mayor Michael Helfrich’s eligibility for the office he won in 2021.
Attorneys for either side aren’t sweating the time gap, though.
“It is not unusual for the court to take this long, or even longer, to decide a matter of this importance,” Glenn Smith, Helfrich’s attorney in the matter, said via email.
Justin Tomevi, attorney for the 18 people who sued Helfrich over his eligibility, had similar thoughts.
“We were pleased with the reception we received at the oral argument and are optimistic that the Commonwealth Court will reach the appropriate decision in a timely fashion,” Tomevi said via email.
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June’s Commonwealth Court hearing, which governs appeals, is the second time the eligibility question has been heard in a court. The last time Helfrich was before a court was at the Court of Common Pleas in April of 2022; Judge Clyde Vedder would rule in Helfrich’s favor in June of that year.
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Concerns over Helfrich’s eligibility for office began shortly after his re-election in 2021, where he defeated then-opponent Shareef Hameed with 80% of the vote. Helfrich would then go on vacation to Key West and to a conference in Washington D.C. before returning and taking an oath of office on January 24, 2022, 20 days after the City Council’s reorganizational meeting on January 4.
Under Pennsylvania’s third-class city code, which York City operates under unless superseded by its own city code, mayors must take an oath of office within 14 days of the council’s reorganizational meeting or be ruled ineligible for office.
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While Helfrich would eventually take an oath of office, the advice he’d been given by then assistant city solicitor Jason Sabol was that since he’d taken an oath of office upon his first election to the position, he didn’t need to take a second one.
“That oath doesn’t expire magically at some point,” Sabol told the York Dispatch at the time.
After the matter was brought to City Council’s attention, the council ultimately referred the matter to then attorney General Josh Shapiro and York County District attorney Dave Sunday. Sunday had previously declined to challenge Helfrich’s eligibility for mayor in 2018 after six plaintiffs filed a lawsuit seeking to bar Helfrich over an arrest and guilty plea in 1991 for felony drug dealing.
Subsequently, 18 York City electors filed a petition to the Court of Common Pleas in April 2022 seeking to have Helfrich disqualified from office and for President Judge Maria Musti Cook to name a temporary replacement. The electors included former City Council President Henry Nixon and former council member Judy Ritter Dickson, former council member Toni Smith, who Helfrich had defeated in a write-in campaign for a council seat; Helfrich’s 2021 mayoral opponent Shareef Hameed and former city official Shilvosky Buffaloe.
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Smith and Carla Evette Freeland, also a petitioner, had also been a part of the 2018 lawsuit seeking to have Helfrich barred from office.
After a hearing in April, Judge Clyde Vedder ruled in June that while the third-class city code would apply, the timing of the oath was “de minimis,” or a minor concern that didn’t rise to the level of requiring Helfrich’s removal. He also “tolled” the time between the reorganizational meeting and the oath, ruling that the first day Helfrich could have taken the oath was Jan. 24, the day he took it.
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“Even if we did not toll the running of the statutory provision, we would not disenfranchise him for what is so trifling as possibly being three days late,” Vedder wrote in his opinion. “To remove Mr. Helfrich from office would ignore the clear determination of the electorate and result in the election being an empty ritual.”
The electors would subsequently appeal to the Commonwealth Court. Now both sides wait for a resolution.
“From our perspective, the argument is straightforward and there has been a clear breach of Pennsylvania law, causing a vacancy to exist,” Tomevi said. “We are optimistic that the Commonwealth Court will see it the same way.”
Smith said he remains confident.
“We remain confident in our position that Mayor Helfrich complied with all applicable laws, as was decided by the trial court, and that a favorable decision will be forthcoming.”
— Reach Matt Enright via email at menright@yorkdispatch.com or via Twitter at @Matthew_Enright.
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