A left-leaning non-profit wants voters in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties to decide whether to ban insider stock trading by county employees and officials.
Action Together NEPA, based in Luzerne County, wants voters to sign petitions to place a question on the November election ballot. The question would ask voters if they want to amend the counties’ home rule charters to prohibit county officials and employees from stock trading or prediction market betting based on insider information.
Voters would also decide if county, state and federal officials who represent the counties must report ethics complaints and stock trades publicly.
Limited restrictions now
Neither state nor federal law bans stock trading by elected public officials. State law requires state and local government employees and elected officials to file financial interest statements with the government they work for showing their sources of income but not their investments. Federal laws require candidates for public office and sitting members of Congress to fill out forms detailing their investments.
Typically, talk of stock trading bans has been limited to banning members of Congress from trading.
“This is to send a message,” Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich, the group’s executive director, said. “You know as well as I do in northeastern Pennsylvania, we are far too familiar with corruption, especially in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.”
The group needs 11,650 people to sign petitions in Luzerne County, 8,900 in Lackawanna County, Hoffman-Mirilovich said.
The group can seek the amendments because both counties have charters, unlike most other counties, she said.
Volunteers would need to have the completed petitions submitted by Aug. 4.
Bresnahan and stocks
Stock trading by members of Congress has gained traction as an issue nationwide, including in Northeast Pennsylvania. After taking office in January 2025, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan became one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress, despite calling for a ban on congressional stock trading as a candidate.
Bresnahan maintains he never tells his financial advisors what stocks to buy or sell. In recent months, Bresnahan has stopped trading stocks and signed onto a petition to force a vote on a stock trading ban.
“This is an ongoing issue, so our hope here is to send a message and to make it clear that enough is enough, and we're not going to stand for it anymore,” Hoffman-Mirilovich said, adding that Action Together volunteers routinely hear such concerns when they knock on voters' doors.
What do the proposed questions look like?
This is the proposed Luzerne County question: “Shall the Luzerne County Home Rule Charter be amended to require specifically that the Accountability, Conduct, and Ethics Code prohibit County elected officials and employees from engaging in individual stock trades or predication market bets that are based on nonpublic information obtained in the course of their official County service and provide annual reporting of ethics complaints and stock trades involving County, state, and federal elected officials representing the County?”
This is the proposed Lackawanna County question: “Shall the Lackawanna County Home Rule Charter be amended to require specifically that the Lackawanna County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics prohibit County elected officials and employees from engaging in individual stock trades or predication market bets based on nonpublic information obtained in the course of their official County service and provide annual reporting of ethics complaints and stock trades involving County, state, and federal elected officials representing the County?”
