Ever wished you could change the U.S. Constitution? In Philadelphia, you can do just that — at least, for our local constitution, the Home Rule Charter, which is basically a user’s manual for our city government. How you can do this: Voting on ballot measures, aka ballot questions.
Ballot measures can expand, contract or shift how things work in City Hall. Past ballot questions have run the gamut, from preventing municipal employees from working on political campaigns to outlawing acts that are already unconstitutional (like illegal stop-and-frisk encounters). The thing about ballot measures: They almost always pass, resulting in dozens of amendments to our Home Rule Charter.
In the upcoming primary election on May 19, 2026, Philadelphia voters choose candidates in their party and get to decide — via two, down from three, ballot measures — whether the City can help working residents save for retirement, and whether to create a permanent position for a Youth Ombudsperson to advocate for children in local residential facilities.
Proposed Charter Change #1
(emphasis below ours)
Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to provide for the creation of the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board to oversee a defined contribution retirement program for the benefit of eligible private-sector workers, and to authorize City Council to determine the composition, powers and duties of the board?
Statement: A “yes” vote means you approve the creation of the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board as an independent board within the City’s government. The Board would oversee creation and administration of a retirement program for certain eligible workers whose employers do not offer them a retirement plan. Contributions to the plan would only come from the participating workers. Details of the retirement program may be established by ordinance.
A little deeper: Philadelphia lags behind the rest of the country when it comes to saving for retirement. The result: “Fifty percent of Philadelphians over age 65 have incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, compared to 34 percent nationally,” according to a Schwartz Center for Economic Policy analysis. Philly seniors also rely more heavily than their national counterparts on Social Security to survive.
Pew Charitable Trusts has found that the median income in older Philadelphia households with retirement funds is $57,970. Thirty-five percent of Philadelphia seniors have incomes around $15,000.
Why is this? According to the Schwartz analysis, less than half of all working-age Philadelphians have access to a retirement plan — and far fewer than that participate in these plans. Of everyone, private sector workers at small to mid-size firms are the least likely to save for retirement.
In 2016, then-City Councilmember Cherelle Parker proposed forming a task force that looked into the issue in 2016 and 2017, a measure Council approved unanimously.
Today, City Council believes it’s found a solution in PhillySaves, a City-run retirement savings program that would automatically contribute 3 to 6 percent of an employee’s wages to an IRA. The plan would apply to workers at any private sector company, including nonprofits, so long as they have at least one employee and have operated in Philadelphia for at least two years. Employees can opt-out or change the level of their contribution. PhillySaves would not apply to firms that already offer a retirement plan.
Before the plan can be enacted, the City needs to establish a board to develop, manage and report out on the initiative via annual reports.
That’s where the ballot question comes in. It asks voters to approve the creation of a nine-person Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board consisting of four mayor-appointed and four Council President-appointed members, plus one appointed by the City Controller. There’s no word on who exactly will be tapped to run the fund. Instead, the plan is to contract with third-party consultants, financial advisers and actuaries, to manage the investments. Should the measure pass, the program is expected to launch in 2027.
When it comes to programs like this, Philadelphia is not an outlier: According to a report from Georgetown University’s Center for Retirement Issues, 22 states and two cities have similar programs (though the two cities that passed such legislation ended up folding their programs into a state retirement savings system).
Proposed Charter Change #2
(emphasis below, ours)
Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to provide for the creation of the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson to improve the safety and quality of services for youth placed in juvenile justice, child welfare, and behavioral health residential care facilities, and to authorize City Council to determine additional powers and duties of the Youth Ombudsperson as needed to carry out this mission?
Statement: The Office of the Youth Ombudsperson monitors the safety and quality of services for youth in residential placements. It was created by the Mayor in 2022, but is not part of the formal City Charter framework and is not a permanent office.
If you vote “yes” on this ballot question, that means you approve including the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson in the City’s Charter and making it permanent. It also means you approve allowing Council to give the office additional powers and duties by ordinance.
A little deeper: In 2022 — after numerous reports over decades that children in juvenile detention and other residential facilities were being physically, verbally and sexually abused — Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order to create the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson to protect vulnerable children. Voting “yes” on this ballot measure would make that office permanent.
What’s an ombudsperson, you might be wondering? It’s a government official who serves as an impartial advocate for residents having trouble with government-provided or government-related services. Basically, it’s a watchdog role. Prior to the creation of the office of the Youth Ombudsperson, young people would have to report abuse to facility staff — often the same people who were hurting them in the first place.
Since 2022, the Youth Ombudsperson — currently a four-person office, with a deputy and two associate ombuds, so really it should be “Youth Ombudspeople” — discovered that juvenile detention centers have subjected young people to illegal lockdowns. They also publish educational materials, so that young people know their rights, and provide guidelines for youth facilities.
Their power extends beyond detention centers — though those tend to get the most attention — and to any kind of residential facility where young people live, including in-patient psychiatric facilities and group homes.
The office has continued under Mayor Parker, but since it was created via executive order, it’s not permanent. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents the Third District, where the Juvenile Justice Services Center is located, introduced the measure.
Tracie Johnson, the current Youth Ombudsperson, has spoken out in favor of the measure, as have Keisha Hudson, chief defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia (and one of our Citizen of the Year honorees), Bree Hood, youth advocate with the Juvenile Law Center, and Stefanie Arbutina, vulnerable youth policy director at Children First.
Voting “yes” to the Youth Ombudsperson would also set their salary at $150,000.
Proposed Charter Change #3
On April 6, City Council voted to remove a ballot measure that would have changed the government’s longstanding resign to run rule for municipal employees and elected officials.
Corrections: A previous version of this post misstated the budget for the Youth Ombudsperson: That budget consists of a $150,000 salary. Since this article first posted, the Retirement Savings Board in Proposed Charter Change #1 will no longer include a member appointed by local chambers of commerce.
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