Jun 10, 2014 3 min read

Robinson Township supervisors Monday hired Erin Sakalik as township manager.

Sakalik currently serves in the same post at West Pike Run Township, and was recently appointed to serve on the secretary-manager committee of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.

She was approved by a 2-1 vote. Supervisors Rodger Kendall and Stephen Duran voted in favor, while Mark Brositz was opposed.

Sakalik’s salary was set at $50,000 a year, and she will begin her duties June 23.

Duran said he was impressed with Sakalik’s track record, especially her leadership after a former West Pike Run Township supervisor pleaded guilty in January 2011 to stealing more than $95,000 from the township and leaving it in financial distress.

Sakalik said she views the Robinson Township job as a “step forward in my career.”

She said the work she has done at West Pike, including working with the gas well industry and planning for Marcellus Shale-related growth, will “set the groundwork for what I’ll be able to accomplish at Robinson Township.”

She also served as secretary and treasurer at West Pike Run, and said working exclusively as a township manager will enable her to manage day-to-day operations, oversee projects and handle other situations.

“I’m a problem-solver and I love to work with people,” said Sakalik, who lives in West Newton, Westmoreland County.

Sakalik served as township manager at West Pike Run since 2011. She worked as assistant secretary/treasurer there for a year before taking over as manager, and she worked part-time as secretary/treasurer at Fallowfield Township from 1998 to 2004. She also has experience in code enforcement.

Sakalik replaces Michael Behrens, who served as township manager since July 2012 until the township terminated his contract in March. He also was employed as the township zoning officer.

The board voted unanimously Monday to appoint police Chief Mark Dorsey as zoning officer until Dec. 31 at a salary of $400 a month. He will also receive $800 in back pay for filling the position since Behrens’ departure.

In another matter, the board of supervisors voted 2-1 to remove Luke Darragh from his position on the zoning hearing board following a public hearing regarding the matter, saying he was improperly appointed to the board in December.

The board then appointed Mike Donaldson to serve on the zoning hearing board, by a 2-1 vote.

Borsitz was opposed, saying he disagreed with “the procedure that this board is using to correct some of what I believe to be honest mistakes and also to remove some people who have been, I feel, rejected.”

At the time of Darragh’s appointment, three members sat on the board, and one board member inadvertently believed his term expired in February 2014, instead of February 2015, when his term was set to end.

Officials indvertently believed one of the zoning hearing board members was resigning immediately instead of at the end of his term, which expires in February 2015. That’s when Darragh, who served on boards in the township in the past, was appointed.

Brositz said he thinks Darragh should have stayed on the board.