New Monessen councilman supports selling City Hall
The Monessen municipal complex
Newly appointed Monessen City Councilman Edward Lea
MONESSEN – Monessen Council named a new councilman Monday who said he supports selling City Hall because its upkeep is a burden on taxpayers.
Council voted 3-1 to appoint Edward Lea to fill a seat at the table that became vacant with the unexpected July 18 resignation of Lucille D’Alfonso, who chaired the finance department in the cash-strapped city.
“I think it’s a great thing to sell the building,” said Lea, who is a revenue officer at UPMC Pittsburgh.
“The overhead is more than what the city can spend,” Lea said.
City records show the electric bills alone cost taxpayers more than $10,000 a month in a building that has become rundown, with many vacant offices.
“We are losing a significant amount of money each month on that building,” Monessen solicitor Krisha A. DiMascio said.
Also known as the Monessen Municipal Complex, the four-story concrete building dating to the 1960s is the former Mon Valley Community Health Center. The city moved into the building about six years ago after the health center authority was disbanded.
The city received an offer last month to purchase the Monessen Municipal Complex and another building across the street in the Eastgate section of the city from On Site Rep of Pittsburgh for $650,000. The city solicitor received permission from council to negotiate a sales agreement with the company, which was represented by David Lamb.
The city is permitted to negotiate the sale of those buildings because Monessen advertised twice for bids on the properties and the offers were rejected, DiMascio said. Any sale now would have to be at a higher price than the highest price offered on the properties, which was about $265,000, she said. A Westmoreland County judge also would be required to approve the sales agreement, she added.
Monessen Mayor Lou Mavrakis said the city’s 2015 audit shows the budget for operating the building ran a deficit that year of $121,618.
Mavrakis, who has been in the minority voting bloc since taking office in 2014, said Lea is “on the same page” with his agenda.
“He wants to save the city,” Mavrakis said.
The Westmoreland County city, which has long-term debt of $7.3 million, showed a deficit of $616,000 in its general fund last year.
Mavrakis, along with Councilmen John Scott Nestor and Ron Chiaravalle, voted yes on the motion to appoint Lea as a councilman through the end of 2017. Councilwoman Patricia Bukowski voted no on the motion, Mavrakis said.
Lea has tendered his resignation from the Monessen Redevelopment Authority because council members are not permitted to serve on that board, Mavrakis said.