Jul 16, 2022 4 min read

Donora Council has begun filling some vacancies that existed in the borough office.

Each of the six members of council in attendance Thursday voted to hire Chris Cunningham as borough administrator and Louis Morrison Jr. as bookkeeper.

“He has all of the qualifications needed for the job,” said Councilwoman Jane Ackerman said of Cunningham.

When asked about his background, Ackerman said he lives in Jeannette and is a coach.

The borough was faced with a number of vacancies recently. In a short amount of time the bookkeeper and clerk resigned, as well as street foreman Mike Petrsoke, administrator Terri Petroske and code enforcement officer Michelle Harris.

In a coinciding move Thursday, council voted 6-0 to have Marsha Lawson return to work with the new bookkeeper at per diem, part-time status with a rate of $30 per hour for “however long it takes.”

Ackerman also made a motion to bring back Terri Petroske part-time to assist Cunningham. Some members of council objected to the motion because it was not on the agenda.

“It’s already been discussed,” Ackerman said.

“By who?” asked Councilwoman Cynthia Brice. “I think that puts us in a liability.”

Mayor Donald Pavelko said he has never seen a previous administrator return to help the new person.

Solicitor Steve Toprani recommended an executive session.

Once council returned, Ackerman withdrew her motion.

Council also voted 6-0 to advertise for a new code enforcement officer.

In other action, a 4-2 vote approved an ordinance to reestablish a civil service commission with respect to the police force. The ordinance also winds up the operations of the prior civil service commission.

Voting in favor of the motion were Ackerman, Council Vice President Fred Beresticky and council members Gilbert Szakal Jr. and Joseph Greco. Voting against the motion were Brice and Councilman Thomas Thompson. Council President Michael McDowell was not in attendance.

The main bone of contention for Thompson and Brice was a section that details the rules of the civil service commission, which they feel gives the commission the power to hire and fire police officers.

“That’s not up to civil service, that’s up to council,” Thompson said.

Toprani explained that the ordinance is subject to limitations in the Borough Code, so that means the power to hire and fire remains with council.

“It doesn’t say that,” Brice said. “Why are we even doing it? You have civil service guidelines that are clearly made by the state. I don’t agree with this. Where is this coming from? There’s no reason for it. Why would council give up the power to hire, fire, promote and demote and give it to the civil service commission? It doesn’t make sense.”

This resulted in an argument between Greco and Brice.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Greco said.

“This is a crock and anybody who votes for it is an idiot,” Brice said.

The new commission is made up of three members – Greco (two-year term), Brian Pivovarnik (four-year term) and Kim Leaver (six-year term), with Edward Locker acting as the alternate.

Locker was sworn in during Thursday’s meeting by Pavelko.

Motions to establish the terms for the commission members and to approve Locker as the alternate member each were approved by 4-2 votes with the tally the same as the vote for the civil service commission ordinance.

Brice asked whether the alternate commission member position was advertised. No one was certain if the position had been, although some members of council said it may have been advertised on the Indeed website. Greco said the position had been announced at past council meetings and said Locker was the only one who applied.

“Obviously, we didn’t advertise it,” Brice said. “Nothing against you Ed, I’m just going by the rules…Let’s just do what we want, whenever we want and not bother with the rules.”

“I can’t vote on something that wasn’t advertised,” Thompson added before casting his no vote.