Jan 16, 2024 By Paul Paterra 3 min read

Donora Council members are taking a closer look at the borough’s spending.

At a Jan. 11 meeting, council unanimously approved reopening the 2024 budget and will have a special meeting at 6 p.m. this Thursday to discuss possible changes to the spending plan.

In a related move, council also decided to form a financial advisory committee of community members.

In December, council approved a $2,529,500 spending plan for 2024 that did not include a tax increase.

Council President Cindy Brice said that since there are three new members on council – her husband Jim, DeAnne Pavelko and Casey Perrotta – she felt they should have a chance to review the budget.

“The incoming council (members) never had a chance to look at it or have anything to do with it,” she explained. “We decided that we would reopen it so they have the opportunity to look it over to see if they had any ideas or suggest any changes to the different line items.”

She sees the meeting on the budget as a chance for everyone to review what was passed and offer input.

“That will give us the chance to see if that’s the way we want to go,” Brice said. “We’re trying to get a handle on where we’re bleeding money and where we can stop. If the public wants to come and they want to see the numbers, (they can). I want them to come and look. I want them to see where they’re money is going. That’s the avenue we would like to take.”

The motion to approve the advisory committee was approved by a 4-3 vote. Cindy Brice, Pavelko, Fred Berestecky and Mike McDowell voted in favor, while Jim Brice, Perrotta and Tom Thompson voted against it. Those who voted against the motion liked the idea of the committee but were opposed to an amendment which limits the committee members to one year.

Cindy Brice said the advisory committee would be composed of community members who have financial backgrounds and can offer some suggestions in the budgetary process.

“We had a few people volunteer, a former IRS agent, a former PNC banker and another guy who worked on Wall Street for 25 years,” she said. “They just looked over the numbers and gave suggestions where they thought we could cut, balance, whatever the case be. It’s just different ideas we have never thought of.”

One example of exorbitant spending, according to Cindy Brice, is $91,000 in overtime paid out to the police department in 2023. She also felt that $15,000 set aside for demolition was not nearly enough, a number that she said was changed to $50,000 with help from people looking at the numbers.

“We were able to trim here, trim there, just to get a better scope of things,” she said. “When you look at the budget, there’s a lot of lines on there that don’t even need to be there anymore. You can just eliminate them. Why do you keep putting these line items in there that don’t even have any purpose?”

The committee would strictly be advisory, and members would not be able to make decisions about the borough’s ultimate budget.

Council also voted to hire Joshua Suppa as a part-time police officer at a rate of $22 an hour. He was sworn in at the Jan. 11 meeting by Mayor Donald Pavelko.