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Manning wins in city
Newcomer Democrat Joe Manning will replace incumbent Republican Councilwoman Virginia Ullom.
"I think voters in Washington were ready for a change and a more positive attitude on council," said Manning about his victory.
Incumbent Republican Councilman Matt Staniszewski will join Manning on the governing board, making it an all-male council for the first time in 12 years.
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Manning and Staniszewski beat out Ullom, who was seeking her fourth term on council, for the two four-year term seats. Ullom had previously been a registered Democrat, but switched parties in February prior to the primary.
According to unofficial election results with all precincts reporting, Manning secured 1,043 of the 2,634 votes cast in Tuesday's race; Staniszewski got 924 votes to secure his second term in office, and Ullom received 652 votes.
Ullom and Staniszewski have both served on council for the past four years and they frequently have been at odds.
The candidates campaigned on some very serious issues, including the city's financial crunch that has put it on the verge of claiming Act 47 bankruptcy.
Manning and Staniszewski both overcame criticism to win their seats.
Manning recently retired from the city's fire department after more than 20 years of service. And, like other firefighters who have retired since 2006 when their current contract was approved by council, Manning's pension was determined by the last month service that included overtime pay.
The firefighters' contract was scrutinized last month by council for increased pension costs.
All city workers' pension benefits are calculated in one of two ways: By using half of the last month's pay, which includes overtime, or half of the highest annual salary averaged over any five years of employment under the state's Third Class City Code.
However, firefighters do not have a minimum retirement age in their contract, as the others do, and they can rack up more overtime than other city employees in their final month of service.
Manning said he would work to eliminate overtime at the fire department by bringing the department up to full staffing and adding a mandatory retirement age limit to the contract. And he believes that the firefighters would be open to renegotiating their contract with the city.
Staniszewski entered pleas last year to two separate offenses of driving under the influence and served six months in jail. He obtained work release to attend council meetings and conduct city business.
Manning said one of his first objectives upon taking office will be to "restore dignity to council."
"I'm going to try to bring Washington back to what it used to be," he stated.
Staniszewski said that in his new term in office he will work to make Washington a better place to live, work, safely raise a family and retire.
"Mayor and council need to work better to restore prosperity to Washington," he stated.
Ullom said that while she's disheartened by the election results, she said she has a somewhat sense of relief knowing the issues that council will have to deal with in the upcoming year.
"I won't stay up at nights anymore worrying," she said. "It's not my responsibility now."
Ullom said she has no hard feelings and wishes Manning and Staniszewski the best of luck.
"That's what the people wanted," she said. "I hope they can straighten this out. They have a long road to hoe."
The Budget : 11/4/2009
Mayor Spossey & new Councilman MANNING: The city cannot survive with the pension contributions for the Firemen and Policemen. The entire pension process needs to be changed to a 401K like city contribution pension instead of direct compensation or the "CITY" will cease to exist! Enventually the budget will by over 75% just for city retirees pensions! The city needs to file for bankruptcy and fix these out of control expenses.
wow : 11/4/2009
bigger pensions for the firemen when we should have a volunteer fire dept. in this welfare ridden town
Nuts! : 11/4/2009
wow.. you must be a nuts! A volunteer fire department would lack the training and the expertise that we now enjoy in the city. As a city resident I think that out weighs any consideration to go volunteer.
WOW : 11/4/2009
Good luck with that volunteer force of firefighters. If you knew anything about vfd, you would already know how difficult it has been for others to increase or add volunteers. People work more and travel farther putting people out of their local areas when firefighters are needed. Also, younger people are not necessarily following into the volunteer fire forces. There is equipement, training ---additional training and much sacrifice made by these volunteers. You want to make it all volunteer? Good luck with that. I believe the City's Fire Department has also helped those around with volunteer forces, when necessary. That is what all of them do...help each other. It is about putting out the fires and hopefully, no loss of life, while doing so, not saving money. God Bless our firefighters, paid or volunteer. I would not want their jobs for ALL the money in the world.
Manning won't be able to stop overtime : 11/4/2009
This whole overtime issue that jacks up the retirement $$ should be taken care of by excluding overtime from pension earnings. I worked for a company with a union work force that worked a lot of overtime, but that overtime was excluded when pension earnings were calculated.
wow there wow : 11/4/2009
11.2 million dollar budget, apparently not everyone is on welfare in this city. Many of us work, pay are taxes and expect services in return for those tax dollars. Where are you going to get all those volunteers from wow? Will you along with the welfare resident of the city going to dedicate the time and effort to protect my home and family 24/7/365? I bet you’re one of those individuals that wants something for nothing, and expects someone else to bear the burden.
Prexie Alum : 11/4/2009
They just can't change the way pensions are. It is state law. ((3rd class city code) The state lawmakers need to change the city codes. Every city, township, & borough is mandated to follow such codes. Codes for townships & boroughs are different form citys. There are even differences between the classes of citys. Don't forget, the city employees do not pay into social security. That means the pensions will be all they have. It will never increase. No cost of living increase. That's all they have.
wow II : 11/4/2009
why is it that the firefighters work 24 hr shifts instead of 8 hour shifts.so when there is overtime you get paid 24 hrs of overtime at a time.why does washington have the most full time firefighters in the area.im sure a half paid and half volunteer department would work.i saw washington city firefighters assisting canton township firefighters put out a fire in an abandoned warehouse twice.why should the taxpayers of washington pay to fight fires in canton township.they get a free ride as it is with all taxpayers paying for thier police protection.while it is true that firefighters do have a serious job to do should the city go broke while having a fully paid fire dept.and i cant see manning,who benefitted big time from his recent retirement from the fire dept,turning on his ex coworkers.
pension : 11/5/2009
You people all see the problem with the way the pension is figured out. You are blaming all the city departments. It is not all. It is only the fire department. It hurts the city when they put their overtime on it due to their working 24 hour shifts. they mostly retire at over 100%. Also the biggest p[roblem is them having 20 and out. the police department does not have 20 and out. Most of their people retire at 75%. And the biggest problem that everyone here is missing is that Third class city code states that TheyDO NOT RECEIVE SOCIAL SECURITY!!!!! Their pension is what they have to live off of. Druggies and alcoholics who never work a day in their lives receive social security and police officers and firemen in the city who risk their lives every day can not get it.
budget woes : 11/5/2009
This issue is simple economics. Limited tax revenue to pay for out of control expenditures. Something has to give - the only way to pay for the increasing cost of services is to raise taxes or cut services (or you could borrow the money from China and run huge deficits for ever!). The pie is limited in this city with an aging population and little industrial tax base to draw on. Let not forget to mention the lack of revenues generated from the two large non tax payers located in the city.
Pension : 11/5/2009
All city departments benefit from the overtime increase in their pensions< police, fire & street dept. all have retirees benefiting from increased pensions. The state needs to change the pension law!
wash taxpayer : 11/6/2009
What does working 24 hour shift have to do with controlling overtime? Overtime will occur regardless of the shift. Even on an 8 hour shift, if there is vacancy due to illness or injury, someone is going fill the vacancy. Now if you’re trying to say that one individual shouldn’t be allowed to work 24 continues hours of overtime, change the way overtime is handled. You don’t have to take firefighters off 24-hours on/48 hours off to limit the overtime. Limit the number of hours that firefighters can work overtime. For example if a firefighter has worked there regular 24 hour shift limited them to a maximum of 36 hours of continuous on-duty hours. Another why to say it a firefighter can only work 12-hours of overtime (excluding a recall for a major emergency). As for the pension law, take that argument to the state legislators and have them change the law. Why does Washington have the most full-time firefighters then other area municipalities? Could it be that the city government believes the fire department is an element of public safety? That providing a prompt response to the citizen’s emergencies is their responsibility. Maybe some of these surrounding townships are cheap and being irresponsible when it comes to providing all around public safety. Washington’s taxpayers shouldn’t have to provide Canton Township resident with fire protection. But since Washington has a limited number of personnel and there are times when the city fire department may need assistances from the neighboring departments. That’s called mutual aid, and mutual aid works both ways. So don’t be surprise if you see city firefighters helping the township firefighters from time to time. Unlike politicians, firefighters can look past certain contentious situations when fellow firefighters are in need of help. In recent times you could find Washington firefighters assisting in Charters, Canton, North Franklin, South Strabane, even as far away as Pittsburgh or Waynesburg. And you could find the same departments returning the favor. If neighboring municipalities are using the city fire department through automatic mutual aid an argument could be made that the neighboring departments can not reciprocate. Because the city of Washington staffed their stations 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year, the neighboring departments have access to a department that can respond immediately. None of the neighboring departments can guarantee an automatic response to the city. Regarding a part-paid, part-volunteer department, the truth is volunteer fire departments are having recruitment and retention issues. The volunteers departments and their local governments are addressing these issues by doing one of two things. Ignoring the problem, and hoping for positive outcomes, or they’re being progressive and taking positive measures like adding paid staffing to their departments. Even if Washington would consider adding volunteers to the department, the city would need to maintain the same number of career personnel to provide the level of service which is currently provided to city residents. The city isn’t going broke because they have a paid fire department. They’re going broke because of dwindling tax base, made worse by poor decision making and a lack of solutions by city officials. Whether the newly elected council member can effect positive change, time will tell. Placing blame exclusively on the fire department is wrong, and believing that the fire department is the quit fix to city’s problems is narrow minded thinking.
Are you crazy?? : 11/10/2009
You get paid to sleep while working 24hr shifts. One 8 hr shift= 8 hrs overtime. One 24 hr shift = 24 hrs overtime. Simple math their, wash taxpayer
