Charleroi manager
Charleroi council voted Wednesday to begin the search for a new borough manager, but questions surrounding how the position will be paid still remain.
During last weeks agenda meeting, council discussed money owed to them from the state Department of Community and Economic Development for the former borough manager’s salary.
In January, council entered into a separation agreement and accepted the subsequent resignation of former borough Manager Joe Manning, effective Jan. 12.
Manning took the job in June at a salary of $60,000 and worked in the position for six months before separating ties with the borough. While he received his salary, some of which was budgeted for, the borough has not received any grant money from the DCED to help offset the cost.
According to the agreement, part of Manning’s salary would be paid through the STMP program, which committed at least 50% of the cost over three years.
To this date, council has not received any payment.
Solicitor Sean Logue claims the matter is complicated and because the required process to invoice for the job was not done properly, they have not received any payment reimbursement.
Logue is unsure of who that responsibility should have fallen on, but has said the contract was signed by former Council President Mark Alterici who might be able to provide more insight on what happened.
“My limited investigation is that the prior board, Alterici in particular, did not set up all the proper stuff that was supposed to be done,” Logue said.
Jericho said he is confused why Alterici is being accused of dropping the ball when council members do not pay bills.
“Sean, it is confusing me because we don’t, as council people, pay bills here and
CHARLEROI • A4 FROM A1 you are saying Mark Alterici was supposed to set this up, but we don’t do that. He signs contracts, he signs papers as the president, but he does not pay or receive bills.”
Logue said he is not sure if it was Alterici’s responsibility to set up the payment structure or not.
“I am saying he and a borough employee should have figured out that council needed to set up a payment structure after signing the contract,” Logue said. “If he can’t do it himself, which I am not suggesting he was supposed to do it himself, he should have instructed another employee to get the structure set up for him and he never did that. I don’t know the man, I am saying he signed the contract and he did not get it set up, he should have worked with a prior employee to get it set up.”
Council President Paul Pivovarnik said he agrees that someone should have made sure it was taken care of.
“I agree with Sean, whether it be Mark or not, someone should have,” he said.
Councilman Larry Celaschi said information he has gathered was not sent to the right people.
“From what I gathered so far, that email should have been forwarded to the finance committee of 2021, or should have been forwarded to Roberta or vice versa,” he said. “I don’t know, I wasn’t there,” Logue said. “Even though you are a board, if that guy signed the contract, not saying he should have set it up but maybe he should have delegated that to someone or stayed on top of it.”
When contacted after the meeting, Alterici said Logue needs to educate himself.
“As borough president, I did sign all of the contracts applied to getting the funding for the borough manager,” Alterici said. “That was my responsibility. At no point in this borough’s history has council been involved with sending invoices. For Sean Logue to make that type of comment, it just shows how out of touch he is with municipal government.”
Alterici claimed he did all the DCED asked him to do. “I was given what needed signed, and I am not sure what the next step in the process was on their end, but nothing else was presented to me from the DCED or given to me that said there was something else that needed to be done.”
The finance committee, which includes Celaschi and Councilwoman Nancy Ellis, plans to meet to discuss the matter to see how they should go about submitting an invoice for the reimbursement.
Jericho said he is confused as to why the DCED won’t communicate with Logue.
“It is my understanding they are reading this in the newspaper and they are not very pleased,” Jericho said. Logue claimed last week he believes the grant did not exist.
“Well, I would not be pleased with them if I were you,” Logue said.
Logue said the DCED has not returned his phone calls to clarify the matter.
After council parted ways with Manning last month, a letter was sent from the DCED to Borough Administrator Roberta Doerfler informing her they would be executing their termination clause with the contract.
Per the contract, Logue said the DCED was able to withdraw at any time.
Because there is no longer a contract with the DCED, and an apparent need within in the borough, Logue recommended council move forward to fill the position.
Council unanimously agreed to begin a new search to find their next borough manager, with applications due to the borough by April
12.
Applicants can submit applications directly to the borough, or through LinkedIn or Indeed.
Salary requirements should be included with resumes and letters of interest. The description for the position has been altered since it was initially filled by Manning last year, but new job requirements have not specifically been announced and will be included when the job is advertised in the Mon Valley Independent.