donora
Donora council discussed making headway on the 2023 budget during a work session Thursday.
The borough has yet to adopt a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year and council is under the gun to get it done before Dec. 31.
According to the Pennsylvania Borough Code, boroughs must draft a budget 30 days before it’s adopted — making Dec. 1 the deadline for an initial proposal. Council must also advertise the proposed budget in a newspaper at least once and post the budget at the borough building or borough website for 10 days before approving it.
If a borough fails to get a budget in under state code requirements, they can face up to a $100 fine, plus court costs.
Working within a shrinking window, council’s position is complicated by the borough’s vacant administrator role.
Last Tuesday, members called for a special meeting to hire temporary administrator Warren Cecconi to start the budget process. However, the meeting was canceled due to lack of quorum.
During the work session, members discussed ways to get Cecconi on board quickly. Solicitor Steve Toprani laid out a timeline wherein council could finish the budget on time
“Monday’s the 7th,” he said. “We’re not going to have a council meeting until the 10th, so the earliest he can start is the 14th.
DONORA • A7 FROM A1
That gets us exactly halfway through the month.”
Councilwoman Cindy Brice has been in contact with Cecconi and said he can start as soon as council can get him in.
Councilman Tom Thompson proposed members hold another special meeting to hire Cecconi before next week’s council meeting, and Councilman Fred Berestecky asked if council could bring Cecconi in on Monday and hire him retroactively during the regularly scheduled meeting.
However, Toprani feared hastily planned meetings or retroactive hires ran the risk of violating Sunshine Act laws, and ultimately recommended council hire Cecconi at Thursday’s meeting and bring him on the following day.
Brice said she would call Cecconi after the work session to find out if he could accommodate council’s tight schedule.
“At least give him a little bit of an earlier start,” Toprani said. “Warren’s very capable, but this is going to be a task. He’s got to come up with taxes, collection… we’re going to be busy in December.
“But we’re not going to cancel Christmas,” he added.
Sanitation rates discussed
Council discussed sanitation rates for 2023 – an item that had caused some push back from the public at last month’s council meeting, when members unanimously voted down a proposed payment schedule following citizen complaints about the pricing structure.
The proposed schedule offered residents who pay before March 31, 2023, a discounted rate of $180 for the year. After that, residents would be charged a standard rate of $240 until June 30.
If residents failed to pay sanitation bills by those deadlines, they would be charged $300, enforceable by the magistrate.
Some residents raised concerns about everyone’s ability to pay sanitation bills on time and felt the rate increase punished poorer families in the borough. Brice brought the proposal back before council during the work session, but suggested they remove the $300 penalty.
“I think we’re wasting our time with that $300 charge,” Brice said. “We hardly have anyone pay it. It costs more to enforce it. If you give the $180 discount until June 30, and then you go to $240 for the rest of the year, you have a better chance of people paying their bills.”
Brice added that the sanitation rate should apply uniquely for landlords, suggesting that sanitation payments for tenants should cost $20 for each month they occupy an apartment or house.
“Say someone calls and says, ‘I’m renting my apartment in June.’ That would be six months of garbage, from June to December, at $20 a month. It would come out to a total of $120 for the year,” Brice said.
“We’ve had problems with people who call and say, ‘I don’t have anyone in here anymore. I want my money back.’ Or you’ll have someone who moves in during the middle of the year – what’s their rate? I think we should have something in the bill that says renters pay for the months they occupy an apartment, $20 for each month.”
Councilman Gib Szakal questioned how the new policy would affect the borough financially, and asked if changing the rates would lower borough revenue.
Brice explained that even with the prorated, $180 rate, the borough still makes money and that charging landlords a total of $20 for each month renters occupy an apartment wouldn’t hurt borough income.
“If you charge every resident $180, you collect over $400,000. Our garbage bill is $309,000,” Brice said.
Mayor Don Pavelko said he’s done research on how neighboring municipalities handle their sanitation bills. “(The administration building) was saying they had people complaining about the $240 rate,” Pavelko said. “So I did some checking around.
“Carroll Township pays a quarterly payment, sent by the garbage company. It came out to $216 a year. There’s no deductions or prorated payment. While here in Donora, if you pay before the deadline, you only got $180.”
Council members briefly discussed the possibility of issuing tickets for overdue sanitation payments. Toprani pointed out doing so could tie up police time in an obstructive way.
“I’m not in favor of tying up police time,” Toprani said. “Those hearings can take a while.”
However, council expressed a need to address delinquent and unpaid sanitation bills in the borough. “Two hundred and forty nine didn’t pay last year,” Brice said. “And 66 only gave a partial payment.”
Council did not give a clear indication of how they would proceed regarding sanitation rates, but will likely discuss it further at next week’s meeting.