Continued Meeting of California Borough Council, December 22, 2009, 4:00 pm
President Bittner called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm
PRESENT: Mr. Difilippo, Mrs. Gallo, Mr. Bittner, Mr. Mariscotti, Mrs. Chambers, Mr.
Kurilko
ABSENT: Mr. Weld, Miss Roberts, and Mayor Durdines
PUBLIC COMMENT:
New locks for the Municipal Building when you have a discussion please give a
justification to why they are needed.
Ordinance #520 I’d like you to keep in mind we are a University town and they move in
and out with graduation, you might want to keep that in consideration.
ADDITIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO AGENDA
Mrs. Gallo added she’d like an executive session at the end of the meeting for personnel
PRESIDENTS REPORT – MR. BITTNER
RESPONSE COMPUTER SERVICE
The new service agreement for the year of 2010 is $2,508.00 in my opinion and the
opinion of the office staff is they are very good and they are here when they’re needed.
Motion by Chambers/Gallo to accept the service agreement with the caveat that they
change January 31st to Dec. 31st duly carried with all members present voting yes.
NEW LOTS FOR THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING
Over the years, about 10 years, we’ve had the same locks on the Municipal building and
we’d like to look into possibly getting new locks on the Municipal building. So we’d
accept a motion to investigate and get some quotes for installing new locks on the
Municipal building.
Motion by Chambers/Gallo that they get quotes on replacing the locks on the Municipal
building duly carried with all members present voting yes.
PUBLIC WORKS – MR. WELD
Mr. Bittner stated that Mr. Weld is not here yet and does anyone on council have the
hiring of a full-time street employee. Mrs. Chambers asked if the references were
checked and Mr. Bittner responded that he did check the references on Mr. McCue, but
would like to leave this open until Mr. Weld arrives or deal with it at the end of the
agenda.
PUBLIC SAFETY - MRS. CHAMBERS
RESOLUTION 09-110
Mrs.Chambers would like council to adopt Resolution 09-110 where as the Borough
waives police pension contributions for the pension fund year 2010. Miss. Pfrogner added
that according to the actuarial there are sufficient funds to waive the police contributions
at this point in time. This has been a past practice for several years not saying that maybe
two, three, or four years down the road they might have to start contributing, and she
feels this may be a good thing because we have so many young officers coming on board
at this point in time.
Motion by Chambers/Diflippo to adopt Resolution 09-110 waiving the police pension
contributions for 2010 duly carried with all members present voting yes.
PUBLIC SAFETY- MRS. GALLO
Nothing to report
FINANCE – MR. DIFILIPPO
Nothing to report
FINANCE – MR. MARISCOTTI
2010 GENERAL FUND BUDGET
Motion by Mariscotti/Difilippo to adopt the General Fund Budget for the year 2010 with
income of $1,354,913.00 and expenses of $1,354,913.00 duly carried with all members
present voting yes
Mr. Bittner added that these figures are without a tax increase, taxes will remain the
same.
2010 SEWER FUND BUDGET
Motion by Mariscotti/Difilippo to adopt the 2010 Sewer Fund Budget with an income of
$1,826,500.00 and expenses at $1,899,447.00 duly carried with all members present
voting yes.
2010 HIGH WAY AID FUND BUDGET
Motion by Mariscotti/Difilippo to adopt the Highway Aid Fund for the year 2010 with an
income of $142,774.00 and expenses of $142,774.00 duly carried with all members
present voting yes.
TAX ORDINANCE 518
Motion by Mariscotti/Chambers to adopt Ordinance #518 duly carried with all members
present voting yes.
2010 SALARY SCHEDULE (CHIEF & NON-UNION EMPLOYEES)
Motion by Mariscotti/Gallo to adopt the 2010 Salary Schedule for Chief and non-union
employees duly carried with all members present voting yes.
PUBLIC HOUSING – MISS ROBERTS
Miss Roberts is absent
SOLCITORS REPORT – MR MELENYZER
LIGHT POLE RELEASE AGREEMENT
Mr. Melenyzer stated that as was discussed before the release that was sent to us we’re
not arguing about the amount, but the written language within the release did not protect
the Borough enough from third party claims so therefore, we prepared a new release and
shipped it on and Chris from our office has called the adjuster several times and they
have not responded one way or the other. Now the only thing you can do, because I think
we want to get the money and we want to get the pole put back in place and everything
corrected, you could approve the release that we prepared subject to them signing it, and
if they don’t we won’t give them the release.
Motion by Diflippo/Gallo to sign the amended release by our solicitor and it can be
executed upon their approval duly carried with all members present voting yes.
Mr. Agrafiotis interjected and said he had just received message from Attorney Sam who
said that he just got off the phone with the insurance people and they have accepted the
terms of the amended release. Motion will stand as is.
ORDINANCE #519
Attorney Agrafiotis stated that this and Ordinance #520 were advertised last Tuesday in
the paper. Ordinance #519 regulates garbage and containers prior to collection they can
be put curbside no sooner than 24 hours, that’s all garbage and all recyclable containers.
Then subsequent to curbside collection the people will have 24 hours to remove the
empty containers from the curb. There is a section that deals with the kind of containers
that are acceptable. There are penalties a written warning on the first offense then any
subsequent violations will get a fine of not less than $100.00 not more than $600.00.
These fines amounts are in line with our other ordinances fines.
Motion by Chamber/Difilippo to adopt Ordinance #519 dealing with regulating
Municipal Waste duly carried with all members present voting yes.
Mrs. Gallo asked that if they don’t put the lids back on they’re flying when the wind
blows. So if they don’t put the lids back on the garbage, it’s going to be an issue.
Mr. Melenyzer stated that if they didn’t have a lid once they would get a written warning,
if they didn’t have a lid twice they could get a $100.00 fine. Mr. Bittner added that he
would have a tough time with that since you can put out a garbage bag. Mr. Melenyzer
suggested that it’s not a question of legal it’s a question of practicality. Mr. Bittner added
that we only want the garbage out overnight, not for 3 or 4 days in a row. That’s the
intention of this ordinance not to hassle anyone over lid on their can. Now if the garbage
is loose in the can of course there should be lid on it.
ORDINANCE #520
Attorney Agrafiotis stated that Ordinance $520 was also advertised last Tuesday. Mr.
Bittner provided council with a sketch as well as the attorneys on the property and its
location. He stated that he had procured the legal descriptions from Fayette Engineering,
based on their sketch here, basically we are exchanging a piece of property with Mr.
Capanna, which will allow us straight access to our property from route 88 to our
Borough Storage area and also to our reserve parking area by the borough playground.
The piece of property we are conveying to Mr. Capanna is of no immediate benefit to the
borough and he was agreeable in the exchange with the Borough.
Motion by Difilippo/Gallo to adopt Ordinance #520 duly carried with all members
present voting yes.
PA MUNICIPAL SERVICE (PAMS) AGREEMENT
Mr. Melenyzer stated that he has reviewed the agreement and it is fine but he has a little
problem with what council wants to do. It’s automatically renewed if either party doesn’t
give the other party 90 days notice prior to its expiration. I have a problem with that
from a practical stand point, because the difficulty that municipalities have is tracking
dates, times, notices, etc. I’m willing to listen to whatever council wants to do; you can
make it a contract that doesn’t renew itself and therefore there has to be notification from
them to the Borough stating they’d like to renew and then we could respond, you can do
that on a 30 day, 60 day, 90 day but that way you’re putting the burden of notice on them
not us. Mr. Bittner stated that our current contract with PAMS has the clause in it and it’s
been that way for many years, not saying that it’s right or wrong. Mrs. Chambers asked
if we could just insert that line in there, and Solicitor Melenyzer stated of course you can.
Mr. Bittner stated we could do that and approve it pending them approving the change.
Motion by Chambers/Gallo to approve the agreement with PA Municipal Service
pending them approving it with the automatic renewal clause removed duly carried with
all members present voting yes.
FULL TIME STREET DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE
Keith stated that he talked to Betty this afternoon and rather than have his effective hire
date January 1st, he’s rather it be January 4th. Number one January 1 no-one is working
and then you go right into a weekend. Mr. Mariscotti suggested we let it go until the 4th
at the reorganization meeting.
Mr. Bittner adjourned the meeting at 4:30 and council will go into executive session and
will report back on that at the meeting on the 4th of January.