Ford City 2015 Tax Ordinance Remains in Effect
Ford City Borough Council unanimously voted 6-0 Saturday morning to override Mayor Marc Mantini’s veto of the tax ordinance.
by Jonathan Weaver
Taxes will officially stay at 17.4 mills for 2015 after Ford City Borough Council quashed Mayor Marc Mantini’s veto during a special meeting Saturday morning.
Council members voted unanimously, 6-0 after an hour of public discussion with former council members and residents about the need to keep tax rates low while attracting new residents and businesses.
Mayor Mantini objected to the tax ordinance because of the 2015 budget that, while balanced, significantly reduced spending for the full-time police department.
The current public safety budget allows for 120 hours of local police coverage per week, leaving approximately 50 hours to be patrolled by Pennsylvania State Police troopers out of East Franklin Township.
Former Borough Councilman Rob Mohney came in support of Mayor Mantini’s veto.
“This community needs to keep this police force, intact the way it was. It’s great living in this little community, but it’s also great having coverage and knowing if I pick up the phone they’re going to be there,” Mohney said.
“I feel this borough wants to keep what they have, and is challenging you as a council to come up with ways to make that happen.”
He predicted criminal activity will only increase, especially once Ford City Junior-Senior High closes at the end of the school year.
Ford City Ambulance Director David Dunmire also wrote a letter supporting the notion of full-time police due to a call two weeks ago in which first-responders had to wait for police presence from Pennsylvania State Police troopers rather than calling local officers. He wrote crews were not in danger during this instance, but might be in the future should immediate police assistance not be available.
Former Borough Councilwoman Kim Bish suggested Mayor Mantini or Council abolish or trim an ordinance shift during the week and schedule a local police officer instead strictly during the weekend.
Or Planning Commission Member Tyson Klukan asked council members to consider raising garbage rates (a notion he also brought up before the budget was passed in December) rather than decrease local police coverage.
Councilman Josh Abernathy identified that previous borough councils used to use money from other sources – such as the Public Utility Fund – to pay all the bills, and Mohney said elected officials raised other fees, such as garbage, rather than the millage rate instead, but they both agreed Council cannot do those any longer and must “learn to live within their means.”
“There’s no excess money – we’re building a water plant and we have to make up for everything else coming down on us and (streets) needs repaved…Council has cut everywhere,” Abernathy said. “We’ve laid a borough worker off, we spend what we have to spend – I don’t know where else to take it.
“It’s terrible that we got to do what we got to do, but there’s got to be cuts. There’s a lot of stuff on the plate that’s being done in this borough, and we got to pay for it.”
Council Vice-President Jerry Miklos agreed that Council needs to find common ground with the mayor to get the municipality in good working order, and some new taxpayers.
“You want people to stay here – we’re losing our school, Sheetz, Projectile Tube, our last grocer. You want people to come in to this town? You don’t do it by raising taxes or water or services!,” Miklos said.
In 2014 census figures read by Councilwoman Vickie Schaub, the unemployment rate was 8.4 percent – greater than the national average – and in 2012, residents had a median household income of $28,163. Armstrong County’s 2010 median income was $21,828 in 2010 – less than the state average.
“The Borough’s in a volatile position right now,” Councilman Gene Banks said.
Schaub – Council Police Committee Chair - indicated that maintaining a full-time police force would require at least a six-mill tax increase for property and business owners. Ford City Borough already has the second-highest tax base in the county (behind Kittanning Borough).
To eliminate another financial bind in the future and maintain police coverage, Miklos said a non-union working police chief (or designated official) would be ideal – if Mayor Marc Mantini and Police Sergeants John Atherton and Mark Brice agree to it rather than the full-time union officer approved during arbitration.
At a police committee meeting held immediately following the special meeting, borough council members and Mayor Mantini hoped to schedule time to talk with their police attorney and the police sergeants.
By savvynewshound, February 5, 2015 @ 6:42 AM
why was the choice made to not have local police on the weekends? I understand if you need to cut back hours to fit the budget, but why not reduce the shifts on the least busy times?