Kittanning Council Nixes Eliminating Wards
Kittanning Borough Mayor Kirk Atwood reads over his proposed ordinance that would have made the municipality residents vote in at-large elections rather than the four-ward system. A motion to advertise the proposal failed.
by Jonathan Weaver
Kittanning Borough Mayor Kirk Atwood’s plan for voters to elect via at-large elections failed last night.
To comply with State and federal law, Kittanning Borough Mayor Kirk Atwood last night proposed that Borough Council create an ordinance that voters no longer elect representatives in the current four-ward election system. Atwood said he pointed out the disparity four years ago, but felt it necessary to do so again after no action has since been taken.
“The Borough code states very specifically that all municipalities that vote by precinct must reapportion after every decennial census – every 10 years. I can tell you with absolute certainty we did not reapportion after 2011, and to my knowledge, I don’t know when it happened before that,” Mayor Atwood said.
Randy Cloak – acting as councilman rather than council president – motioned to advertise for the proposed ordinance, but the vote failed 2-4. Councilman Wilbur Stitt was the other elected official in-favor of the advertisement.
Council Members Betsy Wilt, David Croyle, Andy Peters and Joie Pryde were all opposed.
Councilman Ange Turco was absent and President Pro-Tempe Kim Fox administered the vote.
Since the new millennium, the population of Kittanning Borough has dropped about 800 residents - from 4,787 to an estimated-3,980 in 2012.
According to Wilt, there are far more residents than the voting booth indicates with about 1,000 residents in the 1st and 2nd wards, just more than 1,200 in the 3rd Ward and less than 900 in the 4th Ward.
“There’s approximately a 300-voter difference, which is by most counts concerning enough to say that the residents of the 3rd Ward are not having a fair shake at electing council members, Mayor Atwood said.
“We are now five years out of compliance – that means every election that has taken place in this borough for council has been illegal since 2011. We are out-of-compliance with both State and Federal law, and everybody’s oath-of-office (many whom I’ve administered) saying we will uphold the State and Federal constitutions. We must make a change.”
According to County election summary reports, during the 2013 General Election – which contained races in all four wards – 105 votes were cast in the 1st Ward, 147 in the 2nd, 255 in the 3rd and 155 in the 4th.
Peters said Mayor Atwood should be asking why far less people in the municipality are voting.
Councilman Croyle questioned why the mayor participated in the illegal swearing in of the elected officials the past four years
Wilt said why she opposed Mayor Atwood’s recommendation.
“I think people get used to dealing with representatives that they know or that are in their area,” Wilt said.
According to Section 816, the at-will elections would have eliminated at least one council seat
Council President Randall Cloak said that although he will be moving to a different ward soon, he has no plans to step down from his council seat.
Council President Randy Cloak said he would be moving to the 4th Ward in a few months and wasn’t sure if he would have to be re-elected.
“I’ll be moving within the next couple of months. If there’s no ordinance stating how we elect people, I guess you’ll have to challenge it in court because I’m not going anywhere,” Cloak said. “I was elected to do something and I’m going to continue doing it.”
Solicitor Ty Heller saw a draft of the ordinance last week, but had not researched if reapportionment is mandatory.
Before the motion, Councilmen Croyle and Peters motioned to table the vote on the proposed ordinance, but it failed after no other votes were cast.
The contract with M&B Services was extended 42 days (through May 31) at no additional cost. The current contract was to expire April 23.
“There are some additional funds that we need to spend in the grant in order to get the full reimbursement back, so we needed to find some additional work to be done,” Bellas said. “This is for additional sidewalk replacement up to the wall below the courthouse annex, for a not-to-exceed amount of $29,214.50.”
Project Manager Walt Smail said Phase 1 is “very near” completion.
As read by Solicitor Ty Heller, only one bid was received to complete work for Phase II – from M&B Services – in the amount of nearly $1.5 million.
Bellas said the bid was well-within the PennDOT multimodal grant allocation of $2.9 million. Still, the bid was tabled for review
Bids were due by 3PM Monday.
After a 30-minute executive session to discuss pending litigation and personnel
Effective today, Sewage Authority/Assistant Secretary Kelly Painter was laid off.
In reading the motion, Personnel Committee Member Stitt said she was terminated due to lack of work and as a result of the municipal authority’s decision to not continually reimburse the Borough for work.
“We don’t have any work for her, and it came down to that we had to make a change,” Stitt said. “It’s a shame.”
Cloak concluded the decision was made due to the municipal authority’s “inept incompetence.”
Painter was just reinstated last month after another executive session.
Seven members of Kittanning Borough Council were at last night’s regular meeting. Third Ward Councilman Ange Turco was absent.
Kittanning Borough | jweaver April 7, 2015
By FactsnotFiction, April 8, 2015 @ 11:23 AM
So this means Kittanning Borough Council has broken a borough ordinance. I believe if anyone else broke an ordinance they would be fined. So, Council should be fined and should be reapportioned as stated by the code and all present council affected by this be re-elected by the people.
As for Mr. Croyle’s question to Mr. Atwood, I believe if he has found he did something wrong and also council was involved, he is trying now to make it right. You of all people should believe in a persons ability to change a wrong.