State College council calls for public input on mayor selection, sets interview timeline
As the deadline for State College Borough Council to appoint an interim mayor draws closer, council members have established a timeline for applicant interviews and made call outs for public input in the process.
Council is requesting that members of the public who are interested in submitting questions to mayoral applicants do so through the State College borough website at statecollegepa.us under the Interim Mayor tab before Dec. 2.
After discussion at Monday night’s council meeting, council came to the consensus to combine their questions and the community’s questions into a list for mayoral applicants to choose from. Applicants will be allotted up to five minutes of presentation time where they’ll be required to answer the questions they chose off the master list.
At the recommendation of councilman Dan Murphy, council plans to consult the League of Women Voters on how to best run a night of interviews for 12 applicants. Since the full applicant list was unveiled, Penn State student Isabella Webster withdrew her application.
Council will review the community’s questions and come up with its own at its Dec. 2 meeting and send the full list to mayoral applicants before interviews are scheduled. Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said council has the ability to schedule applicant interviews on Dec. 3-5. According to a press release, the borough will publish the date of the public presentations when the meeting is scheduled.
Mayor Don Hahn, who was elected elected magisterial district judge to replace Judge Carmine Prestia Nov. 5, has submitted his resignation, which will go into effect Dec. 16 at 5 p.m. Though council has 45 days from his date of resignation to fill the vacancy, many council members said they would still prefer to appoint an interim mayor by Dec. 16.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 6:36 PM.
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