‘We have no staff.’ Halfmoon Township supervisors accept manager’s resignation, face other staffing issues
The Halfmoon Township Community Center was packed once again Thursday as the board of supervisors convened for their meeting with a full agenda — including accepting the manager’s resignation.
A month after an attempt to fire her failed, Halfmoon Township Manager Denise Gembusia submitted her resignation. It was part of the consent agenda, and because no supervisors requested that specific item be removed, there was no discussion. Supervisor Patti Hartle was not present.
With a number of vacancies to fill in the township, there isn’t a clear plan in place for what happens next, either. At another point in the sometimes-tense meeting, Supervisor Robert Strouse suggested having a work session to review the job description for the manager position and advertising for it, among other things, but there was little discussion about that or when that would take place.
Prior to public comment, Strouse also offered four public apologies, including one to Gembusia, for “the ill treatment you’ve received by some of the members of this board, as well as a few members of this community.”
In a phone interview on Friday, Gembusia said she is taking a job with the Pennsylvania Municipal League; her last day with the township is March 31.
During the Feb. 24 meeting, Supervisors David Piper and Chuck Beck voted to terminate Gembusia, but didn’t give a reason other than Piper saying “she is defiant.” Supervisors Strouse, Hartle and Ron Servello voted against her termination. During the March 10 meeting, the split board voted to attempt to move toward a resolution with the manager. That included a “corrective performance process” that was expected to be 60-90 days, though few details were given about the process. Piper and Beck voted in opposition.
Gembusia said between March 10 and Thursday’s meeting, no board members contacted her regarding what the corrective performance process would include.
Despite what developed into a controversy in the small township, Gembusia said she was pleased to see how involved Halfmoon residents have gotten with their local government
“The residents are engaged now and I think that although this is not the way that I had intended, or I think the board had intended, to get residents engaged, having people involved in their local government, being able to ask questions and have that transparency between residents and elected officials, is the beauty of democracy,” Gembusia said.
“And while I just may have been the catalyst to set that off, I’m grateful that the residents are paying attention to their local government and are being interactive in the choices that they can be a part of.”
Lack of staff
Unless hiring is done before March 31, the township will be without a manager, a roadmaster and public works crew. Between Thursday’s meeting and Friday, one of the township’s auditors also resigned.
“...After the 31st, other than Amy (Smith) and Brett (Laird), who already have jobs, we have no staff…,” Strouse said during a discussion about the board’s priorities.
Servello said his main concern as a supervisor was not having a roadmaster and knows the public is concerned about not having those positions filled. The full-time public works employee resigned, then the part-time public works employee died, followed by the roadmaster’s resignation on Feb. 24, he said.
The board voted to have Servello compile information for the roadmaster job description, then review and take the action to get it posted.
Since the former roadmaster’s resignation, the board has opted not to review or vote on the description of the position for the last two meetings. Some residents questioned why, if the position is so important, hasn’t it been discussed in public and said more transparency is needed.
Township building design
Also on Thursday’s agenda was a letter from a State College-based design architect, Michael Siggins. He had submitted a proposal for alterations to the Halfmoon Township Municipal Building, but he had since withdrawn it due to concerns about how the board conducted business.
“I’d just like to point out that we had a professional architect who had given us a proposal on what needs to be done to make this happen. And he has withdrawn his proposal because of the recent actions and positions of this board. He felt that it was an embarrassment to deal with us at this point,” Strouse said.
Instead of seeking new proposals, Servello volunteered to do the work himself. He has spent 35 years doing this type of work, he said, and there are alternatives to construction, such as mountable wall offices that provide privacy as good as a wall.
“I need to get some pricing, I need to have a basic layout, a concept for arranging the offices, which I can do. …There is a change of use permanent requirement and that application can be completed from here and sent. I’d be willing to work on that as well. To do it properly and then once we have the plan, we can install the technology, the wiring, the utilities, make any changes, any kind of electrical changes to accommodate the office space. And … once our space is prepared, then we could actually make a physical move,” he said.
Zachary Rice, township solicitor, said because Servello is volunteering, and not being paid by the township, there would be no conflict of interest.
Servello made a motion to allow himself to pursue the plan, schedule and pricing, to present to the board for approval. Beck seconded and it passed 3-1, with Strouse voting against it.
Repeating issues
The recent attempt to the fire the manager isn’t the first time there have been disagreements among the board in terms of staffing. According to meeting minutes, in January 2020 during Beck and Piper’s first meeting as supervisors (and before Servello was on the board), they both voted against a number of staff appointments, including the manager, roadmaster, treasurer, assistant treasurer, secretary, assistant secretary and code enforcement officer. (Several of those appointments were to the same few people.)
One resident brought that up Thursday. Piper said there were “some issues” with the former township manager, and since he and Beck were newly elected, they felt their concerns were being ignored. Piper said he didn’t want to fire the former roadmaster, but he voted to do so to “get the attention” of the other board members.
Strouse said that was disingenuous and misleading. He questioned how the board majority could have ignored them if it was their first meeting. Piper said he had a meeting with two the other board members prior to taking office to talk about some issues, but “it didn’t go anywhere.”
The next Halfmoon Township meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 14.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 4:57 PM.
