Milesburg council hires new borough manager, but faces ‘world of mess’ to work through
The Milesburg Borough Council hired a new borough manager Monday night, but that’s just the start of solving numerous problems in the wake of the sudden resignation of the longtime manager and other staff members, leaders of the small municipality said.
The council unanimously voted to hire Keith Russell as its next manager at a salary of $50,000. The council held an executive session at the beginning of the meeting for personnel and did not publicly discuss the hiring decision or candidate.
Russell will replace Paula Hall, who had been the borough manager for 34 years, but quit last week as a new council was sworn into office. Hall cited poor treatment and social media accusations as reasons for leaving, and four other employees resigned alongside her. In text messages shared publicly, council member Greg Ritter referenced Hall not being held accountable and “trying to hide something,” though Ritter told the CDT the messages were taken out of context.
The council typically accepts public comment at the beginning of the meeting but opted not to Monday night “under the current circumstances of the borough” and instead held public comment at the end of the meeting. Council President Peter DeLosa, who was elected to the seat in November, announced the change at the start of the meeting.
“Because of some other things that we have going on, we’re going to have the public speaking at the end of the meeting,” DeLosa said.
The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act requires the council to provide “a reasonable opportunity” at each meeting for residents and/or taxpayers to “comment on matters of concern, official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board or council prior to taking official action.”
Prior to voting on the resolution to amend the job description and compensation for the borough manager, a resident asked if the job had been posted. DeLosa said all questions had to wait until the end of the meeting. The resident who asked, appearing frustrated with that response, left during the meeting and the job or posting was not addressed.
Borough operations affected by staff departures
The council also hired a temporary part-time employee, LuAnn Bruno, at $18/hour, “to get us moving in the office.” DeLosa said she is experienced in working with government, QuickBooks and is willing to help the borough, which had normal operations like website maintenance stymied due to lack of employees since last week.
“This is a temporary, part-time position until we can fill what we want for — I won’t say full time — a standard part-time position. She will work in the evenings. That is not our intention to go forward. We are planning on having an office person in here during the day so you will be able to come into the door ... but right now to get us moving here,” DeLosa said. “We are in a world of mess.”
Nick Witherite, the borough’s lead maintenance employee, and three other employees quit alongside Hall. The five employees said they were only resigning from the borough and would continue working for the water authority.
Because the water authority is a different entity, DeLosa didn’t have much information on their employment status Monday. The borough owns the municipal building and the water authority leases it. So the authority employees would have access to the building but not borough files or computers. The Centre Daily Times submitted a Right to Know request Wednesday for the salaries of the water authority employees.
The borough has been unable to pay bills because the bank wouldn’t release the accounts to the new council until they had minutes certifying who is on the board. But the board couldn’t certify minutes until they had a secretary, which they appointed Russell to during the meeting.
“So now that we have a secretary, those minutes were approved, and we can move forward and come back to the bank and hopefully get the financial situation resolved,” DeLosa said.
With the mass resignation at the last meeting, the borough was without a staff to plow the streets ahead of Centre County’s first major snowstorm last weekend. The council ratified an agreement with a snow removal contractor who helped during the storm.
Tracey Benson, the borough’s solicitor, said typically the council would either pay their own employee to plow or would go out to bid for a contractor for the season.
“You had no employees to do that. No council to do it. No officers or borough managers to do it and a storm was coming,” Benson said.
Added Council Vice President Sandy Dieterle: “And no money.”
The council was also unable to post the meeting agenda on the borough’s website ahead of the meeting and instead posted a copy of it on the door. They also had trouble obtaining the meeting notes and recording after the reorganization meeting.
Looking ahead
Moving forward, the council plans to make changes on how the meetings are conducted and how the council operates.
The council reinstated several committees — streets, health and safety, community and parks, personnel and budget — as they said there are many issues that need to be addressed.
Each committee will have three council members on it; the street, community and parks, and budget committees will also have a resident volunteer serving on it.
Ritter pitched the idea to rearrange the council room to make it more open and inviting to the public, saying he got some new tables for free to set up along the perimeter of the room so the council is open and facing the public. They’ll also have a podium for the public to utilize during public comment.
During public comment, DeLosa asked for patience as the council works through “huge problems.” A parking and code enforcement issue was brought to the council, and while DeLosa said he understood the concern, they couldn’t tackle every single issue at one meeting.
He also urged the council and employees to act professionally.
“A lot of things happened in 2023 to a lot of people. I witnessed some of it myself and I couldn’t believe it. That’s why you got new council members here in 2024. I am going to strongly suggest that anybody that represents this council or this borough acts in a professional manner at all times,” DeLosa said. “…If somebody has a serious problem, I have no problem bringing it to me and I will address it with the person.”
Another resident asked if the borough would discuss applying for grants to repair sidewalks. DeLosa said it’s on their list and would be on a future agenda.
“I have already been in touch with someone who helps write grants. The only problem is … we can’t even open our own bank account right now. … That’s really our next big thing that we’ve got to tackle and getting this office up and functioning. We’re not going to take on anything else until that happens,” DeLosa said.
