Slatington continues working on proposed budget

The borough of Slatington is almost a month into the new year without an adopted budget.

During a special meeting Monday, the board agreed to spend another week working on the numbers before voting on a proposed budget next week.

Ordinance and zoning code enforcement were at the forefront of the discussion.

Last year the council hired Code Masters at a rate of $60 an hour for 20 hours a week. The overall bill was $67,000 in the past nine months, according to council member Russell Hallman.

“We need to revisit this,” he said.

“I don’t see, for all this money that was spent, that there’s revenue generating. It all goes to Code Master.”

Board Vice President Jason Ruff said Code Master’s Shannon Callori reviewed 114 cases in the borough in her nine-month run, closing 72 by the end of 2017.

“She’s been working on closing cases that before people ignored,” said Councilman David Schnaars.

Moving permits

Hallman said he approached Police Chief David Rachman to ask patrol officers to request a moving permit if they spot a person moving.

“A person moved out on Sunday on Second Street with no moving permit. This system in place now is a money pit,” he said.

“We spent a lot of time last year making a legal letter that’s enforceable,” Schnaars said about the $10 moving permit fee.

“The office has a list of people without the $10 fee for registration,” said council President Daniel Stevens.

Callori had previously been cut from 20 to 15 billable work hours in the borough.

“Shannon was working with the county on getting a community grant for blighted properties,” Ruff said.

“She was helping with the mapping and apartment registrations, seems like a poor use of the core time,” Stevens said.

“Why don’t we keep her at 15 hours a week until we investigate,” Schnaars said.

Hallman said that would bring Code Master’s bill down to $47,000 per year.

“Well it’s not something we’re committed to long-term. They serve at the will of the board. We had two people at 20 hours before. She’s doing both of those jobs,” Schnaars said.

“For the people put together it totaled $47,000. And they were checking parking and making sure sidewalks were shoveled,” Stevens said.

“This is part of the description we give her. She was getting more done than those people together,” Schnaars said.

“It might not be more, just different. We just need to prioritize her time,” Ruff said.

Code enforcement

“If we’re looking to raise the standard of living in Slatington we need code enforcement. We need to figure out what we want her to be doing and then figure out the hours,” he said.

Councilman Joseph Wechsler suggested keeping Code Master at 10 hours per week, split up between two business days.

Stevens said he has been working with fellow Councilman Bryon Reed to look at the numbers from the former proposed budget.

“I talked to Duane (Szczesny) down at the sewer plant and discovered a serious problem,” Stevens said.

“The $128,000 a year we paid for the sewer repairs a few years back was not in the budget. We’ve been paying it for years and it’s not listed here. That has to be added in,” he said.

“The good news is the sludge haul was budgeted for $200,000, which is double what it should be. And the $10,000 for a vehicle, Duane said he had no idea what it was for so we can take that out,” Stevens said.

“What about the former manager’s salary, it still has $90,000 base,” Ruff said.

Stevens said, “$35,000 is from the previous year.”

Reed said that leaves $85,000 for this year’s budget and $60,000 budgeted for legal and the audit.

“I would like to see us fund some community improvements. If we’re not using all the money for legal,” he said.

The board voted at the first January meeting to rehire solicitor Edward Healy for half the rate of $85 an hour versus what the $153 an hour the board was paying the former firm for legal assistants.

Council said it is still working on the percentages of funds for the four major departments, with the possible split changing to 35 percent of the budget to water, 35 to sewer, 15 to garbage and 15 percent going toward the general fund.

The board will hold another special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 29 to vote on a proposed budget before the February deadline.