President and Vice President of Crafton Council
Respond to Community Questions
Following the July 27, 2020 meeting, the President and Vice President of Council address questions posed by the community in order to clarify matters and to provide factual information.
Probationary Officer
Option to give permanent full-time employment to probationary officer
The probationary officer was not a full-time permanent employee of the borough.
Pursuant to the Rules of the Crafton Civil Service Commission, all probationary officers are provided a one (1) year probationary period. The Pennsylvania Borough Code permits probationary periods of six (6) months to one (1) year.
Crafton Civil Service Rules require the Police Chief to provide council with a report on the performance and conduct of the probationary officer near the end of the probationary period. The report and correspondence from the Mayor detailed the probationary officer’s performance and conduct and recommend that Council extend the probationary period for six (6) months beyond (1) one year period set forth in the Borough Code and Civil Service Rules.
Council reviewed the Police Chief’s report of the probationary officer’s performance and conduct and elected not to provide the probationary officer with a permanent appointment. Additionally, upon advice of the Solicitor, council did not extend the probationary period as both the Borough Code and the Civil Service Rules do not permit probationary period beyond one (1) year.
Is Council defunding the police?
Absolutely not, farthest thing from it. We provide ample funding and resources to the police department as requested by the mayor and police chief. Including, as recently as June 1st, council fully funded the request for body cameras, they have been outfitted with new vehicles, and as an incentive for retention of the officers on the force, council increased the radius that officers are allowed to live outside the borough.
Is Council abolishing the position of the 10th police officer?
No. The salary of the 10th officer is still in the 2020 budget and Council will work to update the civil service rules and request the civil service commission to obtain an updated candidate list.
Is the Borough using the salary elsewhere in the budget or to fund another position such as the Assistant Borough Manager position?
No.
How many officers on the force?
There are currently 9 full-time officers on the Borough Police force. That had been the case until August 2019 when the 10th officer was added to the force as a probationary officer.
Assistant Manager
How did the role come about?
At the request of the manager, Council was looking to hire an in-house Professional Engineer/Project Manager. Council solicited resumes for the position and did not receive any viable candidates. Without a viable engineering candidate, Council actively sought out applicants, which included Mr. Sample. As the process continued, the staffing needs evolved to include the role of Public Works Director. The manager played a vital role in informing the direction of Council as he oversees the day to day operations within the borough and provides feedback. This position was initially discussed in executive session due to it being a personnel matter on May 11th.
What was the Council's input into hiring?
When the Council identified a viable candidate, they interviewed the candidate in executive session. During this executive session, each and every member of Council was given the opportunity to ask the candidate questions. Following this executive session, council agreed to move forward to the next step, which is discussing salary, once those terms were agreed upon the candidate was brought to a vote to hire.
Was there an employment opportunity posted on the website?
Dependent upon the circumstances, council may use various platforms for a management position and professional services, not necessarily posted to the borough’s website. We leave it to our manager’s discretion to which platforms he utilizes.
Council Meetings
Robert’s Rules of Order/Decorum
The purpose of Robert's Rules is to maintain order throughout the meetings and most municipalities try to use these as best as possible. However, each member of council chooses to behave in a manner that they so choose. Council cannot remove a member of council for their behavior under the state borough code. Procedurally, members of council and the mayor may be permitted to speak once a motion is made and seconded and request the President of Council for the floor. Any other time the person is out of order and it is the purview of the president to not acknowledge their comments. Individual council members have the ability to request items for discussion to be placed on the agenda for the regular discussion meeting. These rules allow for council members to ask for uninterrupted time to speak in an orderly fashion versus cross talk and people speaking over each other. Of course, this is easier in theory than in practice as decades of previous councils have found. Switching the format of the meetings to Zoom has become even more challenging, it is a work in progress to navigate the new technology.
Citizen Comments
Citizen Comments is the designated section of the council meetings for residents and taxpayers of Crafton to provide comments, concerns, and feedback. Citizens' comments are not intended to be a Q&A, but council does its best to answer questions during its discussion within the guidelines of the borough code. Certain items such as personnel matters cannot be discussed per state law.
Mayor’s Report Section
The mayor is provided a designated portion of the meeting to speak about any subject allowed by borough code. For example, at the last meeting the Mayor read on the floor a letter received from North West EMS.
Emergency Declarations and COVID-19
Crafton Borough is still operating under directives from State and County health officials. In order to keep the borough operating and for the safety of the residents and members of council, the state legislature has allowed municipalities to utilize video services, such as Zoom, for the meetings until this national crisis has resolved. Council decided to use the Zoom platform because this allows for unlimited resident participation. Council still utilizes Zoom due to the ongoing crisis and, if we returned to in-person meetings, we would be limited to the number of attendees. Each member of council and mayor were provided with an unique Zoom link to attend and participate at each meeting, which is consistently sent out prior to each meeting. With this unique link, each member of council may mute and unmute themselves to request the floor to speak and participate in discussion. If members choose not to use this link and call into the meeting, the unmute function is not available. It is important that all members of council and the mayor remain muted when they are not speaking as ambient noise may disrupt the meeting and cause listeners to miss discussion.
Multiple council members have offered to assist Councilman Amendola with setting up zoom on his Borough provided tablet to ensure his ability to participate in all council meetings and executive sessions but has yet to accept this assistance.
Agendas Posted
Crafton Borough Ordinance provides that the Manager is responsible for drafting and publishing each meeting’s agenda. This ordinance does not state when the Manager must publish the agenda. State law does not require an agenda to be published at any particular time. Each member of council may request that items be placed on the agenda.
Collaboration of Council
Is the council meeting behind closed doors?
Council is required to meet in executive session regarding specific topics, including litigation, pending litigation, real estate and personnel matters. Each member of council is provided equal opportunity to participate in debate and executive sessions. Each member of council possesses the contact information, including personal cell numbers, of the other council members and the mayor. Council members are permitted to speak to one and another so long as four or more members are not speaking together at one time.
Responding to Resident Emails
Most members of council maintain full-time employment in addition to serving our community in their free time. Members of council are not required to respond to emails. Some members of council are better at responding than others, and some members of council prefer to respond to resident emails in person. Council encourages residents to contact the Manager for a timely response.
Running for Council
Council encourages any interested resident to run for council. Any resident that would like to get involved can submit a letter of interest for any of Crafton’s Boards and Commission. Vacancies for each Board and Commission can be found on the Borough’s website. https://www.craftonborough.com/
For additional information about running for local government, reach out to the Local Government Academy, which is currently developing a course to educate people about running for local government. https://localgovernmentacademy.org/