Council Committees

Borough Council Committees were established many years ago in the early development of Pennsylvania local government, well before the establishment of professional local government management. In the early 20thcentury many of the smaller local governments outside of the large cities of Pittsburgh, Erie and Philadelphia had only part-time elected officials who were responsible to pay the municipal bills, hire police officers and public works laborers and award contracts. Most of these elected officials (as they do today) had other full-time jobs. You can imagine the difficulty of coordinating the schedules of seven council members and then advertising each meeting as a public meeting simply to discuss daily operations or make daily decisions regarding job assignments and other management decisions. With limited staff that was not authorized to perform many daily administrative functions, many communities created council committees to help with the day-to-day management of the Borough. These Committees were never expressly authorized by the PA Borough Code nor were they created by municipal ordinance; they were (and still are) essentially ad-hoc committees to facilitate local government administration. 

Today, the professional management staff is expressly authorized to carry out all of the daily management functions of the Borough. The role of the council committees has changed significantly. Council committee are still established in part, for convenience. It is still difficult to coordinate the schedules of seven council members who are employed full-time elsewhere. They are no longer charged with the day-to-day operations; but they are still responsible for the oversight of those operations. To that end, the council committees serve as regulators to ensure that Borough residents are provided with the services for which they pay.

The Plum Borough Council committees are created by and serve at the pleasure of the Plum Borough Council President. The committees have no authority to take official action of any kind. The six (6) Plum Borough Committees (Public Works and Equipment, Public Safety, Finance, Personnel, Parks and Recreation and Economic Development) are not established by Borough Ordinance or Resolution, nor are they voted on or approved on by action of Council. They are established by and serve at the discretion of the president of Council solely and may be changed, modified or eliminated at his (her) discretion. 

The Council Committees exist solely to assist the entire Council with information gathering from Borough staff members. They do not constitute a quorum. They are merely advisory in nature, with no authority to make binding recommendations to the body of Council. They are not authorized to make any decisions on agency business or establish Borough policy. And, they are created solely for the purpose of furnishing information or making non-binding recommendations.

Finance Committee, Steve Schlauch
Responsible for reviewing all Boro expenses and financial performance as well as the development of the annual budget

Parks and Recreation Committee, Chair-Skip Taylor

Responsible for assisting with the development of Boro recreational programming and acts as the liaison to the various Boro athletic associations

Personnel & Management Committee, Dave Seitz
Responsible for reviewing all personnel actions including the recommendations for new policies and employment decisions

Planning/Economic Development Committee, Dave Majernik

Responsible for reviewing all proposed commercial and residential development in the Boro and recommending policy regarding zoning, building and development regulations

Public Safety Committee, Vicky Roessler   
Responsible for recommendations regarding law and code enforcement, emergency management, fire safety and emergency medical services policy and acts as liaison with the volunteer fire companies and EMS provider
 
Public Works and Grounds Committee, Jerry Purcell
Responsible for establishing the annual capital construction projects including the annual paving program and recommending policy regarding public services such as leaf collection and snow plowing/salting
 
 

COMMITTEE

CHAIR PERSON

CONTACT INFO

Finance

Steve Schlauch

sschlauch@plumboro.com

(412)795-6800  x4104

Parks & Recreation

Steve “Skip” Taylor

staylor@plumboro.com

(412)795-6800  x4111

Personnel & Management

Dave Seitz

dseitz@plumboro.com

(412)795-6800  x4106

Planning & Economic Development

Dave Majernik

dmajernik@plumboro.com

(412)795-6800  x4108

Public Safety

Vicky Roessler

vroessler@plumboro.com

(412)795-6800  x4102

Public Works & Grounds

Jery Purcell

jpurcell@plumboro.com

(412)795-6800  x4106