Randy Albert (Photo by Wendy Brion)
CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield-Lawrence Joint Consolidation Committee met yesterday and reviewed some items regarding the state Department of Transportation and also the draft charter.
The meeting began with committee members Terry Struble and Leslie Stott announcing that the public meeting in January will be held at the junior/senior high school auditorium in Clearfield on Jan. 19 at 6 p.m.
At that time the borough and townships will officially vote on whether to move forward with consolidation. Co-chair Brian Lytle also announced that various community groups are expressing interest in having committee members make presentations about the process and the hopeful outcome.
Randy Albert, a representative of PennDOT, spoke to the committee about the law created in 1945 that addresses the differences of road maintenance by the department regarding townships versus cities and boroughs.
He said it essentially has to do with curbs and in boroughs, which generally have curbs throughout the municipality, are responsible for what happens under the streets, especially with regards to drainage, while PennDOT is concerned with the surface items. In a township, PennDOT is responsible for more on state roads and there are also issues with highway occupancy permits and so on.
However, there is no consideration for home rule municipalities. Committee members noted the new municipality would be a city in name only, the City of Clearfield, but would be a second class township for state and federal purposes. Albert suggested they send a letter to PennDOT’s District 2 legal department outlining what was going on and asking for an opinion.
The committee then discussed whether to include a section on initiative and referendum in the charter. Essentially, these would allow for more public participation in the lawmaking process, with citizens being able to suggest ordinances, or push for referendums on ordinances they disagree with. After considerable discussion, however, the committee held an informal vote and only two members wanted the section added, and so the matter was dropped.
Members of the Pennsylvania Economy League presented a chart of the proposed organization of the police department for the municipality. The city council will be on top with the city manager and then the police chief.
The chief will answer to the manager who will answer to the council. Under the chief will be an assistant chief, one full-time and one part-time administrative position, 12 full-time officers, a full-time detective, two officials in regards to meters and three part-time animal control officers.
The committee then discussed non-union administration positions. Currently the proposal is to have a full-time manager, a full-time finance director, one full-time and one part-time administrative assistant, two code officers at full-time, a public safety officer and a recreation director.
The members of PEL stated that they found that when a municipality reached a certain size it was wise to appoint someone to be in charge of finances separate from the manager, as managers have found it to be too much in addition to other responsibilities. The public safety officer, or fire administrative assistant, was suggested by the fire subcommittee report.
The committee or new council will need to determine what buildings will be used and what the official address of the municipality will be.
Public works was also discussed, with detailing of how Clearfield and Lawrence Township are currently arranged, with 15 full-time employees altogether. The employees will also need to determine how they will be represented by unions.
Currently, Clearfield is represented by AFSCME while Lawrence is represented by the Teamsters. Matters of public works will be revisited at the next meeting, Sept. 27 at 3:30 p.m. at the borough building. The committee also plans on reviewing other matters in regards to the draft joint agreement.
Also, the Oct. 25 meeting was changed to Oct. 26 at 3:30 p.m.