It was announced at the Monday night City of DuBois public meeting that Mathew Gieg is no longer with the firm Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham, LLP or the City of DuBois, according to City Solicitor Thomas Breth. This was the latest update in the chain of events going back several months.

 At the March 10 public meeting, Linda Clark asked the City Council what they knew of the broken news that Gieg’s law license was suspended. Gieg’s suspension was postponed pending probation. Gieg was absent from the meeting. The City Council insisted they only recently learned of the issue and didn’t have a comment at the time.

 At a later meeting, Gieg admitted he had issues with impaired judgement but was taking steps towards recovery. In his view it was a personal matter that he hadn’t informed the City or his firm. After Monday’s meeting when asked, Breth said that the firm had decided to part ways with Gieg.

City Ordinances

Last month the City Council sent four draft ordinances to the City Planning Commission for review. These covered skill games, E-bikes, junk yards, and the creation of a Shade Tree Commission. All four were sent back with questions by the planning commission.

 The City Council directed that the ordinances be forwarded for review. The “Skill Games Ordinance” will be given to City Solicitor Thomas Breth for review. The other three ordinances will be turned over to “General Code” who is doing preparatory work for the consolidation of the City’s and Sandy Township’s local ordinances.

Pension Review

  CS McKee’s Zack Vigneault, director of distribution, presented the quarterly update on the City of DuBois’ pensions it manages. As of market closing on Friday, the combined funds were up 0.28%. Additional increases were expected to rise more following the breaking tariff news announced earlier on Monday.

 Current account levels:

• $13.4 million
• $10.5 million

Chief Deputy AG Letter on Blaine Clark

The City of DuBois released a letter by the Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Zarallo closing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Office of Attorney General’s investigation into former City Police Chief, and City Council Primary Candidate, Blaine Clark. The PAAG’s office began the investigation at the request of Clearfield County District Attorney General Ryan Sayers who was asked to investigate Clark by the City Council of DuBois around the time Clark was terminated from his position.

When asked after the meeting, City Mayor Pat Reasinger said that this was a conclusion to what was going on. The investigation was over. Breth said he didn’t know if this would have any impact on the ongoing litigation. Only that it brings the matter to a close from the City of DuBois’ end. The ongoing litigation being Clark’s lawsuit against the City of DuBois and members of the City Council.

City Structure

  With the election season in full swing, Kafferlin gave an education lesson on the type of government the City of DuBois currently operates under and the consolidated City of DuBois will inherit per the election petition that started the consolidation process.

 The Cities of DuBois operates, and will continue to do so, as an “Optional Charter” style government on top of a third-class city system. This means DuBois’ optional charter version of government takes precedence if there is a conflict between the third-class city codes and the optional charter. An optional charter being the middle ground between third-class city rules and home rule systems.

 Under that, DuBois operates on a “weak mayor” system. While some municipalities place the executive powers of the local government in their mayor not all of them do. Some, like DuBois, places all that power into the City Manager whom the City Council hires. This leaves the City Mayor a mostly ceremonial position that manages the public meetings, signs contracts and similar on behalf of the City Council.

 Kafferlin likened it to a board of directors. The City Council controls the budget and sets the policy for the City of DuBois. The City Manager, the Chief Executive Officer in this analogy, is the one who runs the City’s day to day. To the extent of that, as individuals the City Council members can investigate the work of the City but cannot get involved with the day to day operations beyond that of a City volunteer.