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Marla Marcinko
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TAB 7
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA)
December 22, 2005
Penn Hills reserves take a hit
Author: Reid R. Frazier
A large savings promised by Penn Hills council for 2005 will come up short because of pay
raises and personnel decisions made by Manager Peter Colangelo before he left the job in June,
municipal officials say. Council passed a budget in February cutting $250,000 in costs by
eliminating four jobs and freezing administrative salaries at 2004 levels.
But almost a year later, two of the four employees still are on the job, the finance director
received a 9 percent raise after being offered another job and his staff received a 5 percent raise.
All told, the municipality paid an extra $125,600 this year to employees it was supposed to lay
off or whose salaries were to be frozen.
Municipal officials blamed the extra costs on a revolving door in the manager's office. Five
people have had the manager's position since January, including Colangelo, who was in the
position from February to June. "We changed managers so many times," Councilman J-LaVon
Kincaid said. "The discontinuity -- that's understandable from one person to another."
Colangelo decided to keep two people whose jobs were eliminated by the 2005 budget. Council
had voted in March to eliminate the positions of Tom O'Grady, assistant water pollution control
director, and Nancy Jones, administrative assistant to the manager. Administrative secretary
Kitty Macioce and Jack McCrory, assistant police chief, were laid off in April. Colangelo could
not be reached for comment.
Manager Marla Marcinko said the decision to keep Jones and O'Grady was based on "the need
to maintain some semblance of order with qualified, experienced personnel."
O'Grady, whose annual salary is $61,615, declined comment. He has been serving as acting
director since May in place of director Jim Schaffer, who is on sick leave. Jones, whose salary is
$53,688, could not be reached for comment.
Colangelo approved a $6,300 pay raise for finance director Ed Schrecengost in April after he was
offered a similar position near State College. "I told them I had another job offer, and this is
what they gave me to stay," Schrecengost said. Schrecengost said he asked Colangelo to give
the raises to his staff of four because they had put in long hours while the office was short-staffed
for a year. Those raises added another $4,000 to the 2005 budget.
The manager is allowed to make personnel decisions without bringing them before council as
long as there is enough money in the budget from other areas, Marcinko said. Colangelo
discussed all the decisions in executive session with council, municipal clerk Diane Fitzhenry
said.
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