50 CENTS

ALEPPO | BELL ACRES | EDGEWORTH | GLENFIELD | GLEN OSBORNE | HAYSVILLE | LEET | LEETSDALE | SEWICKLEY | SEWICKLEY HEIGHTS | SEWICKLEY HILLS

TRIB TOTAL MEDIA

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CLASSIFIEDS

THURSDAY December 16, 2010

GROUP EFFORT PAGE 26

A trio of local women have teamed up to producea calander spotlighting the region’s abundantItalian gardens.

INSIDE

INDEXOpinion .......................................... 6Crossword .................................... 22Fellowship .................................... 34Obituaries .................................... 34Sports............................................35Real Estate .................................. 39

THE PERFECT GIFT

FULL HOUSEWhen a family of 17 children getstogether, it makes for a special holi-day celebration. Page 17.

A Tradition Since 1903VOLUME 107, ISSUE 50

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OSBORNE ELEMENTARY first-grader Gabriella Savka reacts after finding the perfect gift forher Pittsburgh Steelers-loving cousin, Tony, with the help of volunteer Alisa Lenhardt, duringa holiday mart held at the school last week.

PHOTO/KRISTINA SERAFINI

BY BOBBY CHERRY, RACHELWEAVER AND KRISTINASERAFINISTAFF WRITERS

In Leetsdale Borough —

population 1,100 — elected of-

ficials and employees spent

about $14,000 in taxpayer

money on food, drink and a

Christmas party since Janu-

ary 2008, records show.

Five council members and

several employees spent with-

out getting prior approval –

no policies were in place to do

so – and used borough-issued

Citizens Bank credit cards at

their discretion to purchase

supplies and other items,

then provided receipts.

However, not all expenses

were accompanied by re-

ceipts, and not all submitted

receipts are itemized — some-

times making it impossible to

QuestionableSpending

Some Leetsdale councilmembers, employeesrack up thousands on

taxpayers’ tab

REAL ESTATE PAGE 39

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area.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

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Local NewsPAGE 2 | DECEMBER 16, 2010 | SEWICKLEY HERALD

Taxpayers foot bills for Leetsdale council members, employees to dine outCheck, please! A look at Leetsdale council and employee spending at restaurants

from January 2008 through July 2010.— Source: Borough records

determine what they pur-chased, particularly whiledining out.

Some council membersbought items for the Parkand Recreation programsat superstores such as Wal-mart and Sam’s Club. Butthey also made less essen-tial purchases.

A review of receipts, Cit-izens and National Citybank statements and otherfinancial documents fromJanuary 2008 through July2010 obtained through thestate’s Right-to-Know Actshow taxpayers paid for:■A $6,300 invitation-

only Christmas celebrationlast year attended by 67borough officials and theirfamily and friends and bor-ough volunteers that in-cluded more than $500worth of alcohol;■ $2,713 for 288 “road-

ster” gift kits from 4im-print.com that included aflashlight and a tire airgauge engraved with “Bor-ough of Leetsdale;”■More than 300 cans of

beer for the same party – ormore than four beers perperson;■A $579 bill at Ichiban

Hibachi Steakhouse inRobinson for full-time

members of the police de-partment and then-Coun-cilman Paul Scimio in De-cember 2009;■ $926 to Mike’s Place

on Ferry Street in Leets-dale, representing 26 visitsto the local bar/restaurant.Typically, the bills indi-cated two to three people,but records do not showwho was there, and often,receipts were not itemized;and■ $545 at Azul Bar Y

Cantina, a Mexican restau-rant on Broad Street inLeetsdale.

Not included in the totalfigure are some supplies,

such as a $663 coffee makerfor the borough office pur-chased in 2008 and a $6mullet wig from Sam’sClub purchased in July.

Bruce Dice, a solicitorfor several governing agen-cies in southwestern Penn-sylvania including Mon-roeville, said none of themunicipalities or author-ity boards he works withuse credit cards.

“In the communities Irepresent, I don’t know ofan instance where anelected or appointed offi-cial had access to a creditcard,” Dice said.

“Certainly, if it was to

be used, it couldn’t be usedfor anything other thanagency business.”

Any purchases made onmunicipal-issued creditcards would have to be “re-lated to the agency,” hesaid.

“You can’t buy mealswith it,” he said. “The useof a credit card or checkmust have with it somesort of proof of what the ex-penditure was, and it hasto be directed towardagency business.”

Council raised the prop-erty tax rate for 2010.Elected officials raised therate from 9.6 mills to 10

mills, generating about$200,000 for the $2.1 millionbudget. The tax hike trans-lates to an increase of $20per year for a home as-sessed at $50,000.

Scimio, a former coun-cilman recently hired asborough manager, saidwork is under way tochange credit card use andprocedures.

“I can tell you now, allborough credit cards arereturned. Nobody has themin their possession, they’reall in the safe, and if theyneed them for something,they can come and signthem out, bring them backwith a receipt.

“In the last couplemonths, it’s really changedthe way that people haveused them because theyhaven’t had them to usethem, but if they need themthey can come and getthem and take them, and itstill is up to them as acouncil member to do whatthey want with it as long asit’s within the law,” Scimiosaid.

It is not illegal to issuecredit cards to borough of-ficials, state Ethics Com-mission Executive Direc-tor John Contino said. Hewould not address Leets-dale’s situation specifi-

cally. The commission in-vestigates possible viola-tions of ethics and lobby-ing rules.

Council President RogerNanni, who has been oncouncil for 20 years, saidhe learned in 2005 aboutthe credit cards.

“But, it’s used as amethod of payment. It’sused for a lot of things likelocal things or differentstuff,” he said.

“As far as meals go, gen-erally, to the best of myknowledge that’s only donewhen people are on bor-ough business, away fromthe borough.

“Although, we havethings in here. We’vebought food for the secre-taries, building inspector,because we have peoplecoming in,” Nanni said.

Regarding the Christ-mas party, Nanni said the“roadster” gift sets alsowere for residents, andbusiness people, not justthose who attended theparty.

He said there is no partythis year “because of allthis.” He added that theparty in 2009 was heldmainly for people who “do-nated their time through-

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Local NewsPAGE 8 | DECEMBER 16, 2010 | SEWICKLEY HERALD

PARTY FAVORS:PARTY FAVORS: What taxpayers paid for at the Leetsdale Borough 2009 Christmas partyWhat taxpayers paid for at the Leetsdale Borough 2009 Christmas party

$150 for a$150 for abartenderbartender

DecorationsDecorationsfor $456.07for $456.07from Patfrom Pat

Catan’s, GarCatan’s, Gar--den Ridge andden Ridge andPapermartPapermart

$2,713$2,713for giftfor giftsetssets

Alcohol for $512.93,Alcohol for $512.93,including more thanincluding more than$140 worth of wine;$140 worth of wine;more than $80 ofmore than $80 ofliquor; and moreliquor; and more

than $260 for 300-than $260 for 300-plus cans of beer.plus cans of beer.

Council members use borough credit cards to go out to eat, drinkout the year.”

Councilman Mike Bajsec saidcredit-card use for meals “de-pends on the purpose and na-ture of the meeting taking placeat the restaurant.”

“Some would be a good useand some wouldnot,” he said.

“However, Iknow that the useof said cards formeals regularly in-cluded boroughemployees on bor-ough business whofound themselves out of the of-fice at lunchtime, so I thinkeach council member or admin-istrative employee should an-swer the why for themselves,”said Bajsec, who was appointedthis year to fill avacancy.

Regardless ofthe explanation, ahandful of resi-dents want tochange the waybusiness is done.

Members of the ConcernedCitizens for Leetsdale group ex-pect at least five people to runfor four open seats in the May 17primary.

Group members have spokenpublicly against the hiring offormer council member Scimioas borough manager. They alsoquestioned some spending deci-sions.

“If I had my choice, I’d wantthem to resign,” said JoeMcGurk, a former council mem-ber who said he plans to run forcouncil next year.

McGurk and other membersof the group said they havespent several weeks talking toresidents.

“A lot of the people here havehad no idea what’s been happen-

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

Nanni

Scimio

BY BOBBY CHERRY ANDKRISTINA SERAFINISTAFF WRITERS

While officials in Leetsdalehave access to credit cards,those in nearby communitiesare not given such privileges.

In Aleppo Township, Man-ager Gwen Patterson said,“cards are to be used for offi-cial township business onlyand should be used only onroutine expenditures that arealready approved in thebudget.”

Only Patterson and thetownship’s public works su-pervisor are authorized to usecredit cards on behalf of thetownship.

All bills, including those forcredit cards, are reviewed byAleppo’s finance chairmanand public works chairmanand require two signaturesthat are not those of the card-holders.

Edgeworth and Glen Os-borne officials also do nothave individual borough-is-sued credit cards, according toofficials. Instead, each bor-ough has credit for certainstores and is billed followingpurchases.

“This way, if there wouldbe something fishy and itwould not be approved, I’m theone out of luck, not boroughtaxpayers,” Edgeworth man-ager Marty McDaniel said.

No borough-issued creditcards exist in Sewickley, Man-ager Kevin Flannery said.

“What we do is, if we haveto use a credit card, the depart-ment heads will use a personalcredit card, and they are ableto submit it on an invoice,” hesaid.

Other communitieskeep close tabs onuse of credit cards

ing,” he said.“They’ve had no idea how

their council members havebeen spending their money.”

Leetsdale officials with Citi-zens Bank credit cards includemembers of council — Nanni,Wesley James, Tom Brown, BenFrederick and Osman Awad —except Bajsec; senior clerk Eliz-abeth Petalino; police ChiefJames Santucci; public workssuperintendent Doug Ford; po-lice officers Daniel Raible andWayne Drish; and Mayor PetePoninsky, according to boroughclerk Petalino.

Scimio also had a credit cardissued in his name, according tothe records.

Former CouncilwomanMelanie Dunn and former policeChief Shawn Fleming also hadborough-issued credit cards.Brown, Frederick and Awad did

not return inquiries seekingcomment.

During the period examined,there were 14 Citizens Bankcredit cards issued in the namesof elected officials and employ-ees.

Today, due to personnelchanges, there are 11 creditcards, according to records.

Not all expenses have re-ceipts, and many of those that doare not accompanied by an item-ized list of purchases.

“As far as itemized receiptsare concerned, apparently somefiles did and some did not havethose when the corroborationwas gathered for (the Herald),”Bajsec said.

“As to why, I know eachmember of council stated thatthey turned in those receipts tothe best of their recollection,and the open records officer

MIKE’S PLACE in Leetsdale is a popular destination forLeetsdale officials.

PHOTO/KRISTINA SERAFINI

turned over to you all that shecould find.”

No expenses were found forcouncil members James andDunn, according to records.

“Other than a couple meet-ings I had in house, I never usedit to take anybody to lunch,”James said.

“I basically felt I’d keep thecredit card aside for emergen-cies only. I guess that’s just myway of thinking. I kept the cardput away and turned it backover to the borough a fewmonths ago.”

Scimio said the transactions— such as restaurant expenses— are budgeted.

In the 2010 budget, a lineitem under expenses called“miscellaneous, dues, dinnersand training” is listed at $20,000.

“We’ve actually never hadany policies and procedures inplace that outline or govern howcouncil members did anything,”Scimio said.

“Through working with theauditor, we’ve established ahuge list of policies and proce-dures that, once in place, willeliminate all the gray areas,which are being brought intoquestion now.”

Having individually-issuedcards for borough business hasnot always been standard proce-dure in Leetsdale, Scimio said.

“There was a point in timewhen there weren’t any bor-ough credit cards for councilmembers, and anytime some-body would need a credit card todo something for the boroughfor their committee, they had touse one general credit card thatwas for the borough,” he said.

“I don’t know who it was thatmade the determination, butthat’s where all of the individ-ual credit cards came from,from a tracking standpoint, soyou could see who actually useda credit card to spend for what.”