HomeMy WebLinkAbout96-569 CohickShelley M. Derendinger
Secretary/Treasurer
Borough of Newport
231 Market Street
Newport, PA 17074
STATE ETHICS COMMISSION
309 FINANCE BUILDING
P.O. BOX 11470
HARRISBURG, PA 17108 -1470
TELEPHONE (717) 783 -1610
ADVICE OF COUNSEL
June 13, 1996
9a -569
Re: Conflict, Public Official /Employee, Borough, Council Members, Mayor, Salary
Increase.
Dear Ms. Derendinger:
This responds to your letters of April 25 and May 28, 1996 in which you
requested advice from the State Ethics Commission.
Issue: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Law presents any
prohibition or restricts seated borough council members and /or a seated borough
mayor with regard to receiving a salary increase within the maximum amount allowed
by law.
Facts: As Secretary /Treasurer of the Newport Borough Council, you request
advice from the State Ethics Commission on behalf of Council Members Deven Cohick
(Cohick), Myrtle Leinaweaver ( Leinaweaver), and Mayor Martha McDermond
(McDermond). Cohick, Leinaweaver and McDermond are all seated, with terms that
run through 1997.
You and Council President Barbara Leach contacted the Pennsylvania State
Association of Boroughs (PSAB) and asked if the full Council (some seated and some
newly elected in November of 1995) and the Mayor could receive a salary increase.
You state that PSAB advised you that the Borough Code does not state that the
seated Council Members could not receive the increase, and that all of the Council and
the Mayor could receive the pay raise. At the Borough Council's meeting on December
5, 1995, a motion was passed to increase the Council's salary to $ 100 per month and
the Mayor's salary to $ 125 per month effective January 1, 1996. Full Council and the
Mayor received the new salary rates for the months of January and February, 1996.
At the March 5, 1996 Borough Council meeting, Leinaweaver stated that she
had attended a meeting in Cumberland County and was informed by other borough
representatives that it was a violation of the State Constitution for seated council and
a seated mayor to receive a salary increase. A motion was then made at the March
5, 1996 meeting to rescind the pay raises for Cohick, Leinaweaver and McDermond