And the Mural of the Story Is ... A New Law

For all of you who were hoping for a dramatic last minute change of heart on the ongoing sage of borough council's vital mural law debate, only Councilman Joe Kirkland provided some drama when he changed his vote to oppose it.

After all, this is borough council, not a Disney movie.

Having dealt with this interesting but ultimately secondary concern, council moved forward with the single most important thing it does each year the budget.

No, I'm just kidding.

Council President and Finance Committee member Dan Weand said there had been some discussion about ways to cut costs and increase revenues, but he couldn't discuss them because .... well, to be honest that was not entirely clear.

I suppose we should just rest assured its in capable hands.

But Council member Dennis Arms isn't so sure. He noted that he has provided several suggestions to cut costs but they are all still in the draft budget. He did not specify other than to say "we're still spending $100 a month for "plant-scaping here in borough hall. I don't need to see plants when I come in to pay my $300 water bill.

And Council Vice President Sheryl Miller, who has refused Weand's request that she resign from the finance committee, said engineering costs from the borough authority's engineering form, BCM, "put us over-budget in 2016. It is every council member's responsibility to be looking at this budget, not just the finance committee."

Arms also agitated for more discussion about replacing retiring Borough Manager Mark Flanders, who steps down at the end of December.

Mayor Sharon Thomas suggested a transition team that puts Assistant Borough Manager Justin Keller in the job now to save time and money. "I've been through this a few times and we always spend a lot of money to decide we need to hire from within," she said.

A rendering of the homes proposed for the 500 block of Lincoln Ave.

There was a surprise visit from the Governor's Office of Local Government, who responded to Miller's call for a review of salaries and operations saying that is what was done in 2007 and the office remained available to undertake another.

In other news, council undertook a conditional use hearing for a proposal to build six attached single family homes in the 500 block of Lincoln Avenue.

And a review of the proposed land bank law, which council voted to advertise, with only Arms voting against.

With that, here are the Tweets.

Pieces of Crossing Guard Puzzle Falling Together

Pottstown school crossing guard Cyndi Marnell
at her post at North Hanover and Beech streets

Now that council has another month to consider the privatizing of the school crossing guards, we've gleaned some more information about the particulars from Borough Manager Mark Flanders.

Perhaps most important (at least to the crossing guards) is this email which Flanders sent Wednesday in response to a query:.

"We have been assured that any current crossing guard by who wants to continue as a crossing guard will be hired by ACMS and that at a minimum, they will receive the same pay that they are receiving now."

According to the job description on the borough website, the current crossing guard salary is $19.38 per hour with “up to 1.75 hours per school day.”

In case you haven't been following the story, ACMS stands for All City Management Services, a California company.

At the Wednesday work session June 8, Flanders informed council that arrangements had been made to privatize the school crossing guards with that company -- pending council approval at Monday night's meeting.

In the wake of Mercury reporting on that upcoming vote, Councilman Dennis Arms said the guards were not aware of the move -- despite assurances to the contrary by Flanders and Police Chief Rick Drumheller --  and council tabled the matter for a month.

Questions remained and Flanders has now answered most of them.

In addition to the guards being guaranteed jobs and the same pay, the question of how the savings will be realized has also been answered.

Understand that although the borough hires and manages the crossing guards, it is the Pottstown School District which pays their salaries.

The 2016 budget lists the cost for crossing guard salaries at $154,559 and that is the money that the school district has been paying.

However, Flanders informed us that in the first quarter of the year, the Pottstown Police Department undertook an audit and realized there are other costs related to the guards that the district was not paying.

"The internal audit revealed that historically we have been billing the (school district) for salary only (the budgeted amount) and not billing for the real costs – salary plus FICA, Medicare, Workers Comp Insurance, equipment, administrative costs, the cost when an officer or parking enforcement officer fills in, etc. The total actual cost for the borough to provide crossing guard services for the 2015/2016 school year is estimated at approximately $270,000."

And that, as I had asked, is how a contract with ACMS that is not to exceed $247,000 saves $23,000 a year.

Its also interesting that the money saved will actually be the school district's, since otherwise the borough was going to increase the amount of money it charged for managing the guards, Flanders confirmed.

He also said that although it is true in most instances that when a guard calls in sick and has to be replaced by a police officer, it costs the borough no extra money as the officer is already on duty and being paid.

However, "in some instances, because we don’t have the available staff, we have to use officers on OT status," Flanders wrote.
So there you have it folks, that's as much as we know about the crossing guard situation.

A Vote of Support and a Surprise Announcement

Mercury Photo by Kevin Hoffman

Council voted 6-2 last night to issue a letter of support that will be used in an application for tax credits to help redevelop the old Fecera's furniture warehouse at Beech and Evans into affordable housing for artists.

Well if would have been hard to be bored at Monday night's council meeting.

A flood of supporters spoke out in favor of the Beech Street Factory project and council voted 6-2 to sign a letter of support.

The letter will be part of an application for $1.2 million in low-income housing tax credits which are

Photo by Evan Brandt
Borough Council President Stephen Toroney, right, talks with
Councilwoman Sheryl Miller, center, and Deb Penrod after
Monday night's council meeting.

crucial to the financing of the $12.7 million project.

The project plans to put 43 affordable apartments for artists (and six for physically handicapped residents) into the old Fecera's furniture warehouse at Beech and Evans streets.

Also, almost as many landlords came to speak out against not only council's plan to increase rental inspections to once a year -- a plan they backed off last week; but also against the implementation of the Better Landlord program, which was also outlined last week.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of the night came at the end when Council President Stephen Toroney announced he will not run for reelection to a fifth term in November.

You can read my Mercury story about that here.

Other than that, here are your tasty Tweets, served up and ready to consume.

Borough Budget Update

Although Pottstown Borough Council has yet to be presented with a budget draft, the members of
council's finance committee have.

It is too soon to say if council will be able to avoid raising property taxes for two years in a row, but it is obviously on everybody's mind.

Councilman Dan Weand, who chairs the finance committee, told council that so far he likes the way the borough' finances are shaping up.

"So far, with 75 percent of the year past, we've brought in 85 percent of the revenue and only seen 74 percent of the expenses," said Weand.

"Right now we're running a pretty good ship and that's how we brought in a zero tax increase last year, and we're holding to it," he said.

He credited borough staff with "reaching the benchmarks we set" and noted that another positive budget factor is that tax collections are coming in at a higher percentage than expected.

Dan Weand

"We have to give our staff a lot of credit. They've done a fine job for 75 percent of the year," Weand said.

"We used to budget assuming a 91 percent collection rate," Weand said, "but right now we're approaching 94 percent."

Nevertheless, he was cautious about speaking too soon about next year's tax rate.

"We're not down to a zero yet, and we may not hit it as there are some difficulties being forecast in the coming year," Weand said.

Borough Manager Mark Flanders told council Tuesday night that the process of planning for 2014 is "well under way."

He said council could expect to see a budget draft at the first committee of the whole meeting in November, which is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 6, the day after election day.....