Police Chief, Borough Manager Get 2-Year Contracts

Photos by Evan Brandt

Newly hired Police Chief Mick Markovich, left, and Borough Manager Justin Keller, right, pause for a photo with Pottstown Borough Council President Dan Weand.

It may have taken longer than it should have, but borough council finally got its act together enough to agree on contracts for two of the most important posts in borough government last night.

After starting its meeting by going into closed-door executive session to discuss "personnel," council returned and announced it would be adding two items to the end of the agenda.

Not that anyone was surprised.

It was common knowledge that Interim Borough Manager Justin Keller and Interim Police Chief Mick Markovich were both destined to have the "interim" removed from their nameplates at the first meeting in August.

It just took council some time work out the details of two contracts which are, according to Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. almost identical.

Both contracts expire on Dec. 31, 2019.

The salaries for both contracts are retroactive to the first of the year. Keller will be paid $107,000 per year and Markovich will be paid $110,000 per year.

Because Markovich has more years with the borough, he will receive five weeks vacation while Keller only gets three.

Both get 12 sick days, as well as a borough vehicle to drive and the same health benefits and pension that every other borough manager gets, according to Garner.

Hired two years ago this month as assistant borough manager, Keller became interim manager on Jan. 1, with the retirement of the man who hired him, former borough manager Mark Flanders.

Before hiring him permanently, council altered the borough manager ordinance, removing the provision that required Keller to live in the borough. Although he had lived in the borough, Keller now lives in Audubon.

While pleased to have the position made permanent, Keller said he has been doing the job for several months and is now focused on increasing revenues and trying to lower costs for next year's budget.

That will be a tall order given that the mid-year adjustments Keller reported to council last night mostly included cost increases.

Markovich replaces former chief Rick Drumheller, who retired last month, 18 months earlier than he had previously planned.

Markovich's appointment comes only a month after was named interim police chief and by-passed Police Captain Robert Thomas, who, at least according to previous borough practice, many thought would get the job.

Markovich said becoming a chief of police had always been one of his career goals, "I just didn't think it would happen so soon."

"I'm excited to lead this department and to be of service to the borough," Markovich said. He said he hopes to "re-allocate some of the staff to the busier times, and to the downtown business district."

Other plans, he said, he will share when they are ready to be announced.

Congratulations to both and good luck.

Now, if they can just find a fire chief .....

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Two New Chiefs

Borough Family Values

It is not uncommon for a new company or a new administration to try to re-boot their operations by sitting down and asking themselves "what is our mission?" or "what are our core values?"

Well, you can add the Borough of Pottstown to the list of those organizations.

And even though the borough's mission statement and core values were updated as recently as Oct. 11, 2011, Borough Manager Mark Flanders has presented borough council with drafts of a new mission statement and new core values for the borough.

He wants to know what they think before they become official.

So before they become official, I figured, why not ask you what you think. Feel free to post your thoughts in the comment section below. (If you can't "sign-in," just choose the "anonymous" option and you can sign your name if you like.)

I thought perhaps the best way to do this comparison is to look at them side by side.

As posted on the borough web site (thanks Ginny Takach for helping me find it), this is the borough's current Mission Statement, adopted in 2011, are:

Our mission is to provide and maintain superior municipal services in a safe and controlled community setting, keeping within the designated financial constraints as set forth in our annual budget, in order to attract and retain responsible property owners, businesses and community leaders that will continue to assist in our improvement and growth for the future, while remembering our P.R.I.D.E.

Flanders has proposed replacing the above with the following:

The mission of the borough of Pottstown is to provide equitably responsive, innovative and cost-effective services. 

As for the "core values," notice that the current Mission ends with "P.R.I.D.E."

Mark Flanders

Well apparently it stands for something, the borough's core values, at least for the moment are as follows:

P.R.I.D.E. Core Values
P - Plan - We will accept that change is inevitable, and PLAN accordingly for the future.
R – Responsible - We will manage our financial and human resources in a RESPONSIBLE manner.
I – Interests - We will consider the INTERESTS of the entire community in decision making
D – Deliver - We will strive to DELIVER superior services to the tax and rate payers.
E – Equity - We will treat everyone and every situation with EQUITY and fairness.

And Flanders has proposed the following new core values statement to replace the one above:

ACCOUNTABILITY:
We will obligate ourselves to account for all of our actions, accept responsibility for them, and disclose the outcomes in a transparent manner.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT:
We provide the highest quality service with the resources available by promoting innovation and flexibility to meet the changing needs of the borough.

ENVIRONMENT:
We are aware of the importance of our natural, historic and economic resources and strive to enrich their sustainability for future generations.

ETHICS:
Setting high standards in our personal, professional and organizational conduct, we will strive to uphold the public trust by conducting ourselves with integrity in furtherance of the borough's mission.

RESPECT:
We will demonstrate respect by how we treat each other, by the contributions that come from our diversity, by the productivity of our relationships, and by a job well done no matter what the job.

SAFETY:
We are dedicated to educate, promote and encourage the practice of safety while reducing unsafe and hazardous conditions for all who live, work and play in our community. Thus improving the quality of life within the Borough of Pottstown.

TEAMWORK:
We operate collaboratively with an intense focus on the common goal, betting the community we serve, and we recognize that we can always achieve more by working together.

TRUST:
Trust is the condition and resulting obligation of having confidence placed in oneself. Therefore, we accept the challenge to display integrity and character in every aspect of our functions.

 So there you have it folks.

The Mission Statement got shorter and the Core Values statement got longer.

What do you think?

Are the new ones better than the old ones?

Do you have any suggested changes?

Pass them along and we will pass them along to Flanders and Council.

That's the Way We've Always Done It

Is it too soon to
congratulate

Jeff Sparagana as
the new superintendent?

So here's what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking that the failure of the Pottstown School Board to hold a public meeting about hiring a new superintendent Tuesday, as had been tentatively scheduled, has a reason.

And I'm thinking the reason they didn't have a meeting is, they didn't need to.

This month it is officially 15 years since I arrived in Pottstown and was put on The Mercury pay roll.

In that time, I have watched new superintendent searches conducted in school districts from Daniel Boone, Owen J. Roberts (sometimes painfully), Spring-Ford, Phoenixville (sometimes expensively) and Boyertown.

I'm sure I missed some, but those are the ones I remember.

In all that time, however, I have never seen one conducted in Pottstown that looked beyond the borough border.

And I'm starting to think we're about to see the same thing happen again.

When I arrived, Frank Heifer was the superintendent and he had been an assistant to Ray Feick who preceded him. Then it was Tony Georeno, followed by David Krem and then Reed Lindley  all of whom had come up through the ranks of the school district.

There was never a 

terribly good explanation

offered for Lindley's departure

Now, with Lindley's sudden and unexplained departure many months before his contract ended, the school board seemed poised to begin an actual search outside the border.

This was due largely to the fact that the obvious successor, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Sparagana, having twice failed to secure the post, had announced his retirement prior to Dr. Lindley stepping down without warning.

Dr. Sparagana then agreed to delay his retirement until the end of the school year to give the board more time to find a replacement.

Still, in the arc of finding a new superintendent, six months is not a lot of time.

So why in the world would they cancel a meeting designed to get things started -- at least publicly.

Why indeed?

Well, being the amateur historian that I am, I firmly believe that  in most cases, past predicts future and if there is one past event in Pottstown that you can predict will occur again, it is promotion from within.

So am I saying I think Dr. Sparagana -- now finally sitting in the superintendent's chair -- likes the way it feels?

I am.

Am I saying that I think the Pottstown School Board would love to have one less major project on its plate, like searching far and wide for a new superintendent, and would equally love to offer a trusted familiar face a three-year contract?

I sure am.

How confident am I?

Pretty damn confident.

It was Mark Flanders' knowledge of

Pottstown and its employees that won

him the borough manager's job, council

members said when he was appointed.

Am I willing to put my money where my mouth is, always dangerous ground for an underpaid journalist?

Yes again.

So, it's official, I will bet anyone who thinks I'm full of it $25 that the next superintendent of the Pottstown School District will be Jeff Sparagana.

But before you put your money at risk, consider how we do things in Pottstown.

Over at Borough Hall, the insider candidate was chosen despite dozens of applications from those with more experience; and before April rolls around I think we will again see the insider, in this case Rick Drumheller, named the new police chief.

Understand, this is not to say that I think any of these folks will do a bad job. In fact all three mentioned here are quite competent and I suspect they'll do fine.

They are all dedicated and have all given years of service to this borough in one form or another. And yes, that should count for something.

As one person in a position to make these decisions told me, "I hate to disqualify someone just because he is local."

I think it likely Drumheller will be chosen as Pottstown's

new police chief.

But the best indicator, I think, of how Pottstown officials view these things, are the comments made by the borough council members during the obviously pre-arranged statements they made in support of the appointment of Mark Flanders as borough manager.

Several council members talked about his familiarity with the staff and how Pottstown works.

They said they valued that over hands-on experience running a municipality, a viewpoint which is not only their prerogative but perfectly valid.

But I suspect another familiarity was at play as well, the familiarity board members have with Flanders and, soon enough I suspect, a familiarity they have with Drumheller.

Why should the school district, which has the longest record of promoting from within and valuing familiarity, change their ways now?

The only minds they would need to change are Dr. Sparagana and his family.

And after all, that's the way we've always done it.