South Strabane, Where are our taxes going?

South Strabane, Where are our taxes going?

By Judi Panasik
January 18, 2008

For the last two years South Strabane Supervisors have been under a microscope, and rightfully so. The actions taken by several of the supervisors over the last two years have been nothing short of self-serving. Residents continue to be ignored and questionable decisions continue to be made. Maybe that should be South Strabane’s slogan?

What I hope after writing all of these articles, attending and taping all of these mind numbing meetings, that the residents remember next year who did what to their township. The sad thing is you don’t have to be a psychic to see what they are doing. They don’t even hide it well, but yet they continue to get away with things that affect all of us.

Recently a South Strabane Township resident called Central Tax regarding a payment and was able to speak to one of their representatives that attended the supervisor meetings. The employee felt bad that Lillian Trautman and her assistant were not made aware that they would be losing their jobs until November. Central Tax had been told in June or July that they had the job. Isn’t that funny since Supervisors Bob Koman and Ed Mazur were not made aware of anyone even talking to Central Tax until October or November?

What we do know, and Koman has confirmed, is that Ex- (never elected) Supervisor Lou DePretis had his name on correspondence with Central Tax. Did DePretis not want anyone to know about his dealings with Central because he was running for office? Did Supervisors Bob Hollick and Tony Zelenka who voted with DePretis on the deal know?

To tell Central Tax they were going to get the job last summer you would have to know you would have 3 of the 5 votes. Are there hints of the Sunshine Act being broken? Why were Koman and Mazur kept in the dark for months? Was it done this way so they wouldn’t have enough time to look over the questionable savings it took DePretis months to prepare?

Now South Strabane is stuck with no tax collectors. As a wage tax-paying resident I am not happy at the inconvenience of Central Tax. I may have been a little ok with them if at the meetings they had answered one question. However on reviewing the tapes I became more enraged as they dodged every bullet and the supervisors didn’t press to get answers. DePretis actually yelled at a resident for trying to get a simple question answered telling them to stop badgering Central Tax. The question as to how many days a year they would come to South Strabane to collect taxes was and has never been answered.

Instead of paying the tax collectors and giving the residents a service they wanted DePretis, Zelenka and Hollick insisted on focusing on Parks and Recreation. Every meeting one of them would bring up the subject of the new park and how they need to get money for it to be completed. A park, that in their own words, goes unused.

Hollick and Zelenka continue to support the park over all other areas full force.

Hollick, who is on the finance committee, has picked apart the tax department and the road crew. Hollick was upset last year that the road crew went over their budget for salt and labor. It had to be explained to him several times that the weather is unpredictable from year to year, and that just because it didn’t snow heavily doesn’t mean the roads weren’t icy.

You would think that an insurance salesman that deals with accidents would be more inclined to be concerned over the conditions of the roads. The crew was also short staffed. They probably saved money by giving overtime instead of paying someone full time wages with benefits. If I remember correctly they were only over by about $10,000. This may sound like a lot until you put things into perspective for the township.

Parks and Recreation, who Hollick has not questioned, at least in public, ups their budget every year by at least $10,000, and at the same time has more than that left over from the preceding year. Once again if I am correct they had about $12,000 left over from 2006, but no one said anything. This year they are getting $53,000 plus another $100,000 to potentially match a grant they haven’t gotten yet.

If the township is auditing itself why aren’t they auditing this board?

Going down their 2008 budget I have lots of questions.

First, how are they spending $3,500 on advertising? People that read the Observer Reporter everyday have told me they never see anything about parks and recreation. And other bigger, richer townships have laughed when I told them how much is in our budget to spend. But how much of it is really used. Yet the same amount is asked for every year.

Second, there’s the cost of recreational programs and trips. Just when did it become South Strabane’s responsibility to entertain a few? If you look at the attendance and what it cost’s per person, it’s not really fair to the rest of the taxpaying residents. Take what you put out per person per outing and I want that amount put aside for me to give me back my tax collector.

But $11,900 is put aside for trips and outings.

If Zelenka and Hollick, both park liaisons for 2007, were doing their jobs they would have also found something else suspicious with the budget. Last year parks asked for around $1,800 in the budget for the New York Trip. A trip where only one bus is taken and usually fills up right away, but they won’t take a second bus. At a parks meeting they said the trip costs somewhere between $700-$900 for one bus. They had it in their budget for two but were only taking one. This year they asked for $3,600 for the same trip that as far as I know they are still only taking one bus.

Is this budget being padded?

Why didn’t Hollick and DePretis investigate anything last year? No one even questioned the fact that Mark Murphy, Chairman of parks and rec., was paying himself $4,000 for mulch, which Mazur found elsewhere for $1,600.

That’s over double.