State College Borough Council likely will use the same process to fill the vacancy created by Councilman Dan Murphy’s resignation as it did when appointing a replacement for former Mayor Don Hahn last fall.
Council took no formal action at its work session on Wednesday but will reconvene at 11 a.m. on Friday to vote on the process and a schedule for hearing from candidates and picking Murphy’s successor.
Murphy tendered his resignation on Aug. 17 and the borough’s charter stipulates that council has 45 days from then to fill the vacancy, meaning an appointment must be made by 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 1. If council cannot agree on a new member by then, it becomes the decision of the Centre County Court of Common Pleas based on a petition by council or five residents of the borough.
The charter prescribes no specific process for filling the vacancy of an elected office, other than that the person selected must be a qualified and registered voter in the borough. Pennsylvania law also requires that council’s deliberations and actions must occur in a public meeting.
Last September, Hahn was running unopposed for magisterial district judge and, with his election a virtual certainty, he informed council he would step down as mayor in December.
At the time, council agreed on a plan to accept applications from any interested and eligible borough resident. Members of the public were invited to submit questions and those, along with questions from council members, were provided to the 11 candidates to answer as they chose during brief presentations at a public meeting. Based on a random drawing, council members were then able to make nominations, with the first candidate receiving a majority vote being appointed mayor. Current Mayor Ron Filippelli was the first nomination and was appointed by a 6-1 vote to fulfill the remainder of Hahn’s term.
Councilman Evan Myers began Wednesday’s work session proposing that same process be used to find Murphy’s successor, though he and others noted that council has far less time than it did with the mayoral appointment.
‘I believe a process we followed to fill Mayor Hahn’s position was very transparent,’ Myers said. ‘We had, certainly, a robust discussion beforehand about how we should approach the appointment. I think because that was transparent the presentations by all candidates were very open.The public was able to see that. We were able to see a plethora of candidates and a wide variety of experience.
‘I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel.’
Council members Deanna Behring and Theresa Lafer and Council President Jesse Barlow also indicated the were in favor of that approach and Barlow said he will put it forward for a formal vote on Friday.
In the coming days, the borough is expected to invite interested and eligible residents to submit their names for consideration.
Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said that council most likely will have to schedule several special meetings in September to carry out the process.
Councilman Peter Marshall put forward an alternate approach the sparked some spirited debate over the course of the hourlong meeting.
Marshall suggested that each council member would submit one or two names for consideration. Those nominations would then be given to Filippelli and Fountaine to interview each person and come back to council with recommendations of ‘the top three or four people they thought would work well with council.’
Council could then evaluate and interview each of those then rank their choices, with the best-scoring candidate overall put to a formal vote. If that person didn’t get a majority, the second choice would be voted on.
Marshall said he believes sitting council members know people who would be well qualified for the position but may not be willing to go through the process used for the mayoral appointment.
‘You very likely miss good people who are not willing to subject themselves to a beauty contest, so to speak,’ Marshall said. ‘I’d rather not miss them.’
Behring bristled at the description of the mayoral selection as a ‘beauty contest,’ which Marshall later said was a poor choice of words.
‘I’m sure Mayor Filippelli would agree with me that it was not a beauty contest … when we had people apply for the mayor position,’ she said. ‘Honestly, this is a public position and people have to be comfortable being in public in order to be on council.’
Added Myers, ‘If a public forum is too harsh for people to come forward and present themselves, the public spotlight is too bright, then they shouldn’t be on council.’
Myers also said the selection is council’s responsibility and Fountaine and Filippelli should not be involved.
Lafer and Councilwoman Janet Engeman both suggested that because council is about to begin the 2021 budget process, the person selected should have some local government experience either as a former council member or a board or commission member.
But, Lafer said, anyone eligible should still be welcome to apply.
‘We are plopping this man or woman down at the beginning of a delayed budget cycle and we’re asking them to join us and be up to speed as we make decisions,’ Lafer said. ‘I would like us to ask people who might not normally want to be on council if they would be willing to serve for a year and a half because of their prior knowledge. Certainly anyone who wants to is welcome to. We don’t want to pull somebody into deep water. That’s not fair to them and that’s not fair to the borough.’
Limiting options only to those with government experience, Myers said, is how marginalized people continue to be marginalized.
‘How do you get experience if you’re not afforded the ability to get experience,’ he said. ‘We have no secret handshakes on council. We need to be sure we have true representation, not people who have been part of the club.’
Marshall said his plan would afford council members the opportunity to suggest either those with prior experience or those who would bring diversity to council.
But Myers and Barlow said that the process used for the mayoral selection could accomplish the same goal, with council members submitting questions and weighing the criteria they feel are most important in nominating and casting votes, while still keeping the process open to anyone interested.
‘I like the procedure we had for the mayor. It did have some flaws,’ Barlow said. ‘I do think it is important to be mindful that whoever this is is going to step into budget season and that is a lot to understand the first time. If you want to give weight to experience, I don’t personally have a problem with that.’
Engeman expressed concern that there would be a large number of candidates, some of whom may only be interested in one issue.
‘There are so many special interests in this town right now… that we could get ourselves a bunch of applicants who are not necessarily wanting to do it because they had the good of the community in general in mind, but that they had an agenda,’ Engeman said. ‘That’s my concern about simply saying ‘Who would like to do this?’ Because I’m sure we’ll get a bunch of people who might not necessarily be on the same page as council.’
Questions to the candidates, Lafer said, would determine a candidates’ interests and priorities.
‘I think that a simple question or two from any of us… could weed out people who have no idea what council is actually working on,’ Lafer said. ‘I think we have a way of finding out whether people are there for a one-topic reason or because the larger questions are important.’
The candidate ultimately selected to fill the vacancy will serve out the remainder of Murphy’s elected term, which concludes in January 2022.
In addition to appointing Filippelli last year, two other vacancies have been filled by borough council since 2003. In 2005 Councilwoman Janet Knauer resigned because she was moving out of the borough. Council members made individual nominations and finally voted to appoint Dick McCarl to finish Knauer’s term.
In September 2009, following the death of Mayor Bill Welch, Felicia Lewis was the only nominee and was unanimously approved to serve out the final four months of Welch’s term. Elizabeth Goreham was elected mayor that November.
