CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Clarion Borough Mayor Dave Walters has suspended Mark Hall as police chief via letter and Borough Council will meet on Tuesday, November 15, at 7:00 p.m. to vote to uphold or reject the suspension. Bill Peck is serving as officer-in-charge.
Council voted last Saturday morning in a special meeting to also remove Hall from duties as secretary/treasurer.
“We will have to act on November 15 whether to accept his suspension,” said Council President Carol Lapinto. “If council supports the mayor’s decision, then it goes to the Civil Service Board. We just received a letter yesterday, and we will (take) action on it the 15th.”
Lapinto said that in addition to the suspension of the police chief, council needs to authorize signatures, so bills can be paid because Hall’s authority to sign checks was removed, and a new right-to-know officer needs to be named.
According to Civil Service Commission Chair Tim Tarr, the commission is an option, but Hall would have to request it.
“Council is free to take whatever action it wants to take, and should Chief Hall choose to appeal that decision, then it would come to the committee,” said Tarr.
“What the hearing is for is to simply determine if the borough had sufficient cause to make the decision they made. The borough could present evidence, call any witnesses, documentation, and Chief Hall could do the same. The commission itself could subpoena witnesses if we felt we needed more information.”
No one from Clarion Borough or its solicitor will comment on why the action was initially taken, although Lapinto said, “It is tied into vacation.”
Attorney Blair Hindman provided a description of at least one of the issues.
“They basically claim he took some vacation pay which he wasn’t entitled to the last few years,” said Hindman who talked to exploreClarion.com on Thursday afternoon. “An audit showed that, and he went into talk with them. If they want to make an issue of that, it’s their prerogative.”
Hindman continues, “No, I don’t think there is anything else there, and this is what I’ve been told. I don’t think there’s any allegation of impropriety as secretary-treasurer. There’s not a money issue. The only issue is — Did he take vacation pay that they say he technically wasn’t entitled to?”
Hindman said Hall has cooperated with the borough. He feels there is no allegation of hiding anything and commented, “It will all come out in the wash.”
If Hall requests a hearing before the Civil Service Commission, the group’s members include Tarr, Bernie Verve, and Michael Chesterfield.
Tarr provided some background on the commission.
“The chief of police does not automatically have civil service protection,” said Tarr. “If the council wants to provide him that protection, then at the time he is hired, they have to pass a resolution requesting that the civil service administer a non-competitive test to the candidate. If he passes it, we affirm that to the council, and that process grants him civil service protection. From what information I have been provided, that did occur.”
Meetings of the Civil Service Commission can be public, but not necessarily so.
“It can be,” said Tarr. “I think by default it’s a public meeting. According to civil service rules, either party could request it be a closed hearing. They could make that request to the commission, and we would look at the reasons for requesting that, and the commission would have to make the final determination if it would be public or closed based on the facts we had at that time.”
The decision of the commission can be appealed to the Clarion County Court of Common Pleas.
Jack Troese is the commission solicitor, but Tarr said that in his time with the commission, he has never had to be used for anything.
