Penn Hills council delays proposed code of ethics vote

Penn Hills Council delayed a vote on a proposed code of ethics ordinance at its Nov. 18 meeting in order to make changes to its meaning and grammar.

The move came after a lengthy discussion that was prompted by mayor-elect Pauline Calabrese’s comments and a question she directed at Councilman John Petrucci.

She said the ordinance has “conflicting language,” and that it needs to be more straightforward. She also said the ordinance should include a prohibition of the “appearance of impropriety.”

Calabrese said a five-year towing contract with Don Kuhn Auto Body gives the appearance of impropriety because the owner is Mayor Sara Kuhn’s husband. The contract was renewed in July with a 3-2 vote. Kuhn abstained.

Outgoing Councilman Mark Brodnicki dissented and later – during the same July meeting – suggested council look into adopting an ethics ordinance.

During her address to council, Calabrese suggested other council members should have abstained from that vote because of possible ties to the Kuhn family. She then asked Petrucci if he was related to Angel Kuhn – who is married to the mayor’s grandson and works at the towing business.

“No,” Petrucci said.

“There’s no relationship by marriage or otherwise?” Calabrese asked.

“No,” he said.

The exchange prompted Angel Kuhn, who happened to be in the audience, to address council. She said there is no blood relationship to Petrucci, whom she knows only through his political presence in Penn Hills. She said she found out that a relative of hers is married to a family friend of Petrucci’s late mother.

She then urged council to put the contract out for a bid, a process the contract did not undergo.

“To make this all go away and to show the positive that Don Kuhn Auto Body does for this township, put it out … there’s nothing to hide,” Angel Kuhn said, adding her confidence the company has the lowest rates in the area.

The discussion included the mayor’s defense of her husband’s towing business, which has been in contract with Penn Hills since 1976. She called her perceived criticism of her husband’s business “shameful.”

“No one has made any comments pertaining to the services that Don Kuhn Auto provides each and every one of you sitting in here,” she said, adding the business provides free or discounted towing to municipal vehicles.

Mayor Kuhn also repeatedly brought up the ordinance’s grandfather clause that protects potential past violations from punishment. She even asked Craig Alexander, Penn Hills’ solicitor, to give a legal opinion about whether the ordinance would affect Don Kuhn Auto Body in any way.

“Not during the term of this contract,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Catherine Sapp thanked Brodnicki, the ordinance’s author, for presenting the code of ethics – which she said is “needed so much in Penn Hills.”

However, she said the ordinance’s language is “very conflicting” and suggested the set of rules to be tabled until “the verbiage has been (made) more clear.”

Her motion was unanimously approved.

Brodnicki, who will be replaced by one of two newly-elected council members in January, modeled the ordinance after Ross Township’s set of rules that place strict limitations on elected and appointed officials on doing business with the township.

Petrucci called the ordinance “raw” and said he wants the ordinance to include provisions that address how the municipality will investigate allegations of violating the ethics code.

Sapp, who will remain on council for another two years, promised Brodnicki the ordinance will get approved at a later time.

The extra time will also allow council to fix “tragic grammatical problems” found throughout the draft ordinance, as resident Felix Catlin described them.

Council will meet at 7 p.m. Dec. 2, 16 and 27 to hold public hearings on the municipality’s 2020 budget and possibly vote on other items.