Sewickley Hills council candidates decline to answer election questions

Sewickley Hills has four candidates seeking three four-year terms on borough council in the upcoming November election.

Candidates are current Council President Joseph Hajnas, Councilman Thomas Klixbull, Councilwoman Teresa Hartle and Planning Commission member Cynthia Phillips.

Hajnas and Hartle earned enough votes in the primary to be on both the Democratic and Republican tickets, according to Allegheny County records.

Klixbull and Hartle will be on the Republican ticket only, county records show.

Borough secretary Diana Steele said each candidate received a questionnaire from TribLive seeking general information about them and how they would address issues in the borough.

“All declined comment,” Steele said via email.

Hajnas also confirmed he would not be participating after a council meeting on Oct. 14.

Sewickley Hills has a population of about 690, according to the 2020 census.

Melissa Melewsky is media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. She said that this case is not a legal issue.

She also noted that elected officials should want to engage and answer questions.

“They’re doing themselves a disservice and they’re doing their constituents a disservice by not providing information about important matters of public interest,” Melewsky said on Oct 22.

There are no direct emails or phone numbers for council listed on the borough website. All correspondence is directed through the borough secretary.

“Ultimately, every journalist should keep asking whoever they think will answer (questions) regardless of what any press policy says,” Melewsky said. “(Elected officials) have the right to use their voice outside the control of a government press office. … The more layers you put between the press and the information, the less reliable (and) the less accurate the information is.”

Steele and Hajnas earlier this year said having inquiries run through the borough office first and then distributed to requested or related sources is how operations have run for a long time and there are no plans to change it.