Sewickley Manager Marla Marcinko fired; officials won't say why

Sewickley Council has fired borough manager Marla Marcinko.

However, officials remain mum on their reasoning for the termination via a split vote earlier this month.

“The elected officials voted to make a change in the manager’s position,” council President Jeff Neff said when questioned about the move. He said he plans to call for a special executive session within the next week or so to discuss the future of the position.

It is unclear when Marcinko’s last day will be. She is still listed as borough manager on Sewickley’s website.

The vote was 5-4-1 to fire Marcinko on May 11 after a closed-door discussion in an executive session.

Mayor George Shannon cast the deciding vote following a split on council, 4-4-1.

Shannon said borough solicitor Richard Tucker was working on some form of separation agreement and declined further comment.

Neff, council vice president Todd Renner, Sean Figley and Ed Green voted to fire Marcinko. Council members Tom Rostek, Cynthia Mullins, Christine Allen and Julie Barnes dissented. Larry Rice abstained.

Rennerdeferred comments to Neff, who said there was not much he could discuss about the personnel matter.

The president did note there was no criminal probe or investigation of any impropriety that led to the termination.

Rostek said he was surprised and disgusted at the move.

“Losing your borough manager in such a small community is quite devastating,” he said. “It’s not like we have an assistant borough manager or department heads of the same caliber that can just step in. When you lose the borough manager, you are losing a large percentage of your leadership.

“I think Marla has provided steady and solid leadership through a rather difficult period, the pandemic. She was on a good level and had respect and security for our staff and was excellent at fiscal responsibility.”

Rostek said he could not think of a reason for Marcinko’s firing.

“It has nothing to do with anything of any kind of impropriety or integrity type things,” he said. “She was showing up to work. She was doing what she was supposed to do, no attendance issues. It was handled in executive session, and the votes were handled after executive session.”

Her termination was not listed on the meeting agenda and Marcinko did not participate at the meeting.

She said via email to the Tribune-Review that she was in Arizona at the time dealing with the loss of her older brother. He died suddenly on May 7, according to the email.

She did not respond to calls seeking further comment.

“Council was aware of this,” Rostek said about the loss of Marcinko’s brother. “Some were more aware of the details than others. They chose to vote for this termination anyway. You at least got to let the woman get back on her feet. I was pretty disgusted by it.”

Marcinko began working as Sewickley’s top administrator in April 2019.

She previously lived in the borough and spent four years working as manager for Altoona.