Leetsdale Meeting Cancellations Explained

Twice this month, Leetsdale Council was unable to conduct borough business due to the lack of a quorum.

Manager Paul Scimio said four out of seven council members have to be present or the board cannot legally meet or discuss issues. In both the case of the work session and regular meeting cases, he said, there weren’t enough council members available to conduct a meeting.

“You have to have at least four people,” Scimio said.

In the first case on Tuesday, April 12, five council members were unable to attend for various reasons. Council President Roger Nanni had to work, for example, while another councilman had a death in the family.

Scimio said he didn’t expect that two days later on Thursday, April 14 the regular council meeting would also be cancelled. He knew two officials wouldn’t be able to make it, so he began making phone calls Thursday afternoon and found two more wouldn’t be there either.

“I could’ve made it, but we were already short too many people,” Nanni said.

In addition to one person dealing with a family death, Scimio said a second councilman’s wife was taken to the hospital, a third official was out of town on business and a fourth was attending fire training.

Councilman Osman Awad was the only person able to attend both meetings, he said. A sign was posted at the borough entrance to .

“Obviously there was business to discuss and we had an agenda,” Scimio said.

Scimio said council didn’t have anything pressing on the agenda.  At least one matter the board didn’t discuss was paying the monthly bills.

But Scimio said Leetsdale passed an ordinance in the fall that allows reoccurring monthly bills to be paid by the due date to avoid late fees.

Council President Roger Nanni said he had to work Tuesday, but was able to make it Thursday. Still, there weren’t enough people to make a quorum. 

The Leetsdale Municipal Authority also cancelled its monthly meeting, but the cancellation was posted about a month ago. Scimio said the authority is also a separate entity.

Scimio said council is expected to meet as usual in May on the second Tuesday and Thursday of the month. Agenda items planned for April will be discussed then.