The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

November 9, 2009

UPDATE: City set to hire first pro manager

By Courtney L. Anderson

SHARON — The city of Sharon appears to be just one official step away from hiring its first professional city manager.

Members of the home rule transition committee on Monday voted to recommend Thomas D. Lavorini for the job. He’ll likely be hired Thursday by council members as an interim manager for a term not to exceed 12 months.

“Once we interviewed Tom we knew we had the person to lay the foundation for the city manager form of government,” Committee President Ed Palanski said. “When we met him, I think we all felt we had the guy.”

Palanski said Lavorini has 30 years of experience in municipal management and spent 18 years as administrator in Ross Township, Allegheny County. He also worked in Aliquippa, an Act 47 community, so he is familiar with the state program that helps financially distressed communities.

Lavorini has a bachelor’s degree from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., in economics and political science, Palanski said. He’s also taken some graduate level courses during his career, Palanski said.

“He has a lot of experience we feel applies to our situation,” Palanski said.

Council member Vic Heutsche said Lavorini’s knowledge of Pennsylvania law was an advantage and added that the big plus is that “he knows all the state players” and the process for applying for grants.

Council President Mike Donato noted that it’s good Lavorini is familiar with western Pennsylvania, particularly.

And his personality seemed a good fit for the city, too.

“He struck us as a very firm and fair individual,” Palanski said. “He gets down to brass tacks.”

Palanski said Lavorini went through the same evaluation process as the other applicants, aside from a public presentation which two other finalists from Michigan made on Oct. 1. The committee has “extensively” checked his references and conducted criminal, credit and civil court record checks on Lavorini, Palanski said.

The committee did not intend to give the impression that the two other candidates were the final choices for the job, Palanski said, and noted that committee members were “not fully satisfied” with either of them.

Lavorini is being hired as an interim manager but his position could be reevaluated during his year tenure, Palanski said. He said Lavorini, who lives in Butler Township, Butler County, indicated he would be interested in the permanent job but for “very solid reasons” is not in a position to relocate at this time.

The home rule charter requires the city manager move to Sharon within one year of starting the job. It’s unclear if city officials could change that requirement without a vote by the public.

Donato said Lavorini is supposed to be at the council meeting Thursday where all five council members are expected to approve his hiring. The three council members who attended the committee meeting Monday voted to recommend him for the job.

Palanski said that if all 13 members of the committee and council that participated in the manager search could vote for the manager, they would probably choose Lavorini unanimously.

While on vacation in August 2008, Lavorini was fired from his job in Ross by a majority vote of the board of commissioners, who the same night hired the township’s former finance director, who had resigned the week before, to replace him, Pittsburgh newspapers reported.

The only reason officials gave the press for Lavorini’s dismissal was that commissioners wanted to move the township in a new direction.

“Our feeling is that his termination in Ross Township was politically motivated,” Heutsche said.

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