Penn Hills Council refreshes library board in tight vote, ending tenures of 2 longtime members

Penn Hills Council has turned the page on two long-serving members of the Penn Hills Library Board, though not without resistance.

By bringing the board to its full complement of seven members, council ended Kim Dawson and Judy Donohue’s expired terms — and their 22-year tenures.

Their successors are Larry Choby, Mary Mannella and Lori Theofilis, who were appointed Monday, in addition to December appointments Julie Madera, Danielle Ciniello and Brittany Fettis. Karen Murray was reappointed at the most recent meeting, leaving her as the only experienced member.

Recently reelected Mayor Pauline Calabrese said she chose to leave all boards, committees and commissions as is during her first term for the sake of continuity.

As mayor, she can appoint members with majority support from council.

“I made no changes or additions to what my predecessor had put in place unless it was absolutely necessary,” Calabrese said.

Donohue recently moved from Penn Hills to Oakmont and said she planned to vacate her seat anyway. Dawson, however, said she wanted to retain her seat and wasn’t given any advance notice that she would be replaced.

“It wasn’t discussed with me that I was going to be phased off the board,” Dawson said. “I would have appreciated a discussion.”

Several residents and two council members spoke at the meeting in support of Dawson and Donohue, questioning the timing and motives behind recent appointments.

Felix Catlin, a resident who previously served on the board, called the move a “decapitation of (more than 20 years) of institutional knowledge.”

Some residents questioned how representative the revamped board would be of the wider community, including Grazia Tomasino, who claimed a majority of the members live in the Crescent Hills neighborhood.

“A board cannot accurately represent the needs and wants of the community when they overwhelmingly reside in the same neighborhood,” Tomasino said. “The needs of Crescent Hills are vastly different than the needs of the other 30-plus communities in Penn Hills.”

Calabrese denied that personal ties played a factor in the appointments, noting she met Mannella for the first time that evening.

“I don’t get involved with personal conflicts,” Calabrese said. “I don’t get involved, frankly, with the running of the library.”

Tina Zins, Penn Hills Library executive director, urged council to consider reappointing Dawson and Donohue, calling Dawson an “exemplary board president.” Dawson took over for Donohue as chair in 2018.

In their time on the board, Dawson and Donohue oversaw the library moving to its present location on Stotler Road, eliminating fines and transitioning from a municipal department to a nonprofit in 2021.

Resident Andrea Getsy criticized the appointments as disrespectful to Dawson and Donohue’s contributions over the years.

“We can’t just say, ‘OK, we’re done with you,’ ” Getsy said. “We need to honor them, because we wouldn’t have the current library without them.”

Alongside library staff, community members and Murray, the two played a role in crafting a strategic plan that would have kicked off at the board’s Feb. 26 meeting, which was rescheduled to March 6. Dawson had written up an agenda and fully expected the meeting to proceed as usual.

“We were going to vote on the mission, vision and core values,” Dawson said.

Opposition from multiple residents, the library board director and their colleagues wasn’t enough to convince a majority of council members to reject the appointments, which passed 3-2. New council members Shawn Kerestus and Alan Waldron voted no.

Split decisions were rare, if not unheard of, with the last council.

“I don’t believe in the last two years that we’ve had any drama,” Calabrese said. “If we weren’t going to agree on it, we didn’t put it on the agenda.”

Kerestus and Waldron said they have a different philosophy, suggesting that meetings may not be so harmonious going forward.

“It’s OK being against the grain and voting what you believe,” Kerestus said.

If Kerestus had his way, council wouldn’t vote on library board appointments at all.

“Why do we have a say in this at all as a mayor and council?” Kerestus said. “The library is a nonprofit organization. They should control their own board.”

Kerestus announced he will propose an amendment to the agreement between the municipality and library in the “next few months.” Pennsylvania library code may limit his ambitions. For local libraries that receive municipal support and were established after 1961, such as the Penn Hills Library, the municipality must appoint a majority of board members.

Waldron’s complaints centered on a lack of transparency throughout the nomination process.

“I don’t know who they are for the most part, where they came from, what their qualifications are or what their interests are in the library,” Waldron said.

After Waldron’s comments, Calabrese noted that council members were free to interview prospective appointees and “homework” was part of the job. The municipality’s home rule charter doesn’t outline a formal application process to become a board member.

“The library board is an unpaid, volunteer position, Calabrese said. “There are no qualifications like there are with employees.”

With the appointments finalized, Dawson and Donohue said they’ll be in an unfamiliar position on March 6 — sitting among the crowd.

“There’s no hard feelings about not being reappointed because it doesn’t stop my drive to support the library,” Dawson said.