The incoming administration at Pottsville City Hall is seeking qualified people to fill vacancies on a number of commissioners, committees, and authorities. And the city’s incoming Mayor says the way things have been, as he sees them, are finished.
At a special meeting of City Council on Wednesday to formally adopt the 2026 budget – which calls for holding the line on property taxes and sets the millage rate at 5.363 – the board also voted to advertise on its Facebook page an announcement at the request of Mayor-elect Tom Smith.
Smith’s administration – with Councilmen-elect Jon Marsh and Scott Price – wants people to fill empty seats on some boards and all the seats on others.
They include:
- Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority
- Pottsville Parking Authority
- Pottsville Redevelopment Authority
- Lasting Legacy
- Pottsville Recreation Commission
- Pottsville Planning Commission
- Blighted Property Review Committee
- Pottsville Housing Authority
Letters of interest from those seeking to fill the seats are due before the end of 2025 and can be directed to City Hall.
Empty seats and dormant boards like some of these were a campaign talking point for the Smith-Marsh-Price campaign leading up to their sweep of the November General Election.
Smith said, for example, it’s been two years since the Blighted Property Review Committee has taken any action.
“Nobody got a letter. Nobody got anything,” Smith tells The Canary.
The days of empty, inactive boards is soon over, the Mayor-elect promises.
“We’re going to get the boards filled and active,” he adds. “We’re going to follow the rules and guidelines set forth. We’re not going to make up our own rules as we go along.
“The private club is over. We’re here to serve the people as it always should have been, not our friends and relatives,” Smith says.
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