Monroeville schedules 'Citizens' Night'

Monroeville council will open its chambers to the public for a combined voting and citizens meeting April 14, the municipality announced Tuesday.

The “Citizens’ Night” meeting is typically held the Thursday before council’s monthly voting meetings. It a time for residents to voice concerns, questions, grievances and any other discussion items.

April’s Citizens’ Night was originally scheduled April 9, but was canceled and combined with the April 14 voting meeting. Also canceled was the municipality’s zoning hearing board meeting scheduled for April 1. The next meeting is scheduled for May 6.

To account for the president’s recommendation that crowds stay smaller than 10 people, April 14’s meeting will be attended by only enough council members to form a quorum (four), the manager, the solicitor and the mayor.

“My recommendation to council was ‘Let’s be careful about closing a public meeting to the public, even in this unprecedented time,” said Tim Little, the municipality’s manager.

The White House on March 16 advised all Americans to avoid being in groups larger than 10 to curb the spread of covid-19.

Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all residents in Allegheny County and six others to stay at home unless “not leaving your home endangers a life.” The governor’s March 23 order also extended the state’s school closures for another two weeks.

The orders come amid reports that covid-19 has killed two Allegheny County residents and spread to 58, as of Tuesday. Statewide, there have been seven deaths and the virus has reached 851 people. There have been 8,643 negative tests.

Council will vote on an ordinance April 14 that could extend the tax deadline for business, mercantile and earned income tax from April 15 to July 15. The ordinance, if approved, would align with new state and federal tax filing deadlines.

Manager Tim Little said two agenda items were moved to May’s agenda to shorten the meeting.

The meeting will be broadcast on local TV channels and a recorded version of the meeting will be available to view on the municipality’s YouTube channel.

However, Little said there will be no cameramen present at the meeting. Typically there are two or three people for that function.

Those who desire to address council can do so by emailing Little at tlittle@monroeville.pa.us. “The questions will be addressed at the council meeting,” said the municipality’s notice posted on its website.

If more than 10 people show up to speak during the meeting, Little said people will be directed to wait outside the building before they’re let in to address council.

“But I believe it will self regulate. We had one person at the meeting last month. So I would be surprised if anybody came to the meeting this month,” he said. “I don’t like the elected bodies telling people what to do. People need to make their own educated choices.”

Other governing entities in the area have decided to hold virtual meetings, but smaller communities with fewer resources face transparency challenges during the covid-19 pandemic.

Monroeville’s Easter-related activities scheduled April 4 have been canceled.

The Jack Sedlak Cleanup Day, originally scheduled for April 25, has been postponed to Aug. 29.

The first and second floors of Monroeville’s municipal building has been closed to the public, according to its website. The building’s police lobby, located at its rear entrance, has drop boxes for tax payments, parks and recreation permit applications and building and zoning permit applications.

More information can be found on the municipality’s website.