4 Republicans, 3 Democrats seeking seats on Harmar Board of Supervisors

Four Republicans and three Democrats are vying for two nominations in their respective party’s primary races for the Harmar Board of Supervisors.

The board is made up of five supervisors who are elected to six-year terms. The primary is May 18.

The GOP race features incumbent Robert Seibert, who was elected as a Democrat but is running as a Republican, and challengers Neal Farkas, Frank Hatterer and Rick Kleiger. The Democratic race includes incumbents Linda Exler and Harry Lenhart and challenger Samuel Boak.

Here’s a closer look at the candidates, starting with the four Republicans listed alphabetically and then the three Democrats.

Neal Farkas

Farkas, 78, now serves as chairman of Harmar’s zoning board.

“I know most of the people on the Board of Supervisors and I do believe that I can offer a major contribution to the decision-making that’s required in trying to get things on track because of my background,” Farkas said.

Farkas spent nearly 15 years working in commercial real estate. Before that, he worked for 27 years as a corporate account manager at Digital Equipment Corp., a company that was eventually sold to Hewlett-Packard.

“I feel I have a good background in budget management and development of properties,” Farkas said. “I’m a solutions-oriented kind of person. So, when things come up, I feel that I can quickly understand what the objectives are for whatever the matter may be and make a good, educated contribution to the Board of Supervisors.”

Frank Hatterer

Hatterer, 68, works as a houseman at the Fox Chapel Golf Club. He said he feels Harmar is running well, but he thinks there is room for improvement beginning with the township’s business district.

“It seems to me that the (business district) is running down,” Hatterer said. “I don’t think there’s enough good businesses like supermarkets and things that should be here. There are a lot of empty buildings here that need to either be bought or somehow made into something. We’re not doing enough.

“The older people that live in these high rises should be able to get out and go to a supermarket near them and not have to worry about calling someone to bring something to them.”

Hatterer said he thinks residents should be getting more for their tax dollars, adding, “I want to try to give the people what they would like to have if it’s reasonable.”

Rick Kleiger

Kleiger, 70, is a Los Angeles native who spent the 1970s and early 1980s working as a master control engineer for television stations in southern California. He moved to the Pittsburgh area in 1982 and worked for WPGH-TV and later started his own production company.

Kleiger moved to Harmar last year and said he has embraced the community. Kleiger has never run for public office, but said he decided to this year because he wants better government oversight. “I trust me more than I trust the other guy and that’s why I’m running,” he said, noting that the township provides fire department funding but “we’ve never seen an audit.”

Kleiger also would like to see government officials in Harmar communicate better with residents.

“We don’t do a quarterly letter here like Indiana Township and other townships do,” Kleiger said.

Robert Seibert

Seibert, 68, has served on and off as a Harmar Supervisor since 1979. If reelected, he said this would probably be his final term. Seibert works primarily in real estate and warehousing. He owns Lincoln Warehouses, a company he has run since 1979.

He said his accomplishments as a supervisor have included lobbying for substantial grants for the township and keeping its tax rate unchanged between 2000 and 2005 at 2.26 mills.

“It was difficult but we made it,” Seibert said.

Seibert also pointed to his push for a cut in the township property tax rate, from 3.45 mills to 2.9 mills. The move was unanimously approved by supervisors last December.

He said he would like to see the township move forward with “a substantial paving program of township roads which we all promised at public meetings to the people of Harmar Township. We need to do that.”

Samuel Boak

Boak, 44, a Harmar native, has never run for political office but has held a variety of township positions, including being appointed code enforcement officer, zoning officer, an assistant emergency management official and a member of the Zoning Hearing Board. He currently serves on the Planning Commission.

“I love Harmar Township, obviously, having grown up there and staying in the community. I want to see it continue to grow and be successful,” said Boak, who spent several years working as an electrician and now is a dispatcher for Oak’s Auto/Truck Service.

Boak said improving parks are among his top priorities. Other goals include lowering sewage bills and getting more roads paved.

“There are some side streets that have been torn up due to sewage and water line removal and replacement,” he said.

Linda Exler

Exler, 69, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors to finish Jim Devlin’s term following his resignation last year. She has been a Harmar resident for 43 years and is married to Harmar Supervisor Bob Exler.

A former lead computer operator at Rockwell International for 10 years, Linda Exler said she is running for a full term to provide “honesty and accountability” to Harmar. Regarding past tax decreases, she said, “I know we can continue to give back to the people and do the right thing. My whole life has been about service and taking care of others.”

Exler said she would like to see residents have more of a say in township decisions, and while she feels the township is running well, she believes there is room for growth.

“We’ve got nice restaurants. We’ve got nice hotels right off the turnpike. We’ve got (AHN Harmar Neighborhood Hospital). We’ve got a lot to offer,” she said. “I would like to see some more restaurants come in and more diversity in some of our stores.”

Harry Lenhart

Lenhart, 77, worked for the CIA for 35 years as an intelligence operations officer stationed in Washington and other cities around the world. If reelected, Lenhart said he would like to see records be more accessible.

“There are a lot of zoning records, property records, things that have not been digitized. There are boxes full of records and we get questions about zoning issues that happened 30 or 40 years ago and they’re not filed correctly,” Lenhart said. “It’s important for the public to be able to retrieve that information.”

Lenhart said he also would like to keep taxes low and improve communications and transparency.

“I’d like to find a way to get the community more involved and more aware of what we’re doing,” he said.

“People don’t understand how the township government works. I’d to start explaining various things on our website like the tax structure. How are we taxed? Where does the money go? How is the township administration organized? How many departments do we have?” he said. “People don’t know these things and it’s hard to make an intelligent decision on what needs to be done unless they have that information.”