Yakopec is back as Lower Burrell solicitor

Lower Burrell is bringing back longtime Solicitor Stephen Yakopec Jr., more than a year after he was let go by the previous administration.

City council unanimously approved contracting with Yakopec as solicitor Monday night.

“I am grateful and thankful to be back and to continue to help the community in which I live,” Yakopec said.

In February 2019, that council decided not to renew Yakopec’s services as solicitor for reasons they declined to make public.

He had been solicitor for 26 years.

Then-Mayor Richard Callender had voted against renewing Yakopec’s contract and declined to give a reason. He said he had been friends with Yakopec for years and that it was a tough decision.

A longtime city resident, Yakopec still wanted to serve his community and decided to run for council for the first time with current Mayor John Andrejcik as a running mate.

Yakopec won the primary but lost in the 2019 general election, while Andrejcik ousted Callender.

The only councilman who supported Yakopec last year, casting the lone dissenting vote to not renew his services in 2019, was Joe Grillo.

On Monday night, Grillo made the motion to retain Yakopec’s services as solicitor.

Following Yakopec’s departure last year, council decided to make it a practice to review the contract with their current solicitor, and this year the city advertised for legal services, Grillo said.

The city’s most recent solicitor — the firm of Cafardi, Ferguson, Wyrick, Weis and Stotler of Sewickley — was among nine firms, including Yakopec, who sent letters of interest to represent the city, Grillo said.

City council whittled the list to three prospects and recently interviewed three prospective attorneys, Andrejcik said.

Although Grillo had good things to say about the Cafardi group, he still wanted to keep city dollars spent on a solicitor in the city or at least Westmoreland County.

“Steve has a lot to offer and he’s a sharp guy,” he said Monday night after the council meeting.