Aug 7, 2008 By Patty Yauger 4 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – The lack of a city code officer has forced the Connellsville Planning Commission to put all building permit requests on hold until the city takes action in the matter. “There’s no sense in talking about any of these, because we can’t do anything,” said commission Secretary David Leeder during Tuesday’s meeting.

Due to the absence of commission Chairman Sam Spotto, Leeder was overseeing the session.

Last month, city councilman and director of public health and safety David McIntire terminated city health, zoning and code enforcement officer Rita Bornstein after she had been found by the state Ethics Commission to have violated city regulations.

She has since been reinstated as the zoning and health officer pending a hearing in the matter. McIntire, however, did not include the code officer position in the reinstatement letter.

Bornstein’s code officer position includes advising the planning commission of compliance with city regulations for the issuance of building permits.

Although not in an official capacity, Bornstein briefly attended the commission meeting to advise the board that she had not reviewed any new building permit applications or discussed application deficiencies with those that submitted documents the prior month.

“I’m not permitted to contact them,” said Bornstein.

The unresolved city matter also delays the start of an art project on the city’s portion of the Great Allegheny Passage.

The Regional Trail Corp. that owns the property where artist Steven Fiscus plans to construct an archway had applied for the building permit, but the planning commission agreed it could not issue the permit without Bornstein’s signature.

Widmer Engineering Inc. engineer Glenn Wolfe, who also reviews permit applications, indicated that Bornstein would have to investigate the materials to be used in the construction and its safety before authorizing the construction.

Fiscus was among three artists taking part in a Progress Fund/Trail Town Public Art Program to design and construct an art piece along the southern gateway entrance of the bike trail.

Connellsville Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Michael Edwards, who is working with the Progress Fund in connection with the project, said the art piece is to be completed by Sept. 20.

“He has to get started,” said Edwards.

The authority received a $5,000 grant from the Pittsburgh 250 Grassroots Community Connections to construct the artwork along the trail.

Leeder said that the commission had no role in the Bornstein matter, but the situation is impacting the duties of the panel.

“Hopefully the city will do something soon,” he said.

The board did agree to give tentative approval to the project pending review by the code officer. Bornstein, meanwhile, said that she has not been advised of a hearing date to resolve the matter.

“I haven’t heard anything,” she said following the commission meeting. “I don’t know what is going to happen.”

Bornstein said that she is aware of several code enforcement issues throughout the city, along with the planning commission permit reviews, that remain on hold because she can no longer represent the city in that capacity.

“There are hearings scheduled for several code enforcement violations, and I will not be able to testify because this is not resolved,” she said. “The judge will throw the cases out, and the city will have to start the process over again.”

Bornstein is a state certified code enforcement officer and permitted to issue citations in building code matters.

Her suspension stems from a study conducted by the Ethics Commission. In the resulting report, Bornstein was found to have performed work for other municipalities during her normal city work hours and used city equipment for the secondary employers.

In November, Bornstein entered into a consent agreement with the Ethics Commission and admitted using the computer and telephone in her city office for her secondary employers and for personal use on a limited basis and also limited use of the city facsimile machine to facilitate her other positions.

However, Bornstein denied she had performed the other duties while scheduled to work for the city. McIntire could not be reached for comment Wednesday.