Moon Supervisor Announces Plans to Step Aside as Township Chairman

Moon Supervisor Marv Eicher announced plans Wednesday night to step aside as township chairman, citing a "division" within the supervisors' board.

Reading a prepared statement, Eicher asked the township manager to place a reorganization motion on the agenda for the September regular meeting to elect a new chairman as the first order of business.

"I am not going to subject myself to a continuation of what's been going on behind the scenes for the past three weeks," Eicher said.

Eicher also made a motion to hire a special, independent firm to investigate actions of board members and staff as it relates to the Robert Morris hearings, the parks department, and the planning department, including emails, meetings and associated issues.

The solicitor's office was asked to recommend two firms no later than Friday, Aug. 23 to allow the board to select a firm at the Aug. 28 workshop meeting. The motion passed 3-1, with Supervisor Jim Vitale voting against it. 

Supervisor Frank Sinatra said this is not the first time Moon has had an outside firm come in to give the board advice. 

"It was done in the past, it worked out well...so doing it this time I think is a good idea," Sinatra said. 

Eicher said issues cropped up last month after supervisors held a public hearing for the Holiday Inn property rezoning with Robert Morris University and came up with a list of conditions RMU had to comply with. 

Following the first hearing, Eicher said the university wanted to meet with a supervisor to negotiate the conditions. The solicitor, however, advised that negotiations outside of public meetings were not permitted because hearings are a judicial process, he said. 

The following week, Supervisors Jim Vitale and John Hertzer held a private meeting with the university president and negotiated new conditions, Eicher said.

"I expressed my disapproval with their actions to both the solicitor and the manager," he stated.

Solicitor Tim Bish acknowledged during the July 22 public hearing that the private meeting was improper, and offered supervisors a chance to recuse themselves if need be. No one did.

In the end, RMU officials agreed to make traffic light improvements at the campus entrance, among other conditions tied to the property's zoning approval, which saved Moon about $275,000.

But Eicher said in his statement that "events during the hearing and subsequent emails have led to a serious division within the board."

He said Vitale and Hertzer released an email written by the manager claiming that Eicher's questions and comments during the hearing demonstrated improper employment practices. 

Eicher said the matter was never discussed with him, or investigated. He said he feels the email was presented as fact and used to question his integrity although he said "they have remained silent regarding their improper meeting with Robert Morris."

He said Vitale and Hertzer have made it clear they want a change in leadership. Supervisors will vote next month to appoint a new chairman.

Neither Hertzer nor Vitale, who attended the meeting via telephone, commented on the matter.