PITTSTON — Pittston City Mayor Michael Lombardo gladly reports the city is in the best financial shape it has experienced in over 35 years.
“The ship is in the right direction,” Lombardo declared.
Over the years, unlike several municipalities in the state, Pittston has had difficulty keeping up with paying into pension plans for full-time employees.
Lombardo’s administration worked hard in 2018 to restructure debt and funded the pension through short and long-term borrowing.
“That’s a necessary evil, so-to-speak, to move forward,” Lombardo said. “If you’re not going to invest in yourself, who is going to?”
The hole in the fund was the police fund, which is the fund that struggles across the Commonwealth, according to Lombardo.
“Getting the pension fund resolved was critical, along with restructuring our debt,” Lombardo said. “Now all of our pensions are funded at an A+ rate; they are all close to 100% now.”
The municipal obligation to the pension fund from the city in 2017, above and beyond state aid, was $550,000, whereas this year will be $102,000.
“That’s a huge swing,” Lombardo admits.
One objective moving forward for the mayor is to have a healthy fund balance.
“I want to build two rainy day funds, one for the pension and one for a general rainy day fund,” he said.
One key to keeping the pension fund in check is to keep salaries under control.
“I’m all for paying people what they deserve and I think we have good salaries here,” Lombardo said. “I think we’re one of the most competitive municipalities and I will continue to make, and so will the administration, investments in our departments, but we’re not going to be crazy, either.”
Lombardo believes the city has the right amount of personnel currently and is positioned to save money in the long-term without panicking.
“If we build a healthy reserve in the pension fund so that if we hit a bump in the road, we can write our own check to subsidize the pension fund,” he said.
Currently, the city has nine full-time police officers and several part-time officers, along with eight full-time firefighters and numerous volunteer firefighters.
“We’ve not gotten smaller in those areas and I refuse to do that; we’re not going to make cuts,” the mayor said. “Even if we pull off a structural merger with somebody (another municipality), that’s not going to mean more in cuts.”
The merger Lombardo alluded to is the possibility of municipalities on the east side of the river merging to form one police force and one fire department.
Lombardo believes a merger is possible and could save money for municipalities but, until talks get serious, the city’s attitude is to sit back and wait.
Pittston City and Jenkins Twp. ambulance associations have merged in recent years.
The mayor clearly sees a difference in his first two terms compared to his current term.
“I’m being much more political and being engaged in much more things like I’m on the Pennsylvania Municipal League Board now and I’ve been going to board meetings in Harrisburg,” he said. “I’m lobbying for things like local police to use radar. Those are things, for my first two terms 20 years ago, I didn’t have time to do nor did I have the knowledge to do it. Now I can.”
Lombardo enjoys a great working relationship with his council.
“I’m fortunate to have a council that’s all on the same page,” he said. “Even when we disagree, we respectfully disagree; it’s not a circus on the floor and it shouldn’t be a circus. We should respect our residents that come to council meetings.”
