Councillors and borough officers sworn in at Tuesday's re-organizational meeting

 

District Judge Robert Herman (foreground) swears in, left to right, Pamela S. Williams, Marilyn Kress Hartman, Frances FitzGerald, Todd Burgard, and John Novak at Columbia Borough Council's Re-organizational Meeting Tuesday night. Burgard is the newest member of council.

After several previous appointments to fill vacant seats, Columbia now has a fully elected borough council for the first time in over a year. At Tuesday's Re-Organizational Meeting, Senior Magisterial District Judge Robert Herman administered the oath of office to the following newly re-elected members of Columbia Borough Council: Pamela S. Williams, Frances FitzGerald, M. John Novak, and Marilyn Kress Hartman. Newly elected Councillor Todd Burgard and newly re-elected Mayor Leo Lutz were also sworn in.

 District Judge Herman administers the oath of office to newly re-elected Mayor Leo Lutz.

District Judge Robert Herman swears in, left to right, Georgianna Schreck, Marlene K. Geltz, and Rebecca Denlinger.

Herman also administered the oath to Marlene K. Geltz as tax collector, Georgianna Schreck as deputy tax collector, and Rebecca Denlinger as economic and community development/assistant borough manager.

Mayor Leo Lutz presided over the election of the following officers:

President of Council - Kelly Murphy
Vice President of Council - John Novak
President Pro Tem - Cleon Berntheizel

Re-appointments for 2018 were as follows:

Zimmerman, Pfannebecker, Nuffort & Albert, LLP as borough solicitor
C.S. Davidson, Inc. engineer to the borough
Greg Sahd as borough manager
Greg Sahd as borough secretary/treasurer
Georgianna Schreck as assistant secretary/treasurer William Kloidt to the vacancy board

The following committee assignments were also announced:

Summing up, Robert Pfannebecker said of Columbia, "It's democracy in action. Everybody complains how messy democracy is, but Columbia's one of the few places in this county where it still exists in spades."