COLUMBIA SPY

When: School board meeting, June 16. What happened: The board approved a $31.3 million budget for the 2022-23 school year without any changes to the district's property tax rate. Funding: The district's property tax will remain at 26.46 mills, or $26.46 per $1,000 of property value. The board expects to receive roughly $11.9 million from local property taxes. Of the remaining funds, the district expects to receive $15.4 million from the state and $3.5 million from the federal government. The amount of state funding the district receives is subject to change because the state has not yet finalized the fiscal year 2022-23 budget. MORE: https://lancasteronline.com/news/regional/columbia-borough-school-board-approves-2022-23-budget-at-meeting/article_69bb46fa-f0e2-11ec-a815-cb2b8a78a9fc.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share  

Chris Vera [Columbia Spy file photo] According to Columbia Borough meeting packet documents, Council will vote on hiring Chris Vera for the newly created Columbia Market House Manager position at its June 28, 2022 meeting. Annual salary for the position is $54,000 plus benefits. $27,000 will be allocated for the position for 2022. The borough office received 7 applications for the opening. From those, 5 interviews were conducted by Borough Manager Mark Stivers, Finance Manager Tammy Bennett, and Councilman Eric Kauffman. Vera has been the longtime president of the Columbia Historic Preservation Society and is currently spearheading a project to rehabilitate Columbia's Zion Hill Cemetery. 

  Download the meeting packet  HERE.

  Download the work session packet  HERE. Download the meeting packet  HERE.

Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler received was the recipient of multiple calls from then-President Donald Trump's lawyers in the final days of November 2020 as they sought to enlist Cutler in a scheme to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state. The House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, in its hearing Tuesday, played audio recordings of voicemails left on Cutler's phone by Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, both of whom were pushing fraudulent claims about election fraud in service to the former president. "Mr. Speaker, this is Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis," Giuliani can be heard in a Nov. 26 voicemail. "We're calling you together because, we'd like to discuss, obviously the election." MORE: https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/pa-house-speaker-received-daily-calls-from-trump-attorneys-pressuring-him-on-2020-election/article_ecbf3caa-f187-11ec-8f64-7b3981e37017.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-shar...

Council President Heather Zink recently criticized a resident for an online comment made on the livestream of the June 7, 2022 meeting. Zink said the comment discourages people from serving. In response to the appointment of councilman Todd Burgard's daughter as tax collector at that meeting, the citizen had posted a one-word comment: "nepotism." Zink, who responded at the June 14, 2022 meeting, said that if the commenter didn't like the appointment, he could have run for the position or advertised for it. Zink also said there were no other candidates for the position and that's why Burgard's daughter was appointed. Although Zink didn't name the commenter, her remarks were clearly aimed at Columbia resident Joe Lintner, who posted the comment. Mayor Leo Lutz echoed Zink's remarks. Online comment during the June 7, 2022 Columbia Borough Council livestream The criticisms by Zink and Lutz appear to violate the borough's policy on civility and deco...