Bahn's gone, but blight's still in sight

&emsp;&emsp;Bellevue's much disparaged director of administrative services is throwing in the towel. Council voted Tuesday to accept the resignation of Cindy Bahn, who has served as DAS since March of 2020.&emsp;&emsp;Although officials refused to identify the resigning employee by anything other than number and eventually employment in the borough's administrative department, multiple sources speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the employee in question was in fact Bahn, and that her resignation will be effective Jan. 1, 2024.&emsp;&emsp;Although complaints about Bahn were heard from citizens and elected officials beginning not long after she started the job, the past year has been particularly brutal for the DAS. Complaints about her failure to follow the borough's home rule charter and inability to complete financial audits in a timely manner crescendoed as Bahn was seen as a key part of the decision to decertify Bellevue's volunteer fire company in March. It got worse from there, as citizens questioned her management of grant funds, particularly one blight remediation grant that had to be extended by the state after borough officials took no action on the project for two years, and Bahn released misinformation about why the work had been delayed.&emsp;&emsp;In August, an investigation by The Citizen revealed to both the public and elected officials for the first time that the borough had lost considerably more than $400,000 (now estimated by officials as $460,000) in guaranteed state funding because Bellevue had not filed a mandated financial audit for more than 17 months after the end of the fiscal year, despite the fact that the borough had received a written warning from the state two months before the deadline.&emsp;&emsp;The target on Bahn has only grown larger as elected officials announced plans to increase property taxes by more than 20 percent in 2024 and redirect borough monies into doubling the size and cost of the fire department.&emsp;&emsp;Even as council met to approve Bahn's resignation this week (Council member Jeff Stuncard voted nay and Jillian Edmondson was absent), more information was revealed about the blight remediation grant funds Bellevue will lose in June.&emsp;&emsp;At Tuesday's meeting, council voted to reject both bids submitted for the demolition of abandoned houses on Ridge, North Balph and East Roseridge avenues. Officials said that one bid greatly exceeded the project budget, and the other, considerably lower, bid did not include the required bid bond and officials were unfamiliar with the company.&emsp;&emsp;Bahn reported that the borough had advertised the project on PennBid, a free program operated by a public/private collaboration in Pennsylvania and several surrounding states. That in and of itself violates Bellevue's administrative code, which requires advertisement of the bid solicitation in a newspaper of general circulation in the borough two times, at least seven days apart.&emsp;&emsp;Bahn said that 20 bid packets were distributed to interested contractors, but only two actual bids were received. She said that the borough engineer advised that response may have been low because the specifications did not state whether asbestos removal would be part of the work. Bahn said the engineer suggested that the properties be inspected for asbestos and the project rebid.&emsp;&emsp;The issue of asbestos should have come as no surprise to Bellevue officials, as the application for grant funds was based on a cost estimate generated by the borough engineer in July of 2020, which included asbestos testing at a cost of $500 per property, as well as asbestos abatement at a cost of $12,000.&emsp;&emsp; On July 28, 2020, in submitting the grant application, Bahn stated the following in the letter to the state agency: "Note that as the Borough is completing this project, no permits will be required locally. However, the Allegheny County Health Department will require an Asbestos Abatement and Demolition/Renovation Notification Form and an Asbestos Abatement Permit should asbestos be found upon an asbestos survey."&emsp;&emsp;Despite that recognition, nothing was done regarding asbestos or even scheduling a hearing so that the properties could be legally cleared for demolition. The grant was set to expire in May of 2023, but the borough requested a one-year extension — through June 2024 — just days before the expiration. &emsp;&emsp;Of the bids received, one was for $47,900, and the second for $131,122. The lower bidder was in the audience at Tuesday's council meeting and objected to Bahn's statement that the company appeared to be focused on home remodeling and did not have demolition experience. In the past year alone, the bidder said, the company had completed four demolitions just in the City of Pittsburgh.&emsp;&emsp;Bahn said that the engineer is getting quotes on asbestos testing, which is expected to cost $3,000. &emsp;&emsp;