Bellevue hires new DAS

&emsp;&emsp;Bellevue's public works supervisor took a big step up in the borough's administration this week after being hired by Bellevue Council Tuesday night as the new director of administrative services.&emsp;&emsp;Jim Kelly takes the place of former DAS Cindy Bahn, who resigned at the end of last year after working for the borough since March of 2020.&emsp;&emsp;Kelly himself also came to the borough that year, hired as the DPW head in June in a 5-4 vote by council. Officials were upset at the time that then-council president Val Pennington had excluded council members from the hiring process.&emsp;&emsp;Two years later, Kelly was awarded a 10 percent, mid-year salary increase, from $69,360 to $76,296, in response to a reported outside job offer Kelly had received. He said at the time that the raise would be offset by the borough not hiring temporary summer help that year.&emsp;&emsp;Going into 2024, Kelly asked, and council agreed, to return to the practice of hiring temporary summer help, budgeting $15,000 for this year. &emsp;&emsp;The salary ordinance for 2024 set the DPW supervisor's pay at $79,767.47, and the salary for the DAS at $83,232. The resolution approved by council Tuesday sets Kelly's salary for 2024 at $90,000. Council also is considering a request to allow Kelly to roll over 150 sick days accrued as a DPW employee.&emsp;&emsp;Before coming to work for Bellevue, Kelly said that he worked for three years as a facilities mechanic for Davey Tree, and prior to that owned a construction company. He is a resident of Richland Township, where he served as volunteer fire chief.&emsp;&emsp;Council member Dan McKelvey, who was a member of the new DAS search committee, said that officials had interviewed four candidates for the job, and two were interviewed multiple times.&emsp;&emsp;"Mr. Kelly far exceeded all the other candidates," McKelvey said, particularly with respect to "institutional knowledge."&emsp;&emsp;Kelly's hiring was approved in an 8-1 vote with council member Tom Hrynda opposed.&emsp;&emsp;Kelly said that he would step into the DAS office Wednesday morning. Council president Jodi Cerminara clarified that Kelly would no longer act as the DPW supervisor, and that council planned to approve advertising for the open DPW position at its next meeting.&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;