The Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission in 2025 reprimanded a handful of elected officials for profiting from their official posts by hiring relatives, granting themselves paid positions and failing to meet transparency requirements.
These investigations involved
- a township supervisor who allegedly voted to award a road resurfacing project to the company where he works;
- a borough council member accused of helping direct municipal grants to a nonprofit led by his daughter;
- a township supervisor accused of unilaterally firing a municipal employee and hiring his brother to fill the vacancy;
- a mayor accused of using a city-owned dumpster to clean out her house;
- a township supervisor who reportedly earned more than $33,000 as a consultant for her own municipality, and
- a borough council member accused of hiring his two sons to do park projects.
Consulting work in Delaware County
The commission investigated a Delaware County township supervisor who voted to appoint herself as a municipal consultant, a position that netted her more than $33,000 in pay, according to the ethics findings.
The Chadds Ford Township manager originally suggested creating the consulting role because she was overwhelmed with her responsibilities and needed help with stormwater inspections and contract negotiations. She noticed that the township supervisor, Samantha Reiner, had some experience in those areas.
The township’s board of auditors established Reiner’s wages during a 2021 meeting, but the supervisors took no official action at the time. In 2023, Reiner and another supervisor voted to appoint her as a special consultant to the township.
The township never created a job description for her and didn’t follow an open and public process in hiring her, according to the commission. From 2021 to 2023, Reiner made more than $33,100 as a consultant, far more than the roughly $1,875 she made each year as a township supervisor.
The commission determined that Reiner had violated ethics law by using her official position to land the consulting work. The township official agreed to pay a fine of roughly $12,500 to resolve the case.
Selinsgrove nonprofit grants
The commission investigated a former Selinsgrove council member over accusations that he helped steer nearly $278,000 in grants to a local nonprofit led by his daughter.
The group, Regional Engagement Center, offers afterschool initiatives, mentoring and summer programs, and it was among the community organizations that submitted annual applications for borough grant funding. While on the council, Marvin Rudnitsky — who was an uncompensated board member for the nonprofit and whose daughter is its president — helped consider and approve these applications, the commission found.
After another official raised conflict-of-interest concerns in 2022, Rudnitsky abstained from council decisions on the grant program and from voting on the borough’s upcoming budget.
In a consent agreement with the commission, the former council member acknowledged the commission could have presented convincing evidence of an ethics violation and was willing to pay a $625 fine.
Sanitation work in McKean County
A township supervisor in McKean County faced censure from the commission for unilaterally firing a road crew worker and hiring his brother to the position, according to the ethics panel.
The official, Eric Barton, had discussed the termination with other township supervisors, but the group had not yet taken action to fire the employee and never voted to appoint Barton’s brother to the post.
Barton made the hire even though his brother lacked a commercial driver’s license, which was required to drive a majority of Otto Township’s road and sanitation vehicles, according to the commission. The brother didn’t get his CDL until he’d spent about a year in the township job.
While serving as supervisor, Barton also voted to reappoint himself to the township’s sanitary authority board, a role that afforded him free sewage service, the ethics report said. And as a member of the authority, he voted several times in favor of giving himself wage increases in his job as plant operator.
The commission concluded that Barton had broken the state’s ethics laws to benefit himself and his brother and imposed a fine of more than $3,600.
Clinton County township payments
A township supervisor was ordered to pay more than $2,750 in restitution after the commission found he’d leveraged his office for personal gain.
The supervisor, William McCoy, spent several months in early 2023 working for Gallagher Township despite not having a formal position assignment, the commission found. During that period, he reviewed timecards for township employees, fixed some equipment and picked up trash along the road, according to the report.
When the township solicitor learned that McCoy had been working in this role, he advised the board of supervisors to retroactively appoint him to the position of foreman.
McCoy said for as long as he can remember, his township has assigned one supervisor as roadmaster and the other two as working supervisors to handle other municipal tasks. He took on the role of working supervisor in early 2023 when there was a vacancy on the board and the other supervisor had installed himself as roadmaster, he said.
The township auditors had approved pay for roadmasters and working supervisors in January of that year but did not name anyone to those posts.
McCoy said he didn’t intend to run afoul of any laws and felt “singled out” by the ethics commission. He added that he had to pay $5,000 on an attorney retainer to handle the ethics case and is on a payment plan for his fine.
Cambria County violations
A borough council member in Cambria County faced allegations that he worked as a part-time employee for the municipality before he was officially approved for the role.
Commission investigators also found the official, Phillip Mazzarese, worked more than 285 hours for Gallitzin Borough before the council voted to hire him to the role. Mazzarese joined other council members in approving his own job appointment in November 2019.
From April 2019 to February 2024, the council member earned roughly $5,425 from his work with the borough.
Mazzarese was also accused of hiring his two sons to install a roof and drywall at a concession stand at a park. Though the council never approved them as employees, his sons collectively made more than $4,200 from the borough as part of this project, according to the commission’s report.
The council member agreed to pay $3,087 to the borough and the state for violating ethics laws by working as a municipal employee before his official appointment and then voting to hire himself. His consent agreement with the commission also faulted him for defects in his annual financial disclosures but did not mention the accusations involving his sons.
Berks County road resurfacing
A Berks County township supervisor ran afoul of the ethics guidelines by voting to award a road resurfacing contract to the company where he works, the commission reported.
Tulpehocken Township Supervisor Gary Deck is a regional superintendent for a civil contracting company called H&K Group, which won the contract.
The township is required to accept the lowest responsible bid on projects, and H&K Group had offered to resurface the road for about $104,000, less than its two competitors. Subsequent changes to the project drove up the final cost to nearly $122,000, higher than all three original bids.
Deck wasn’t involved in the road project at H&K Group and didn’t get a bonus for steering the contract to his employer, the report stated, but his involvement was still deemed a conflict of interest.
Deck agreed to pay a $250 fine for the incident.
Flap over a dumpster in Harrisburg
The ethics commission investigated claims that Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Willams used a city-owned dumpster to clean out her house but did not pay the fee typically charged for disposal.
Williams asked for the dumpster in 2022 as she prepared for an upcoming move, texting her public works director instructions to drop it off at her home, according to the commission’s report. The city picked up the trash-filled container and emptied it at a local waste disposal facility at least three times.
However, investigators found no record that Williams paid the $230 fee to use the dumpster or roughly $1,500 in tipping fees at the landfill.
In a consent agreement with the commission, the mayor acknowledged the commission could have presented convincing evidence of an ethics violation and agreed to pay a $913 fine.
A spokesperson for the city said the mayor has paid the full amount.
