When Munhall council was faced with large fines from the Department of Environmental Protection and required to come up with a plan to correct complicated sewer problems, its members decided to create a sewer authority.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, particularly since it was supported by DEP officials.

But Munhall resident Shawn McCallister thinks that something just doesn't smell right about the formation and operations of the sewer authority and has expressed those concerns quite vocally at recent Munhall council meetings.

Mr. McCallister contends that the authority's creation was a political move taken solely to create a job for former Munhall Councilman Michael Terrick, who was hired late last year as the authority's executive director at an annual salary of $65,000.

Mr. McCallister also thinks there's something fishy about the fact that the authority and the municipality have not reached a final agreement over the sale of the borough's sewer lines to the authority -- an agreement that is supposed to provide $500,000 to the borough.

Furthermore, he questions what work Mr. Terrick is performing for his salary since the authority does not officially own the sewer lines, and he wants to know who is documenting Mr. Terrick's hours on the job since there is currently no sewer authority office to report to.

Mr. McCallister, who also serves as the athletic director of the Steel Valley School District, appeared before Munhall council at its May and June meetings, urging council members to rescind their action to create the authority and for the borough to maintain control over the sewer lines and repairs.

The barbs fly

Mr. Terrick, who was formerly chairman of council's public works committee and in that capacity oversaw sewer issues when he sat on council, said the only politics involved in the situation emanate from Mr. McCallister.

Mr. Terrick maintains that Mr. McCallister is gunning for the elimination of his job in retaliation for comments made by his wife, Pam Terrick, who is vice president of the Steel Valley School Board.

Mrs. Terrick has been an outspoken critic of the salary that Mr. McCallister has drawn since being made the full-time athletic director of the Steel Valley School District in October 2006.

During the 2007-08 school year, Mr. McCallister, a former social studies teacher in the district, was paid $95,421 for serving as the district's athletic director, activities director and head varsity boys' basketball coach. During discussions of the district's budget in May, Mrs. Terrick once again reiterated that she didn't believe the district could afford a full-time athletic director.

Mr. Terrick claims that Mr. McCallister's public comments about the sewer authority were made in an effort to influence the way his wife would vote on the district's budget. Last week, she voted against the district's $27.96 million 2008-09 budget that maintained the full-time athletic director's position.

"[Mr. Terrick] can spin it however he wants. I'm just trying to make people aware that this authority was created in a way that was deceitful to the taxpayers of Munhall," Mr. McCallister said.

Mr. McCallister said his comments to Munhall council were made solely as a taxpayer and have nothing to do with his position as athletic director. In addition, he said, he criticized the creation of the sewer authority before the school board created the full-time athletic director's position.

While Mr. McCallister maintains there is no value to the borough in having a sewer authority, that position is not supported by those working with the authority, including DEP officials.

DEP defense

DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys said that forming a municipal sewer authority to repair and maintain sewer lines is a progressive idea. Most authorities, she said, are formed to operate sewage treatment plants.

Also defending the action is Greg Scott, an engineer with Chester Engineering, who serves as the engineer for both Munhall borough and the Munhall Sewer Authority.

He sat through council discussions about the town's sewer problems and the DEP requirements and pending fines. He was also part of the discussions in which council decided to form the authority.

"I think the thinking was that by creating an authority that is solely dedicated to dealing with sewer issues, they would be properly addressed," Mr. Scott said.

Mr. McCallister has suggested that Mr. Scott is now making more money by working for both the municipality and the authority. But Mr. Scott and sewer authority officials said the engineer is handling the same workload as before, but billing the sewer authority rather than the municipality for the sewer work.

The sewer authority was created on paper in September 2006, a month after DEP officials met with municipal officials to go over the scope of the borough's sewer problems and the fines that it could be facing if they weren't corrected, Mr. Scott said.

At the time, the borough could have faced fines of more than $100,000, but the DEP was impressed with plans the borough already had in the works to address the problems and its intention to form a sewer authority, Mr. Scott said. As a result, the fine was negotiated down to $8,500.

Though the authority was formed on paper, it was September 2007 before Munhall council transferred to the authority about $900,000 from the borough's sewer sinking fund, according to records kept by Mr. Terrick.

That money came from the portion of the sewer bills that goes to the municipality. Some portion of the bills goes to Alcosan, which provides sewage treatment services to Munhall, Mr. Terrick said.

The borough still holds between $300,000 and $365,000 of the sewer funds and has paid some sewer-related expenses from the fund, Mr. Terrick said.

Other bills are paid from the funds controlled by the sewer authority. Once a final agreement is reached between the municipality and authority, the authority will get all of the sewer funding the borough still holds, and the authority will float a bond issue to pay the municipality $500,000 for the sewer lines, Mr. Terrick said.

More questions

At recent borough council meetings, Mr. McCallister had questioned why there are two sewer accounts and how it is decided what bills are paid from which accounts.

Council members were not able to clearly answer those questions and referred Mr. McCallister to the sewer authority.

Mr. McCallister said he has not been able to address the sewer authority because its recent meetings have been canceled. Mr. Terrick and Mr. Scott said the meetings were canceled because there were no pending actions for the authority board to vote on.

Once the agreement between the municipality and authority is finalized, the authority plans to hold quarterly meetings, Mr. Terrick said.

Mr. McCallister also questioned council on why there is not yet an agreement between the authority and the borough and why the sale of the sewer lines has not been completed.

At the June 18 meeting, Council President Bernard Shields said that council had received a proposed agreement from the sewer authority and that municipal solicitor Gregory Evashavik was reviewing it.

Sewer Authority Solicitor Laura Horton said she hoped the agreement would be finalized within a few weeks.

Mr. Scott said part of the reason it has taken so long for the authority to create an agreement with the municipality is because it was busy, along with municipal officials, coming to an agreement with the DEP.

In February, Munhall signed a consent order and agreement with the DEP to correct problems in the sanitary sewer system and paid the $8,500 fine.

Munhall is among 83 municipalities in the area to sign a consent order and agreement with the DEP, Ms. Humphreys said.

Mr. McCallister has also questioned Mr. Terrick's qualifications for the sewer authority job and alleged that Mr. Terrick and his friends on borough council stacked the authority with people who were friendly with Mr. Terrick and would be willing to hire him as manager.

Mr. McCallister said Mr. Terrick was unemployed at the time of his hiring as sewer authority manager.

However, Ms. Horton and Mr. Scott, who were both hired before Mr. Terrick, and Sewer Authority Chairman Anthony DeMartino said Mr. Terrick was hired because he was the best qualified of the two candidates who responded to an ad for the job because of his background in finance and his knowledge of the sewers as chairman of the public works committee on Munhall council.

"There was no deal to hire Mike Terrick. He just turned out to be the best qualified person of the applicants we had," Mr. DeMartino said.

Mr. Terrick holds a degree in economics with a minor in accounting from Carnegie Mellon University. He said he ran his own electronics repair and service firm until the price of electronics became so low that people replaced rather than repaired their appliances and equipment.

After closing his business, Mr. Terrick said, he worked as a financial planner first for a firm then later as an independent broker. He said he plans to return to that field when the sewer repair work is completed.

Mr. Scott said an understanding of finances is crucial to doing the authority director's job. "The manager has to be able to act as the financial agent, handling the budgets, contracts and subcontracts," Mr. Scott said.

In addition to his financial background, Mr. Terrick has been attending conferences to learn more about sewer issues, Mr. Scott said.

Ms. Horton said Mr. Terrick's political connections in other municipalities have come in handy as well, as he has been able to call upon other municipal officials to see how they are solving their sewer problems.

Mr. DeMartino said he's heard nothing but good reviews of Mr. Terrick and that Munhall residents who have had sewer problems appear to be happy that there is someone to call.

"A lot of residents have actually complimented him on his diligence in pumping water out of the basements. People seem to be satisfied," Mr. DeMartino said.