Monessen: Redevelopment Authority meetings haven’t been properly advertised

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Monessen has been remiss about advertising its public meetings for an undetermined amount of time.

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Law requires all municipal boards and authorities to publicly advertise their meetings so the public can attend and participate.

It’s unclear how long the meetings went unadvertised because authority Treasurer Ron Mozer said there was an advertisement in 2019 that “covered a good part of 2020,” but he wasn’t sure how many meetings were covered by that advertisement. He said it listed the dates for nearly two years.

Mozer said the authority members didn’t realize it hadn’t been advertised because they always knew when the meetings were.

“We were wrong and it should have been advertised,” Mozer said.

This was brought to Mozer’s light when Mayor Matt Shorraw asked if the authority’s meetings had been advertised and learned they had not been.

Shorraw is running for re-election and Mozer is opposing him in the Democratic primary next month.

There has been tension between Shorraw and the redevelopment authority since early in his term. The chairman is former mayor Lou Mavrakis, who Shorraw beat to become mayor.

Last September, the city’s code enforcement officer sent a warning letter to the redevelopment authority about the condition of one of its properties on Sixth Street.

The city said in the letter that a recent inspection of the property revealed an “unmaintained, abandoned and unsafe building” and “the growth of high grass, weeds and obnoxious vegetation.”

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