Lansford Borough Council needs to end internal conflicts or seek mediation, hire a manager to mitigate, or resign and allow a judge to name their replacements for the borough to move forward, a consultant said.

“The oxygen in this community has been eaten up by your conflict,” Ben Kafferlin, managing partner of Kafferlin Strategies, told council Wednesday night.

He was disturbed and disappointed at how meetings went after he advised council to change its culture and mend trust issues last month.

“The elephant in the room is that kind of conflict that you have going on here between the board, between the public, between employees, and everybody … is really pretty astounding,” Kafferlin said.

He told them a story about man who told another man to hold a rope and then jumped off a bridge with the rope attached.

The man couldn’t save the other man without the man who jumped helping to pull himself up. The man on the bridge gave the man the option to help himself, and when he chose not, let go of the rope, Kafferlin said.

“We have some suggestions here, but at the same time, no one is coming to hold you up,” he told council. “I’m not saying that we’re letting go of the rope yet, but you have to pull yourselves up.”

Kafferlin said that he and his managing partner, Lisa Hagberg, offered mediation as friends, not consultants, to help them resolve differences and two out of seven or eight agreed to sit down.

He again suggested mediation with their firm, someone else or sitting down themselves and resolving the ongoing conflict.

“But no one is coming to rescue you. The state’s not coming. We’re not coming. No one’s coming to help because we can’t pull you up,” Kafferlin said.

If mediation fails or they’re unwilling to do so, then council should consider hiring a borough manager to administer the policy decisions of the board or elevate someone to do so, he said.

Without either step, Kafferlin was at a loss.

“I’m not sure where you go from there,” he said. “But I think that you need to start looking at possibly something as severe as resigning and turning over to a judge to appoint new members, because you’re stuck.

“A longer-term option would be to dissolve the borough and merge with a neighboring borough,” Kafferlin said, “if they would take you.

“I really genuinely am hurt to say that,” he said. “I’ve certainly never said that before but I kind of think that you’re at the point where you’re dangling on the end of a rope, and something really needs to change.

“So, this is again an impassioned ask that you either take us up on the offer of mediating, or you find a mediator.”

Kafferlin also told them that council members seem to think that they can’t afford to hire a borough manager, and he told them that they can’t afford not to at this point.

Training and management

Kafferlin then continued with his presentation as his firm develops recommendations as part of the state’s Strategic Training and Management Program.

The STMP program is a five-year strategic and financial planning process with grant funding of up to $200,000 a year from the state Department of Community and Economic Development to help the borough implement those recommendations.

The borough received a matching grant from DCED to hire Kafferlin for this portion of the program and is responsible for only 10% of the $79,995 cost due to financial hardship.

Council President Joe Gentis asked Kafferlin to explain how the grant worked, and Kafferlin said they submit invoices to the borough, which the borough pays in and then is reimbursed by the state at 90%.

Genits asked how long the reimbursements take, and Kafferlin said usually 30 days.

Programs

Kafferlin then looked at programs that the borough offers and noted that Lansford doesn’t offer many.

Municipal governments in the state offer up to 1,000 different programs and services, and he suggested the borough look at the list and see what might want to budget for and provide.

“We’ve talked about shared services with other communities related to things like HR and fiscal, hiring a borough manager, digitizing a lot of records, updating job descriptions, employee handbook, compensation,” he said.

Police

Under public safety, Kafferlin is recommending hiring one additional full-time police officer and suggested looking more closely at the department’s call volume.

“The volume of calls seems to be overinflated pretty significantly,” he said. “If they were true, then you would be having a required arrest rate of much higher than it currently is. We would like to get into the data a little deeper, if you’re interested.”

Otherwise, technology for police is good, and they would recommend more body and in-car cameras and possibly apply for grant for another police car, Kafferlin said.

“There should definitely be some improvement to scheduling overtime controls and reporting,” he said, and a better facility would be recommended, possibly regionalizing with a neighbor that has better facilities.

Codes

Kafferlin recommended a digital system for code enforcement, and moving rental code and permitting from the current paper system.

He also suggested bolstering code enforcement and adding more staff, if the borough is serious about tackling blight. Lansford’s lone code officer accepted another job and will be leaving as of Friday.

Kafferlin’s firm is also recommending updating the codes, which are outdated or contradictory.

“It’s certainly not the worst codes that we’ve evaluated, but there are at least 10 key areas that we would like to recommend enhancing,” he said.

Redevelopment

Kafferlin also suggested setting up an economic development or redevelopment authority, possibly partnering with a neighboring community to do so.

“You can’t tax your way out of your problems, right?” Kafferlin said, noting that the borough has some of the lowest property values and the highest tax rate in the county.

“What you can do is incentivize long-term development of properties and redevelopment,” he said.

Public works

Kafferlin suggested a multiyear capital improvement plan and asset inventory list and starting a good replacement plan.

Budget

Kafferlin planned to work with borough officials on budgeting in November, rather than presenting at a council meeting. Council members asked them to come to their Oct. 27 budget meeting.

Forensic audit

Kafferlin has also been asked about the borough’s need for a forensic audit, which residents and some council members have been pushing for.

“We’re not here to say whether you do or do not,” Hagberg told them. “So, a forensic audit is to seek out criminal activity.

“If you don’t feel that there’s something criminal, you wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money.”

Hagberg explained that transferring money from one fund to another may be wrong, but it’s not criminal. Annual audits are done by the borough and required by the state, and they assure that funds are properly accounted for, she said.

A forensic audit can cost upward of $50,000 to $75,000, Hagberg said, and the borough isn’t likely to recover any money, depending on how far back it was. She also noted that where they’ve seen forensic audits done, criminal charges were not filed.