Irwin council does not like a pending bill in the state Senate that would change the police pension system.

By a unanimous vote, at its March 12 meeting council passed its first resolution of 2008. The resolution announces council's opposition, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs, to Pennsylvania Senate Bill 596.

Sponsored by state Sen. Jane Orie (R-McCandless), and currently in front of the Senate finance committee, Bill 596 would take police pensions out of the hands of local municipalities and enroll police officers in the state's pension plan.

Orie argues the bill would reduce administrative costs and receive better investment returns. She says it will enable police to keep the same pension when they switch jobs. She pointed to an analysis done by the Pennsylvania Employee Retirement Committee that found administrative costs run higher in small, municipal pension plans as evidence that a switch to a state-wide plan would save money.

Irwin council members, however, said the bill would strip them and other local governments of oversight of pension assets, reducing the accountability pension fund managers face. They also argue in the resolution that in eliminating local pension plans Bill 596 would make it harder to both hire and retain police officers.

The resolution states that the bill creates more pension system fragmentation, increases arbitration costs, creates conditions that make part-time police hiring cost-prohibitive and imposes more costly supplemental benefits.

Another point of contention comes from the bill's provision for bailing out under-funded state and city pension plans by taking money from better funded and financially stable municipal plans. In the resolution, council argues this would unfairly burden smaller communities with costs they did not incur.

Council also took aim at the plan to transfer police from municipal pensions to the state system. The resolution argues that the state system is "financially troubled," and in contrast "municipal police pension plans have performed relatively well statewide and are viewed as a viable employee benefit for local police officers and their families."

Copies of the resolution will be presented to the Irwin community's representatives in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. State Sen. Bob Regola, whose district includes Irwin, has signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill.

In other business, council member Phyllis Thiem said Western Avenue, which runs in front of the Westmoreland Heights senior citizen high rise, had not been plowed or salted recently. When she questioned public works director Jim Halfhill about it, he informed her that the street was, in fact, not owned by the borough, she said.

Thiem said Halfhill told her the road is owned by the post office, and because it was federal property, legally the borough could not plow it. Borough Solicitor Todd Turin agreed the borough could not legally plow or salt the road, and he suggested council send the post office a certified letter informing them of their ownership of the road and their obligation to clear it.

Council agreed to do so.