A Finance Officer shall be elected at an at-large election in
the municipal election of 1977 and at four-year intervals thereafter.
The Finance Officer shall be a citizen of the United States and shall
have been a resident of the township for a continuous period of at
least two (2) years immediately prior to the date on which his term
commences and must be a resident of the township during his entire
term of office. The Finance Officer shall be a registered elector.
He shall serve for a four-year term beginning on the first Monday
of January following his election.
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Commentary: Under this Charter the
Finance Officer will be elected; currently, under the Township Code,
a Treasurer is elected. The Finance Officer will perform some of the
present Treasurer's functions. Each, "by virtue of his office,"
is the Tax Collector (compare Section 803A with Section 805 of the
Township Code[1]), and because the Finance Officer is elected, the school
district and county and its institutional district are required to
use him to collect taxes within the township. Bogdan v. School District
Coal Township, 369 Pa. 147 (1952); Black v. Duquesne Boro School District,
239 Pa. 96, 103; Public School Code of 1969, 24 P.S. 6-683.
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The elected Treasurer is converted into an elected Finance Officer to give the Board the option, as more specifically set forth in § C803, of restricting his duties to tax collection or of assigning him either the additional duties traditionally performed by a treasurer or the additional duties of Controller.
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Currently, several officers and auditors perform these
township financial functions: preaudit (Manager and appointed Finance
Director); tax collection (elected Treasurer); disbursement and investment
of funds (elected Treasurer) and post-audit [an independent auditing
firm and three (3) elected auditors]. The Charter can be implemented
by an independent auditing firm, the elected Finance Officer and another
person acting either as Treasurer or Controller.
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Thus, the Charter operates to eliminate the elected
auditors and to free the Manager from the preaudit control functions.
The GSC believes that the current Treasurer and Finance Director could
perform the functions of the elected Finance Officer, Controller and
a Treasurer (investing and disbursing) under the Charter. The present
Treasurer and Finance Director share that view.
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The Charter's greater flexibility thus provides
opportunity for the most efficient use of personnel while assuring
the discharge of necessary financial functions at the lowest possible
cost to the township and its taxpayers (as taxpayers of the school
district and county as well as of the township).
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[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. §§ 55803 and
55805.
The procedure for the nomination and election of the Finance
Officer shall be as established by the general laws of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania for municipal primary and municipal elections.
A.
The Finance Officer by virtue of his office shall be the Tax Collector
and shall collect the township taxes in the manner provided by state
law and as directed by the Board.
B.
The Finance Officer shall collect all county, institution district,
township, school and other taxes, levied by authorities empowered
to levy taxes within the township, and shall be permitted to collect
taxes for such other governmental entities as may from time to time
engage his services. It is the purpose and intent of this section
that no local taxes shall be collected in the township except by the
Finance Officer of the township.
C.
The Finance Officer shall perform the duties of Controller if the Board, by resolution, determines to appoint him as Controller and provided that he meets the qualifications set forth in § C901B.
D.
The Finance Officer shall perform such duties other than those set forth in § C803A and B which involve the receipt, disbursement or investment of township funds as the Board may, by resolution, direct, subject at all times to the supervision and direction of the Manager and the Board in the performance of such assigned duties.
E.
If the Finance Officer has been appointed Controller, he shall not be assigned the function of disbursing township funds, nor shall be be required to accept any of the other duties described in § C803D.
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Commentary: The Charter provides for
an elected Finance Officer. The Board may appoint him Controller or
Treasurer, but not both, and he must accept that function. If he is
appointed Controller, he may also agree (but cannot be required) to
be involved in the interim investment of funds. He cannot perform
any other disbursement functions if he is Controller, because he would
then be performing functions which it would be his duty as Controller
to audit.
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The Board is not required to give the Finance Officer additional functions, because it has no control over who is elected Finance Officer, and the person elected at a given time may be unqualified for either of the functions described in § C803C or D.
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As an elected official, the Finance Officer is not affected by the limitations on political activity of § C1107, even if he is appointed to the Controller or Treasurer functions as provided in this section.
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A vacancy shall occur in the office of Finance Officer for any of the reasons set forth as to Commissioners in § C308A(1) through (5), except for § C308A(5)(c), and § C308B; in each case the determination of vacancy shall be made by the Board in accordance with the procedures set forth in § C308. In the event of such vacancy, the office of Finance Officer shall be filled in the manner set forth for the filling of the vacancy in the office of Commissioner as provided in § C309, except that the selection pursuant to § C309A for the period therein described shall be by the Board by an absolute majority vote at a meeting called by the President and held within forty-five (45) days of the occurrence of the vacancy. Notice that a selection shall be made at such meeting shall be advertised not fewer than six (6) nor more than thirty (30) days previously in a newspaper of general circulation in the township. The person selected shall, at the time the vacancy occurred, have been a member of a political party, if any, which nominated the Finance Officer whose office has become vacant, unless the person so selected shall at such time have been a registered nonpartisan elector.
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Commentary: It is the Board which
fills a vacancy for Finance Officer since, unlike the situation where
a vacancy exists for Commissioner, the Board collectively represents
the same constituency which elected the Finance Officer.
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The Finance Officer shall be compensated for his work for the
township by the Board at an annual rate fixed by separate ordinance.
Any subsequent change in said compensation shall not apply to the
Finance Officer during his current term if such ordinance is enacted
less than one (1) year prior to the commencement of that term.
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Commentary: The Board may deem it
advisable, in fixing the Finance Officer's salary, to fix one
(1) lump sum salary to be paid the Finance Officer regardless of what
duties he fulfills, or to specify separate amounts of compensation
to be paid him for acting as Finance Officer and, if he is asked to
perform them, for acting as Controller or as the investor and disburser
of funds. Whichever alternative the Board selects, all aspects of
compensation must be set forth in the ordinance.
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Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Article, provided
that the Board determines that there is a more efficient and economical
method of collecting all of the taxes collected by the Finance Officer,
the elected office of Finance Officer may be abolished by ordinance
by an absolute two-thirds vote. Such ordinance shall make other provisions
for the collection of township taxes. Any such ordinance shall not
become effective prior to the expiration of the current term of office
of the Finance Officer serving at the time of the adoption of said
ordinance.
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Commentary: It is conceivable that
a better, more efficient and economical system for tax collection
might be created sometime, in which event this section would permit
the Board to abolish the office of Finance Officer but only by an
absolute two-thirds vote and on a finding that a better way exists
to collect all taxes collected in the township. Since this would remove
from the county and school district the requirement that they use
the Collector, it is expected that the office will not be abolished
soon or without good reason.
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