DuBois City Council OKs Kafferlin Strategies for interim management services | Local

DuBOIS — Three proposals for interim management services have been reviewed, with Kafferlin Strategies being selected by the DuBois City Council at this week’s meeting.

DuBois-Sandy Township Manager Shawn Arbaugh said the city and the township received three proposals for interim management services. The one selected by the city council is Kafferlin Strategies LLC of Warren, with a proposal of $27,500/month based on 50-60 hours of work per week.

The other two proposals were from: Keystone Municipal Solutions, Harrisburg, with a proposal of $155/hour and an anticipated 40 hours per week; and Dailey Operation Consulting LLC of the Pittsburgh area, with a proposal not to exceed $21,500/month based on approximately 40 hours per week at rates of $125-$150/hour based on the specific consultant.

Arbaugh said the recommendation to accept the proposal from Kafferlin Strategies is based upon receiving the grant funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The council unanimously approved awarding the proposal to Kafferlin Strategies.

Additionally, the proposal also needs approval by the Sandy Township Supervisors.

An interim manager is needed because Arbaugh will be ending his employment with the municipalities on Dec. 2.

Drug task force update

Interim police Chief Shawn McCleary stated that there is no longer a drug task force unit within the city police department. Instead, the city has been involved with the Attorney General’s Drug Task Force since around March of 2024.

To date this year, McCleary said the city police have arrested 19 people on felony drug charges and 41 on misdemeanor drug charges for a total of 60. He said he knows there will be two more people facing felony drug charges from current investigations.

“We do have a lot of current investigations ongoing and compared to last year’s numbers in 2023, we arrested 22 people for felonies and 49 for misdemeanors for a total of 71,” said McCleary. “So total felony counts for this year, I believe, is 43 and total felony counts for last year, we had 39 total. Total misdemeanor accounts for drug violations, 127 total. Misdemeanor counts for last year’s drug violations was 180.”

With the AG’s drug task force, McCleary said the police get their wages reimbursed when they work for them.

“It’s on our own time or when they’re not on duty. So we do work for them (AG office). They (officers) get reimbursed by the state government and also we’ve done saturation patrols and a bunch of special details that I can’t really get into at a public meeting,” said McCleary, noting that he is happy to talk with anyone who has questions about those.

McCleary said the police department is down a couple of police officers from when the city did have a drug task force so currently all of the police officers have a regular shift for the city.