-STOWE-
By Elizabeth Perry
Code Enforcement Officer Nick Leffakis has resigned his role with Stowe Township because of staffing issues and what he calls “over-involvement” from a commissioner. His last day was July 1.
Leffakis said he left because he felt he’d been set up for failure.
“The efforts that the township were going to put in were not going to yield the results that they were expecting,” he said.
Leffakis, who started in the role with Stowe Township March 21, left a similar role in Etna Borough. He said during his tenure with Stowe he made recommendations to the township that the enforcement workforce needed to be expanded to allow for more of a focus on blight and trash violations.
Township officials, who recently hired Edward Snyder to focus on trash violations in a part-time capacity, promoted him to replace Leffakis on June 28.
Stowe is still considering the addition of another part-time code enforcement officer, according to Dwight Boddorf, township secretary. Taking steps to hire another person to look into issues involving grass and trash was a positive move, but Leffakis said the effort wasn’t enough.
The final issue that led Leffakis, who is a University of Pittsburgh graduate with a master’s in public policy, to leave was the alleged “over-involvement” in his job by Commissioner Kelly Cropper Hall. Leffakis said Cropper Hall did not trust his assessment regarding certain properties and insisted there was a violation when he didn’t find evidence of a problem.
He also said Cropper Hall wanted to go with him to a property, which was highly unusual.
Cropper Hall declined to comment on the matter.
Leffakis’ predecessor Harry Serretti stepped away in January, citing “safety concerns” in his resignation letter, and has since taken on a part-time role at Reserve Township.
The township’s latest ordinance officer, Snyder, is a resident of Beechview who graduated from Propel Montour High School in 2021. Previously he worked for the township as a police dispatcher and a Stowe volunteer firefighter beside his brother, Richard Stewart.
“I’m doing some training right now as far as building inspection,” Snyder said.