PEL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- President / CEO, American Asphalt Paving Co
Job Titles:
- Member of the PEL BOARD
- Executive Vice President, Lycoming College
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- President, Colony Packaging and Machine
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Fellow
- Senior Research Fellow, Biography.
Since joining PEL in 1988, Gerry, who formerly served as executive director, has conducted a wide variety of research involving counties, municipalities, school districts, and authorities. These projects have involved budgeting, management and financial analysis, long-range financial and operational planning, productivity improvement, administrative procedures, service options, municipal merger and consolidation, government restructuring and charter drafting, rate structure analysis, personnel and labor relations, and school enrollment projections, among other areas.
Gerry's projects have included Act 47 financial recovery plans for the cities of Scranton, Harrisburg, and Nanticoke; models for tax base sharing and revenue sharing in Lehigh Valley; analysis of the impact on the cost and financing of services in host municipalities of the State System of Higher Education; assisting government study commissions in Luzerne, Clinton and Lancaster counties; analysis of the compensation of public school teachers and comparable private sector positions in York and Lehigh counties; analyzing fire and police services in multiple municipalities and Councils of Governments.
He previously served with the then Pennsylvania Department of Community Affairs as a local government specialist and small community advisor. In addition, he has worked as an assistant borough manager and borough community development director. He is currently a board member and treasurer of both a municipal and a regional sewer authority. Gerry received his B.A. in Government from King's College and his MPA from Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of the Government Research Association and Government Finance Officers Association.
Job Titles:
- Member of the PEL BOARD
- President and CEO, First Community Foundation Partnership of PA
Job Titles:
- Communications Director
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Project Manager
- Research Associate
- Communications Director, Biography.
- Secretary / Treasurer / Acting Executive Director, Pennsylvania Economy League
Lynne works in the roles of project manager, research associate and communications director. She is responsible for PEL reports completed under the state's Strategic Management Planning (STMP) program for local governments. As part of that process, Lynne develops recommendations and a five-year strategy for municipalities encompassing initiatives for finances and operations. She also has experience in municipal merger and consolidation, home rule charter development, and economic development strategies.
Her communications work focuses on statewide local government issues and trends. She has prepared position papers, committee testimony and commentaries on the state's Act 47 distressed municipalities program, pension reform, municipal finances, regionalization, local government reform and related issues. Lynne assists with PEL's civic leadership education through the programing of events that are designed to inform business leaders, government officials and the general public on public policy issues. She was the lead author and researcher on PEL's "It's Not 1965 Anymore: State Tax Laws Fail to Meet Municipal Revenue," and "Communities in Crisis" reports.
Prior to PEL, Lynne served as communications director for Lackawanna County, where she was press secretary, handled all facets of county marketing and communications, and served as a representative of the Commissioners' Office. She also worked for 20 years as a municipal government and education reporter, receiving several statewide and national awards for her reporting. Lynne earned a BS in journalism from Syracuse University and a certificate from Penn State Harrisburg in economic development. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Economic Development Association; board secretary for Scranton Tomorrow, a volunteer economic and community development organization; and a former board member of the Lackawanna County Visitors Bureau.
Job Titles:
- Director of Financial and Data Analytics
- Director of Financial Data and Analytics
Patty conducts research and provides advisory services on municipal management, budgeting and finance; capital budgeting and planning; personnel and labor relations; and related matters. Patty also analyzes historical financial trends and prepares fiscal forecasts for municipalities throughout Pennsylvania. As part of these duties, she works with municipal officials to collect historical data on municipalities, reviews contract specifics to determine the future costs of current and past negotiations and consults with experts including lawyers and accountants to determine the feasibility of various municipal financial options and opportunities. She also serves as a project manager.
She is adept at pulling together financial and demographic data gleaned from numerous sources to give a clear picture of municipal and school district finances. Her work assists her in identifying trends across the commonwealth. Patty is a key part of PEL's STMP team, providing distressed communities with financial analysis that is used to inform day-to-day fiscal decisions as well as annual budgeting. She has performed financial reviews of numerous municipalities and school districts of all sizes under the state's Early Intervention Program and for other PEL technical assistance projects including proposed mergers and consolidations.
Prior to PEL, Patty held various positions at Frontier Communications including senior marketing analyst, general accounting/tax supervisor, budget administrator, and assistant general accountant. Her duties included: marketing, customer segmentation, sales targeting and campaign tracking; finance, strategic planning, forecasting and ROI modeling; and accounting, general ledger, accounts payable and tax issues. She earned a BS in accounting from Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre. She has completed course work in the state Department of Community and Economic Development's School of Municipal Government and is a member of the Government Finance Officers Association.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
Job Titles:
- Director of Government and Community Affairs and PEL Research Associate
Phil serves the dual role of research associate and director of government and community affairs. Prior to joining PEL, he worked for the Local Government Commission of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, first as community planner, then as assistant director and finally as executive director. Major accomplishments included successfully shepherding numerous commission bills through the legislative process; initiating and managing a Property Assessment Reform Task Force to develop and implement remedies advancing modernization, efficiency, transparency and fairness of the property assessment process in Pennsylvania; and serving as principle investigator for a Senate Resolution task force, teaming with five statewide municipal associations, 14 state agencies, seven university advisors and their students, and legislative staff to design, manage and research a two-year study of the unfunded and underfunded state statutory mandates placed on Pennsylvania's counties and municipalities.
Prior to the commission, he was employed as a planner, advancing to project manager/senior planner, at a national engineering and planning firm, where he managed and conducted municipal planning, environmental science, and National Environmental Policy Act-related projects for counties, municipalities, the commonwealth and the US EPA.
Phil holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and East Stroudsburg University, respectively, and a graduate certificate in public administration from Indiana State University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Job Titles:
- Member of the PEL BOARD
- Senior Advisor, Economic Development, First Energy
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Vice Chairman / Vice President, Public Finance Relationships, Fidelity Bank
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Chairman / the Shipley Group
Job Titles:
- Independent Partner
- Municipal Advisor Solutions, LLC, PEL Associate
Steven (financial advisor) has practiced law in the fields of government contracts and municipal finance for over 30 years in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For approximately 15 years, Steven practiced law in the public finance departments of Saul Ewing and Cozen O'Connor, where he served clients as bond counsel, underwriters' counsel, disclosure counsel and issuer's counsel.
Since 2005, Steven has also been a financial advisor to states and local governments with Public Resources Advisory Group as a senior managing director (and now senior counselor) and his own firm Municipal Advisor Solutions, LLC, or ("MAS").
Steven has extensive experience working on strategies for states and local governments to reduce the budget impact of their unfunded accrued actuarial liabilities including pensions, other post-employment benefits and workers' compensation.
For over five years, Steven worked with the Office of the Governor of West Virginia to significantly reduce that state's unfunded accrued actuarial liabilities in the areas of pensions, other post- employment benefits and workers compensation. The workers compensations liabilities have been reduced from over $3.5 billion (on a present value basis) to well under one billion dollars. The pensions were super-funded using a Tobacco Securitization debt issuance, and OPEBS were significantly reduced through comprehensive restructuring of benefits and risks to the state.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Biography
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Attorney
- Independent Partner
Attorney Tim Barry, of W. Timothy Barry and Associates, LLC, Pittsburgh, provides legal services as a Pennsylvania Economy League consultant. His concentration is in management labor relations and employment law for employers in both the private and public sector, including litigation and claims involving civil rights, discrimination, labor arbitration, work stoppages, and proceedings before the National and Pennsylvania Labor Relations Boards. He gives his clients advice and experience concerning a full scope of employment law issues. His labor relations experience compliments a general business and municipal practice.
, of W. Timothy Barry and Associates, LLC, Pittsburgh, provides legal services as a Pennsylvania Economy League consultant. His concentration is in management labor relations and employment law for employers in both the private and public sector, including litigation and claims involving civil rights, discrimination, labor arbitration, work stoppages, and proceedings before the National and Pennsylvania Labor Relations Boards. He gives his clients advice and experience concerning a full scope of employment law issues. His labor relations experience compliments a general business and municipal practice.
He has argued legally significant appellate cases before the Commonwealth Court, Superior Court, and Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He has also presented cases to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. His concept of providing competent legal services starts with being accessible to his clients. Tim believes that many important legal services should not be delegated. He is personally committed to providing a high level of quality services to his clients, based upon a wide range of experiences. This approach offers practical legal advice so that his clients are able to make prudent economic and business decisions.
Tim is admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and all other Pennsylvania Courts, Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, U. S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania, Third Circuit Court of Appeals and United States Supreme Court. He earned a BA in political science and English from the University of Pittsburgh and a JD from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Law. Tim is a member of the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Bar Associations, and the Municipal and School Law and Labor Law Committees.