Get email alerts on the Personnel And Emergency Actions topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Swarthmore council appoints Scarlett McHale as borough manager, approves assistant manager and ratifies heat emergency
Summary
The Swarthmore Borough Council voted July 6 to appoint Scarlett McHale as borough manager and to hire Alex Ashcombe as assistant borough manager; council also ratified a mayoral emergency declaration tied to recent extreme heat.
Swarthmore Borough Council on July 6 ratified several personnel and emergency actions, appointing Scarlett McHale as borough manager and approving Alex Ashcombe as assistant borough manager while also ratifying a mayoral emergency declaration issued July 2 for extreme heat.
The council announced McHale as its selection for borough manager, citing her prior service on borough council from 2021 to 2025 and administrative roles at the Barnes Foundation and Project HOME. Chair (the meeting’s presiding officer) moved to ratify the appointment and the motion carried on a voice vote. Council members thanked those who led the search process.
Council member David Staines, who participated in the selection discussion, said, "So I'm thrilled to have her joining us in this new capacity." The council indicated McHale will transition into the role later this fall.
The council also appointed Alex Ashcombe as assistant borough manager, noting his municipal experience in Johnstown and Cambria County and his background in budgeting and grant work. One council member said they would recuse themselves from this matter because a family member intended to apply; the motion to appoint Ashcombe passed with one abstention recorded.
Separately, council moved to ratify Mayor Ruth’s July 2 emergency declaration related to extreme heat, which the borough manager said had been extended through the period specified in the declaration and ended within that timeframe. Council approved the ratification by voice vote.
All motions reported in the meeting—approving the minutes from June 8, amending the agenda to add several items, ratifying the emergency declaration, and both personnel appointments—were approved by voice vote without individual roll-call tallies published in the record.
The council recessed at the end of the night’s business for a short break; some added agenda items will be discussed in committee and at future meetings.
AI generated
The text on this page is AI generated. Summaries, highlights, analysis, and video transcripts are all produced from the original source material.
AI can make mistakes, so if you spot one, and we will fix it for everyone.
Note: the source content is unaltered by us. Any content source we link to, be it a video, an audio recording, or a document, is presented exactly as its publisher released it. That publisher is usually a government body, sometimes an individual official or another organisation.
