A firefighter with whom the city has been entangled in a legal battle since last year was promoted to captain Thursday evening, Aug. 22, by city council.

City council voted 4 to 1 to promote lieutenant Donald Crawford to captain at the Butler Bureau of Fire, but a lawsuit he filed in February 2023 claiming he was improperly denied a promotion and suspended for reporting unspecified inappropriate behavior, is still pending in Common Pleas Court. Mayor Bob Dandoy and councilmen Larry Christy, Troy Douthett and Dan Herr voted in favor of the promotion, and Councilman Don Shearer was the dissenting vote. The council declined to comment on the vote, saying it was a personnel matter.

Tom Breth, the city’s solicitor, said the city filed preliminary objections to the complaint submitted by Crawford, and the court is waiting for an amended complaint to be submitted by the plaintiff.

“We’re waiting for the judge to hopefully throw the case out,” Breth said.

Council voted to adopt an ordinance repealing a chapter of the city’s code regarding rental occupancy and replacing it with a new chapter approved in April.

The new property rental ordinance requires landlords to report the conditions of non-owner-occupied residential spaces to the city before they are occupied by tenants.

The move was one of the final steps in implementing the ordinance, which will require landlords in the city to complete a Rental Occupancy Report and a Property Condition Form within 10 days of a tenant moving in. Landlords with tenants occupying their properties on Jan. 1 will be grandfathered into the ordinance, but they would no longer be able to have a new tenant in the property until they complete the forms after that date.

Shearer, who spearheaded the ordinance, said he had a meeting last Wednesday with the city’s department heads to develop what the initial phase of the forms will look like.

“We will have another meeting before the end of this year to look at what enforcement looks like after the fact,” he said.

A landlord of properties in the city, David Gold, said he was unhappy with the idea of collecting tenants’ names and addresses for the city, and said he would be challenging the ordinance.

Council also voted Thursday to acknowledge that Butler Area Sewer Authority will temporarily waive its right to exercise a termination of the sales agreement it has with Pennsylvania American Water. The water company has been approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to buy BASA’s assets for $230 million, but the sale has been stopped by an appeal Center and Summit townships made to Commonwealth Court.

The sewer authority would not be able to terminate the sale agreement for 60 days after the appeal is settled.

Butler Township commissioners approved the acknowledgment Monday. The township has two residents on the BASA board of directors, and the city has three residents on the board. Dandoy said the sewer authority board has to approve the motion as well.