Tuesday night's Bellevue Council meeting was, in every way, classic Bellevue Council.

All the elements were there: off the cuff motions, nobody showing up for a hearing, documents not distributed, a procedural change that created complete confusion and, after three or so hours, an extended debate over some trvial thing.

Government officials usually are criticized for giving jobs to their relatives, but it was the lack of nepotism involved in summer hiring that resulted in an explosion at Bellevue' s pre-council meeting on Tuesday.

Before storming out of the meeting in a rage because his son was not selected to be a public works laborer this summer, Mayor George Doscher disparaged members of council, told one to shut up, and refused to cede the floor and stop yelling when council president Linda Woshner called him out of order.

Bellevue has received two more grants, according to director of administrative services (DAS) Doug Sample.

Sample said the borough has been awarded two Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), both of which will require the borough to provide a 15 percent matching share.

The first grant, for the second phase of the skate plaza, totals $76,392, with the borough contributing an additional $11,450. The second grant is for the Lincoln Avenue streetscape that is currently being designed. It totals $143,235, with the borough adding another $21,485.

While Bellevue's director of administrative services thinks the Artober Fest benefit raised about $6,500 to benefit a proposed skate plaza in Bayne Park, officials have some serious questions about the unauthorized expenditure of almost that much to put on the event.

DAS Doug Sample told council members last week that the event grossed about $12,500, apparently including a $5,000 matching grant from Allegheny General Hospital. Sample said about $6,000 was spent on the event.

Although it appeared that few people on Bellevue Council actually wanted to pay a new part-time office clerk $15 per hour, a resolution doing just that was approved by officials at Tuesday’s work session.

Miscues, misinformation, lack of preparation, bad acoustics and outright distrust factored into a series of events that ended with the hiring of a temporary office clerk at the same salary paid to the former assistant director of administrative services.

DAS Doug Sample defended the higher hourly pay rate, arguing that job would entail more than just clerical work.

Barely a month after voters rejected allowing liquor licenses in Bellevue, the borough is dealing with a proposal to sell beer in Bayne Park -- a proposal from the borough's own employees.

The idea for a "beer corral" in the park developed from plans to hold an arts festival to raise money for the borough's matching share of a grant to build a skate plaza in Bayne Park.

Bellevue Council is being asked to amend the borough’s personnel code to give newly-hired employees paid vacations before they have worked a full year.

Director of administrative services Doug Sample told council members at their Tuesday work session that the borough had hired three new full-time employees recently, all of whom “expressed displeasure” that they would not be able to take paid vacations this summer.

Bellevue Council voted Tuesday to include director of administrative services Doug Sample in a cafeteria benefits plan that could net the new DAS another $3,600 per year.

As part of the cafeteria plan, employees can choose not to be covered by the borough’s health insurance, and instead be compensated $300 per month. Some members of council said that Sample had agreed, as part of his employment contract with the borough last summer, not to take part in the benefits plan, and that his starting salary was increased because of that.

Another half million dollars in grant funds are expected to be received in Bellevue this year, funding projects as diverse as public safety, recreation and economic development.

Anticipating the pending arrival of the borough’s new aerial firetruck, purchased in large part with $600,000 in FEMA funds, Fire Chief Glenn Pritchard told Bellevue Council Tuesday that the fire company also has received a $300,000 FEMA grant to purchase a new fire engine.

The new truck will replace Bellevue’s 1989 pumper, the chief said.

And that was only the start of the good news.

Bellevue officials were given a much different understanding of what it will cost to repair the West Bellevue Station sewer line during Tuesday's council meeting, one week after Avalon officials were told there would be no costs to share.

Bellevue Borough will be looking for a summer intern this year, with council approving an application to the Local Government Academy.

Council member Jane Braunlich said that it would cost Bellevue $4.50 per hour, or a total of $2,160, to pay a summer intern. Director of administrative services Doug Sample said he would like to use the extra help to digitize some of the borough’s old records and ordinances to make it easier to find information.

Bellevue Council will have to wait until Jan. 25 to see if it can muster enough votes to override Mayor George Doscher’s veto of several key budget-related ordinances.

Council’s work session scheduled for this past Tuesday was canceled due to inclement weather.

That cancellation concerned some members of council, because at least two members -- Jim and Susan Viscusi -- will not be present at the Jan. 25 meeting. The concern arose from a mistaken belief that the override vote could be affected by the number of council members present.