For the second time in as many weeks, an attempt to oust Bellevue’s solicitor has failed.

A week after a motion to seek proposals from attorneys failed in a tie vote at the borough council’s reorganization meeting, a second motion made at the first regular council meeting on Tuesday met the same end.

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.

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.

Despite an early start to this year’s budget process and every intention of actually getting a bud-get adopted before the end of the year, Bellevue officials hit a snag when it came time to vote on the first reading of the budget ordinance at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

Lingering concerns over a hefty increase in the sewer surcharge and salary increases were complicated by a change in adoption procedure introduced by the borough’s solicitor to send officials back to the drawing board before a substantive vote on the bud-get is taken, probably on Dec. 14.

Bellevue Council will consider an amendment to the borough's personnel code that will incorporate the non-discrimination criteria already in effect in the Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh's hiring policies.

The change proposed by council member Mark Panichella will add ancestry, sexual orientation and color to the list of characteristics that will not be used to discriminate in the hiring and treatment of employees.

Panichella also proposed changing the word "sex" to "gender" in the personnel code.

Bellevue may hire a graduate student to serve as interim director of administrative services.

Members of Bellevue Council held a special meeting Tuesday to discuss four options presented by finance committee chairman Mark Panichella, and seemed to reach a compromise on how to manage the borough's government until a permanent DAS can be hired to replace Connie Flasher, who resigned last month.

Bellevue Council started off the new year with a bang. With four officials not invited to take part in an early swearing-in ceremony, the night took a turn for the worse as council members got a few surprises before the evening ended with a plea from the mayor for everyone to check their egos at the door.

Bellevue Council voted unanimously Tuesday to fill the vacant third ward council seat.

The vacancy created by the August resignation of Jerry Walter was filled by Mark Panichella, who will serve until the end of the year.

Panichella, 39, of Dawson Avenue, is the Democratic candidate for that seat, and will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot for a four-year term.

A native of Greensburg, he holds a bachelor of arts degree from West Virginia University and is the director of human resources for the VITAC corporation.