As AroundAmbler.com reported, on the agenda for the November 15th meeting of Ambler’s Borough Council was an announcement that Councilmember Frank DeRuosi (Ward 3) (D) intended to resign from office. DeRousi made the announcement during the meeting but did not offer an explanation. The resignation is effective at the conclusion of the December 20th meeting.

DeRousi ran for mayor of Ambler in 2013, however, lost to Jeanne Sorg in the Democratic Party primary. DeRousi, however, picked up enough write-in votes in the Republican primary to earn a spot on the ballot for the general election. He again lost to Sorg but that same year was selected by the members of the borough council to fill a vacant seat to represent Ward 3. He went on to be re-elected to the seat in 2015 and 2019 and served as the council’s president from 2018 to early January of 2022.

Pennsylvania’s Borough Code requires the following once there is a vacancy in an elected office:

If any vacancy occurs in the office of the mayor, member of council, auditor, controller or tax collector, by death, resignation under subsection (a.1) or termination of residency from the borough, or from a ward in the case of a ward office, or by failure to take the required oath, to give bond as provided by law or ordinance or to provide the affidavit required under section 801 (relating to eligibility), or in any other manner whatsoever, the council shall fill the vacancy within 30 days by appointing, by resolution, a registered elector of the borough, or of the ward in the case of a ward office, to hold the office, if the term continues that long, until the first Monday in January after the first municipal election occurring more than 60 days after the vacancy occurs, at which election an eligible individual shall be elected to the office for the remainder of the term. Except as provided in section 801(c), no individual shall be appointed to fill a vacancy in an elected borough or ward office unless the individual has resided within the borough, or within the ward in the case of a ward office, continuously for at least one year immediately prior to the individual’s appointment.

The borough council has 30 days to name a replacement. The person they appoint must have been a resident of the borough for one full year.

Photo: Frank DeRousi