Bethel Park Manager Kristen Denne
At the July 10 Bethel Park Municipal Council Meeting, Kristen Denne was approved as the new Bethel Park municipal manager with a start date of Monday, Aug. 28.
“Kristen is very well qualified with substantial local government managerial experience,” said Bethel Park Municipal Council President Tim Moury. “We’re excited to have her on board and look forward to what she’ll bring to our residents.”
Prior to accepting this position, Denne was manager of Caln Township in Chester County, PA. There she managed day to day township activities including police, administration, public works, their golf course, and municipal authority operations. Prior to that, she was manager of Springettsbury Township, manager of the City of Johnstown, manager of Ambridge Borough, and manager of Dormont Borough.
Denne, who’s originally from West Mifflin, PA, is now looking forward to her new role with Bethel Park and moving back to the South Hills region of Pittsburgh to be with family and reconnect with colleagues.
“Bethel Park has always been an amazing community with a great quality of life and good services for residents,” she said. “Having the ability to come back to Pittsburgh and particularly the South Hills area where my connections are active was a unique opportunity!”
Denne also serves on the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officer Education and Training Commission (MPOETC) as a commissioner and plans to continue her work there after joining Bethel Park. MPOETC was created in 1974 to establish minimum training and certification standards for municipal police officers in Pennsylvania.
“I was appointed by both Governor Wolf and Governor Corbett to this role,” said Denne. “It’s been an honor to have two governors appoint me. I’m still serving on the Commission and working on getting reappointed after I’m at Bethel Park. Along with my commissioner duties, being in this role has helped me to be keenly aware of standards in police training and trends in attracting police candidates; it’s been a large part of my career to educate the public and local officials about the unique needs of the police profession and necessary training for an effective police force.”
Denne’s work on the Commission also involved the implementation of regulations surrounding Act 57 and 59 of 2020 which were police reform bills passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature.
“MPOETC was tasked with creating the infrastructure and regulations to make the requirements of this legislation a working process for local police departments,” she said. “I took this process very seriously as this was the most significant police reform that I’ve experienced during my career. It was crucial to work with MPOETC staff and local police agencies to make this process successful and fulfill the intent of the legislators.”
Once she gets acclimated to her new position, Denne plans on hitting the ground running. For the first several months, she’ll be reviewing Bethel Park’s strategic plans and capital projects. And, because budget season will be approaching, Denne will be quickly getting involved with that process while becoming familiar with the various municipal departments and employees.
“I also want to talk to Council and see what they’d like to accomplish in 2024,” said Denne. “And I realize some projects were halted due to the change in administration and issues with supply chains in recent years, so I’ll assess what we need to do to get projects moving in fast order.”
She’s also eager to bring her wealth of knowledge to her new role.
“I’ve worked throughout Pennsylvania so I’m looking forward to bringing ideas from those positions here, but I still have a strong understanding of the personality and traditions of the Pittsburgh area,” said Denne. “I also believe in treating government as a professional business model and looking at the best way to add cost effective services for the residents and the local business area.”
Denne also plans on being an active community member in Bethel Park once she gets settled making connections and building partnerships.
“I’ll be living, working, volunteering, and attending church with the community and the residents I serve. I’m hoping with the assistance of staff and department heads that we’ll continue to enhance services, produce successful events and educate the Bethel Park community on the many benefits that local government provides,” she said. “Residents don’t often realize all of the services that they are provided at the local level, and I feel municipal government needs to do a better job of explaining the services that it offers.”
Denne’s love of local government began in graduate school.
“I got into local government while I was in graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh serving as an intern for the local Government Academy and Castle Shannon Borough. It seemed like local government was where I was gravitating, and I fell in love with neighborhood development and infrastructure. In my role now, I get to see the fruit of my labor more often than my colleagues at state and federal positions,” she said. ‘For instance, I can see a playground or park go from vision to construction, or a road that was in bad shape be reconstructed; it’s very fulfilling.”
Denne holds both a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh. She’s also participated in the Credentialed Manager Program from the International City/County Management Association, has completed the Capstone Seminar with the Association of Pennsylvania Municipal Management and completed a Public Entity Leadership Certificate from Pennsylvania State University. In addition to her professional activities, Denne serves as a eucharistic minister and lector at her local parish and has been a guest lecturer at local colleges, public sector professional organizations and non-profits involved in local government.
Bethel Park residents will have the opportunity to meet Denne at an informal introductory event that will be held this fall.
For more information on Bethel Park, visit https://bethelpark.net.