Just two years ago, Slippery Rock Council adopted an ordinance that brought the borough into compliance with state law regulating stormwater runoff. The passage was timely, considering a hotel under construction that same year was experiencing stormwater drainage issues and minor flooding, and the borough undoubtedly wanted to make sure that its large new commercial constituent was obeying the law.

Too bad the enforcer can’t follow its own rules.

Last week, the borough abandoned its plan to expand the paved portion of the parking lot around the municipal building after admitting to a state environmental official there was no site plan to deal with runoff.

The official, Tim Bruno, regional watershed manager at the state Department of Environmental Protection’s office in Meadville, had visited the site a day earlier after receiving a complaint from Frank Monteleone, a landlord who has previously challenged the veracity of Slippery Rock’s government officials over bulk trash pickup.

Bruno determined what the borough probably knew anyway: the paving project was not in compliance with the ordinance it had adopted just two years ago.

Under the state’s stormwater management act, paving of any area measuring 5,000 square feet or more requires a site plan, prepared by a professional engineer, to deal with runoff. The area around the borough building is about 12,000 square feet — nearly two and a half times the minimum — and the borough admitted last week to Bruno that it did not have a site plan for stormwater management.

“They said that they did not plan for it. So, they didn’t do any stormwater management exploration,” Bruno said later.

Aside from obvious embarrassment to the borough, the chain of events surrounding the parking lot paving plan seems to bolster claims by Monteleone and others that an attitude of arrogance taints their municipal leadership.

Someone besides Monteleone had to know the borough was about to violate the law; someone should have known, at least.

Either way, it’s an embarrassing chain of events. The residents of Slippery Rock deserve better.