Paul Vojtek

Paul Vojtek

Paul is married to Diane, and they have two wonderful children: Christina and Paul Jr. He has been a Millcreek resident for 25 years. He enjoys golfing in Erie, Pittsburgh, and Myrtle Beach. He is also an extreme Pittsburgh sports fan and tries to attend as many Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins games as possible.

Paul earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Robert Morris University in 1984. In 1994, Mr. Vojtek received his Masters of Business Administration, with a concentration in Computer Information Systems, from Robert Morris University. Mr. Vojtek has more than 38 years of experience with municipal authority finances, spending 8 years with the Allegheny County Industrial Development Authority as Controller, 6 years with the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County as Superintendent of Customer Service, and the past 24 years with the Erie Water Works (EWW) starting as the Finance Director and in 2004, becoming the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

In his time at EWW, he transformed the utility to become a progressive, results driven organization with an aggressive infrastructure replacement and capital improvement strategy. Beginning in the late 90’s, Paul’s expertise and guidance led EWW to embark on a proactive financing program utilizing municipal bonds and PENNVEST monies while introducing planned and well-timed rate adjustments in order to maintain affordable and competitive rates for 63,500 customer accounts. As a result, EWW has invested over $300M into water system replacement and renewal. Paul deftly manages the overall operations of the EWW, with an annual budget in excess of $48M and average water use of 24 MGD. He oversaw 110 employees consisting of management team members and Teamster and AFSCME personnel.

In 2015, he received the Governor’s Award for Local Government Excellence for his contributions to local government in Pennsylvania. Mr. Vojtek is a member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Government Financial Officer’s Association, and the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association (PMAA) where he is a past President and the 2018 recipient of the L.W. “Red” Davis Award honoring his service to PMAA. In 2022, Paul received PMAA’s highest honor, the William H. Markus Award, recognizing his ability to inspire others to follow Markus’ example in instilling honesty, integrity, fairness, efficiency and fiscal responsibility in the operation of PMAA.

Mr. Vojtek has been an active member of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) since 2003. He currently serves on the Finance and Regulatory Committee, as well as the Board of Directors (2021-2024).

Paul has been active in AWWA since joining in 1999. He served dutifully for 12 years as the PA Section Treasurer from 2005 to 2017! In 2015, he received a Special Recognition award. He encourages his team to be active with AWWA and to make a difference in the industry.

Always the volunteer, Paul has served on the Boards of the American Heart Association and the Booker T. Washington Development & Education Center. He served as the Parish Finance Director for 12 years at Our Lady of Peace Parish in Erie, stepping down in January 2024. In 2020, Paul famously fought Erie boxer Johnny Bizzarro to raise money for the Erie City Mission as part of their annual Knockout Homelessness event.

Reason for running for Study Commission:

Paul is running for the Commission to use his 39 years of service working for various governmental agencies in Allegheny, Westmoreland and Erie counties for the betterment of Millcreek Township and its residents. Paul sees the potential “form of government” study commission as a perfect fit for his goal of helping his community. As the retired CEO/CFO of the Erie Water Works, he feels he can offer the commission a strong management background as well as his financial expertise. He comes in with a blank chalkboard. He will support and promote whatever is determined is best for Millcreek Township and its residents and businesses.