Full house in Spring City as council challenged on Petak appointment

The Spring City Borough Council expected a full house at its April 4 meeting, and it was not disappointed. About 20 residents and other interested parties crowded into the tiny attendees' area at Borough Hall.  An agenda of mostly routine business, which included the swearing-in of newly appointed councilman Michael Petak, was upstaged by a extended public comment period during which a number of residents voiced their concerns about recent municipal affairs.

Resident Andrew Finkelstein asked the council members to comment on why Petak was appointed to the seat vacated by former councilman Norman Castor, rather than publicly advertising the open council seat and selecting a new member from interested parties. Finkelstein said that after talking to borough solicitor Robert Romain that he “doesn’t dispute the legality of what was done,” but wondered why the vacancy wasn’t made known to the public.

“I made that decision,” said Council President Louis DiGuiseppe. “There was an open Republican seat, I found a worthy Republican person for that seat. I asked Councilman [Donald] Shaner to appoint that person, and he was voted in by majority on the council. That’s all there is to it.”

Asked by Finkelstein whether he "felt a need" to include the public in that process, DiGuiseppe said the public had "already spoken" by electing the present council.

“I was voted in by the majority of the people in town, and the people in town have already spoken and appointed us here at the table to make the decisions for them. That changes every two years. The people, if they’re not happy with what’s going on, have the ability to vote to put people in the seat,” DiGuiseppe said.

DiGuiseppe said that his main concern is to get people on the council who will save the taxpayers money.

“Besides the time involved, just the advertisement [to make the posting known to the public] would cost $100. All I did was make a decision and fill the seat for a job that pays nothing. It cost the taxpayers of this town nothing,” DiGuiseppe said.

"The cost of a press release is zero," councilman Michael Hays said.

Councilman Thomas Kratz said in ten years of being on the council that he has seen six or eight councilors appointed in a manner similar to Petak, and that otherwise council seats might be vacant for months.

“Honestly, in the past ten years, we’ve struggled to find people to sit at this table,” Kratz said.

Finkelstein said that word getting out in the local news might be enough, and that people might come to council meetings if they knew an opening was available. He said that had the seat been opened to the public, Petak might have been appointed anyway.

Borough resident Jill Dreibilbis expressed concern that the other members of the council were not given the opportunity to make nominations for the vacant seat.

"I actually am concerned that only part of the board was aware of the resignation. If the knowledge was opened up to part of the board, then the whole board should have known about it prior to coming to the meeting. They should have had a chance to make other suggestions on the person to fill that position," Dreibilbis said.

"I do agree it would be nice if we [the public] were informed, but the fact that the board wasn't informed, I think that's even worse," Dreibilbis said.

Addressing Petak, Dreibilbis said, "It has nothing to do with you, I'm sure you're very qualified."

After discussing among themselves how to handle public interest in council seats, the council said they would look further into the possibility of making openings known to local residents. Borough manager Dennis Rittenhouse commented that there is a time limit of 30 days to fill a seat that the council has to adhere to, but the general consensus was that council would try to give more residents the opportunity to apply for open seats.

On the matter of former police officer Jamal Lewis’ resignation, Councilman Michael Hays pointed out that a vote to accept Officers Dice and Lewis’ resignations were not recorded in the minutes of the March 7 council meeting. Council President Louis DiGuiseppe said that “Officer Lewis resigning was just information for council.” When Hays questioned the reason for not voting, DiGuiseppe said it was because Lewis was a part-time officer and an at-will employee, so his resignation was “just a resignation."

Hays noted that twice in the past, in March and December 2010, council had voted to accept part-time officers’ resignations. It was pointed out that there is no requirement for resignations to be voted on. Mayor Michael Weiss said he didn’t know why they had been voted on in the past but weren’t this time, and several council members agreed that the policy should be consistent. DiGuiseppe said that in the future, resignations of part-time officers would not be voted on, simply read into the meeting minutes so that they are a matter of public record.

In other council business:

• Resident Brian Dudonis came before council a third time regarding the water runoff issue with his property. DiGuiseppe said that he and Shaner had examined the problem, and while Dudonis is at the “top of the list” for review in the fall, unless he had actually had a flooding problem there was really nothing council could do.
• The resignation of part-time police officer Brandon Unruh was announced. Unruh has accepted a full-time position with the Temple University police department, which does not permit secondary employment.
• It was noted that there is a vacancy on the planning commission. Rittenhouse said he had received two letters of interest, one from resident Jacqueline Finkelstein of Queen Street and one from former councilman Norman Castor. Council asked that Finkelstein and Castor attend the next planning commission meeting to be interviewed, and the commission could then make a recommendation to council on which person to choose.
• Rittenhouse also noted that there is an open seat for an auditor to fill the unexpired term of Fryer Littlefield, who passed away last month. There are no educational or career requirements for the position, and it requires only a few days at the end of the year. Interested persons should contact Dennis Rittenhouse at Borough Hall.
• The next council meeting will be Monday, May 2, 2011.