Collingdale has placed its police chief on paid administrative leave.
Shanee Mitchell was placed on leave Tuesday over complaints about her work hours, according to her lawyer, Mark Schwartz. Mitchell had controversy at her prior police chief job, although she also garnered praise for her work.
The issue in Collingdale was she had not worked enough on the 8 to 4 day shift, he said.
“It’s ridiculous,” Schwartz said, noting she has helped turned the department around and contract states her normal schedule is 8 to 4 but she is allowed to take time off from regular scheduled hours as deemed appropriate.
“Her contract said their was flexibility with respect to that … at her discretion,” he said. “She is the determiner of the flexibility.”
Asked for comment, Mayor Donna Matteo-Spadea said the situation is about a personnel matter and she is not able to disclose anything at this time.
Collingdale Mayor Donna Matteo-Spadea. (COURTESY PHOTO)
The borough’s new solicitor Deanna Williams of the Kilkenny Law firm also declined comment, citing it as a personnel matter.
The backstory
Mitchell was hired in the October 2024 after council demoted the former Chief Patrick Kilroy who rose though the ranks in his 20 years in the department.
He was on the job for six months when council, citing complaints over his lack of meeting with council members, and unhappiness about overtime costs demoted him.
Police Chief Patrick Kilroy, above, being sworn in by Mayor Donna Matteo-Spadea in December 2023. The borough-born chief’s tenure would last barely six months before he was demoted after a power shift on council, then he left for greener pastures. (COURTESY PHOTO)
After Kilroy’s demotion, council under President Ryan Hastings, hired Mitchell as staffing was down to seven officers. It fell to three officers later that month requiring Mayor Matteo-Spada to request state police to provide cover for overnight shifts. Council members were also fighting over civil service issues that slowed the hiring process.
Over the past year the number of officers has increased as council approved new hires along with other improvements in the department. In late July, Collingdale police were again staffed enough to handle overnight shifts.
In December, Mitchell proclaimed “I feel accomplished,” when talking about how the department had turned a corner.
On Monday evening a new council was sworn in, and less than 24 hours later, Mitchell wasn’t in attendance and things had changed.
Schwartz said the mayor, borough manager and council president spoke to her in an interaction that lasted about two minutes.
Schwartz said Mitchell could sue and officials are just costing the borough money.
“She’s got a lot of good legal claims. She’s got an EEOC claim that she filed over race. I think she could do one over disability. There is the matter of her contract. There is the matter of people badmouthing her,” Schwartz said. “She’s got a lot of legal claims.”
Chris Eiserman, president of the Delaware County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 27, had this to say about the Collingdale situation: “The FOP is happy with the newly elected members of Borough Council in Collingdale and we look forward to working with the new administration. The police department has been decimated by previous administrations which left them underfunded and unappreciated. The FOP looks forward to a new day with new relationships moving forward to ensure the Police Department is fully funded, appropriately staffed and supported by Council.”
Delco FOP Lodge 27 President Christopher Eiserman in 2021. (DAILY TIMES)
Issues at the last job
Mitchell came to Collingdale from Selinsgrove Police Department in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, where she was hired in 2022.
That borough has a population about 5,700 and she was one of three finalists and was picked unanimously.
She told residents she would be a working officer, taking shifts and planning to move to that area, which is 80 miles north of Harrisburg on the Susquehanna River south of Williamsport.
In 2024 some in that town began questioning her running the department from her home in Montgomery County.
“We’re paying her $88,000 plus benefits to do a full-time job. I want her here,” Selinsgrove Council member Todd Cox told the Daily Item in August 2024 “The citizens of Selinsgrove are not getting what they paid for.”
Others in the town of 5,700 praised Mitchell for the work she had done in modernizing that department.
Shanee Mitchell when she was chief in Selinsgrove, Snyder County. (COURTESY OF THE DAILY ITEM)
Mayor Jeff Reed told the Daily Item that Mitchell helped bring the department into compliance by updating computer and software systems, improving communication systems and obtaining certification in National Incident-Based Reporting System.
Supporters also said Mitchell equipped officers with a standard uniform, promoted one officer to sergeant and was working with school officials and mental health professionals to improve the safety of the public and the officers.
Asked about complaints from Selinsgrove, Schwartz called them “bogus.”
“She had a broken foot that dogged her for a bit. She has letters and texts from Snyder County (Selinsgrove) that they wanted her back,” Schwartz said.
He pointed to the recent reports in the media about improvements in the department. There were still issues, he said Mitchell tried to ride the issues in the borough out but it became impossible.
“She’s got makings already of a federal lawsuit. She’s filed already with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) in November for race discrimination,” he said she was being “continually hassled.”
“They’ve got big problem. It’s just outrageous, the way she has been treated and she is not going to stand for it and neither am I,” Schwartz said.
The police chief isn’t the only issue percolating in the borough. At Monday night’s council meeting a newly elected council member, Rochelle Helm, was not in attendance to be sworn in.
Mateo-Spada said no decision on her status has been made.