An attorney representing Collingdale Police Chief Shanee Mitchell has signaled he may soon file suit against the borough regarding her ever-lengthening period of paid administrative leave unless officials there open a dialogue.
It is now nearly four months since Mitchell was placed on leave by borough council, the day after a Jan. 5 reorganizational meeting, and attorney Mark Schwartz claims Collingdale has since refused to pay for training or conferences that she needs to keep up her certifications.
“Placing someone on administrative leave, even paid administrative leave, does not absolve them of responsibility from a contract, civil rights laws, or tort claims,” he said in an April 1 letter to attorney Sean Kilkenny of Kilkenny Law.
Kilkenny Law attorney Deanna Williams, serving as solicitor for Collingdale, declined to comment Friday.
Mitchell said in a Feb. 7 statement that she was called into an unscheduled meeting with borough leadership Jan. 6 and told she was being placed on leave because she failed to report to work at 8 a.m. daily.
“The meeting was brief and offered no opportunity for meaningful discussion,” she said.
Mitchell and Schwartz have asserted Mitchell’s contract allows for flexibility on her working hours, and that the stated reason given by council for her leave was pretextual and not performance-based. Mitchell said reports of her working remotely are also false and noted CBS News had even highlighted a turnaround in the department just weeks before she was placed on leave.
Former Council President Ryan Hastings said in his own statement that he had seen Mitchell go from meetings to paperwork to answering the phones to putting on a vest to go back up officers, and that she was “everything our community wants from a police chief.”
“Residents repeatedly shared experiences of feeling mistreated or marginalized by the police,” Mitchell said in her February statement. “I made it a priority to address those concerns directly. As a result, trust began to return. I received consistent feedback from community members who felt heard, respected and safer. I also received letters of support from nonresidents as far as Ardmore congratulating me on the positive changes.”
Mitchell came to Collingdale from Selinsgrove Police Department in Snyder County, where she was hired in 2022.
That borough has a population about 5,700, nearly two-thirds of Collingdale’s approximately 9,000 residents. Mitchell was one of three finalists and was picked unanimously.
She told Selinsgrove 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.
But 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 praised Mitchell for the work she had done in modernizing that department, and Schwartz said complaints about his client there were overblown and “bogus.”
“She had a broken foot that dogged her for a bit,” he said. “She has letters and texts from (Selinsgrove) that they wanted her back.”
According to the last two people given the position, the ground under police chiefs in Collingdale seems to shift with the political winds.
Mitchell was hired after council demoted former Chief Patrick Kilroy, who rose through the ranks over 20 years in the department.
Kilroy was appointed interim chief in September 2023 and he was officially sworn in as chief Dec. 1, 2023, but was demoted just six months later. Council cited complaints that he was not meeting with council members and overtime costs.
But Kilroy, a Caucasian, claims in his own federal lawsuit filed last year that he was subjected to racial discrimination and a hostile workplace after new council members came on board in 2024 and Hastings was made council president.
After Kilroy, Hastings floated Chester police Cpl. Rhaheem Blandon as a possible new chief in 2024, but that drew the ire of many in the community because Blandon was also on administrative leave and being investigated for allegedly trying to tip off a suspect about an imminent arrest.
The Delaware County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Blandon was under investigation at that time, but no new information on that was available.
Hastings then hired Mitchell, as staffing was down to seven officers. It fell to three officers later that month, requiring Mayor Donna 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.
Council did approve some new hires and other improvements in the department through July 2025, however, when Collingdale police were again staffed enough to handle overnight shifts.
By December 2025, Mitchell said she felt accomplished with where the department was and that it seemed to have turned a corner.
But Mitchell, too, was put on leave after a new crop of council members joined the board in January 2026. She has likewise attributed the move to “political forces beyond my control.”
Schwartz said in his April 1 letter that he reached out to the borough offering to negotiate a resolution, but Collingdale has decided not to engage him.
On Jan. 11, Schwartz said, he filed a petition with the Collingdale Civil Service Commission, but has heard no reply there either.
“I suspect that this petition has been stymied by your client,” he wrote. “Accordingly, I consider our obligation to administratively proceed to have been fulfilled.”
That filing was followed by a Jan. 27 interview with the borough’s labor counsel.
Schwartz said he has a recording of that interview, but has not yet received a promised transcript. He said he had also recently asked that counsel verify the date of a report, but was met with refusal on that point as well.
Schwartz contends there is nothing incriminating in that interview and that the borough’s “ill-advised” request of the county’s Criminal Investigation Department has apparently yielded nothing.
Schwartz added that he and his client had become aware of a discussion sometime in mid-March between current Borough Council President Felecia Coffee and Borough Manager Joseph Papaleo about Mitchell’s return to work.
“Unless you contact me of your willingness to begin negotiations by April 15, be advised that a right-to-sue letter will be secured from the (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) so that we may file the requisite litigation,” the April 1 letter concludes.
Mitchell sent this statement to the Daily Times late Friday: “The borough’s labor attorney has finally responded. The response was simple and clear: ‘What are your client’s demands?’ Is this just so that I collect my money and leave? Well, if so, it’s not going to happen. I have a list of demands which includes clearing up their lies.”
The Daily Times on Saturday was not able to confirm that Mitchell had been contacted.
Daily Times reporter Pete Bannan contributed to this story.