Change.org petition supporting Rimby as chief<\/a> had 367 signatures in April.<\/p>\nSome claimed Bitler and others had a personal vendetta against Rimby. Brown\u2019s appointment was met with frustration from those residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, everybody loves Rimby,\u201d Cassie Ketterer said. \u201cIt makes me think you didn\u2019t take this seriously from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bitler, Fix and Steve denied that they have any ill will toward Rimby.<\/p>\n
Fix said her vote for Brown was based on Cassel\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n
Rimby was at the meeting but made no comment.<\/p>\n
His wife, Tara, said her husband had gone above and beyond to do the job and deserved the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor whatever reason, Mr. Bitler, you don\u2019t like him,\u201d Tara Rimby said. \u201cAnd you know who that\u2019s hurting? The township.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other residents brought up allegations that Bitler\u2019s aggressive outbursts while staffing the township office drove some employees to quit.<\/p>\n
Bitler did not comment on those claims. He previously noted that the township had hired a labor attorney to address several issues.<\/p>\n
Township employees<\/p>\n
Supervisors took steps to restock the employee ranks at a meeting April 9.<\/p>\n
At that meeting, the board voted 3-2 to hire Osmer Deming as township manager at a starting salary of $90,000, conditional on a background check and probationary period being completed.<\/p>\n
Gullo and Rhoads voted no.<\/p>\n
Bitler and Fix said the township was in dire need of a manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been without a manager since June,\u201d Fix said. \u201cWe\u2019ve interviewed people, we\u2019ve extended offers, and they have not taken them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fix said she wasn\u2019t just hiring Deming to fill a seat and that she was impressed with Deming\u2019s credentials.<\/p>\n
Deming served as managing director for Reading under Mayor Wally Scott from 2018 to 2020. He was replaced by Pedro Cortes shortly after Mayor Eddie Moran took office.<\/p>\n
Deming\u2019s recent employment history includes working as an attorney with a general practice law office in Reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a passion for municipal work,\u201d Fix said. \u201cWe had an interview and I was very impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some residents questioned Deming\u2019s salary and said managers of smaller municipalities generally make $50,000 to $75,000.<\/p>\n
Fix and Bitler said Deming\u2019s salary is lower than what the township had budgeted, and the previous manager, Rich Howett, made $100,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the man is worth it,\u201d Bitler said.<\/p>\n
Rhoads said he thought Deming\u2019s hiring process was done incorrectly and unfairly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo offense to Mr. Deming,\u201d Rhoads noted.<\/p>\n
Gullo said he was voting no because Deming was the only one interviewed for the position.<\/p>\n
Gullo alleged Deming had a personal relationship with Bitler.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou went for your friend,\u201d Gullo said.<\/p>\n
Bitler said other resumes and candidates were reviewed and denied that he had an ongoing relationship with Deming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have not seen Osmer in 25 years,\u201d Bitler said.<\/p>\n
Supervisors also voted unanimously to hire a full-time fiscal assistant at $28 per hour and two public works employees.<\/p>\n
Bitler noted the township is still looking to hire two more staffers in the township office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robeson Township officials approved hiring several township employees, including a police chief. The decision came amid controversy over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,128,130,129,12748,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-172830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-reading-city","13":"tag-reading-city-headlines","14":"tag-reading-city-news","15":"tag-robeson-township","16":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}