At the Oct. 3 Macungie Borough Council meeting, residents, staff and business owners took turns speaking on a number of concerns regarding Macungie Borough Council members, rezoning and water bills. Water bill issues were noted in the meeting story in the Oct. 5 edition of The Press. Residents and business owners were concerned about the lateness of bills being issued, no discounts for paying early, no explanation of usage both current and historically and an expectation for the bills to be paid by a certain date even though the bills were sent about two weeks later than usual due to a new billing system.<\/p>\n
During public comment, resident Lynette Sell stood to talk about the \u201cdisgusting post on Facebook. There are people accusing our council president of being a dictator. I know as most of you should know, our president is not a king sitting up there. Our council votes on everything and the majority rules. The president is the one who is elected by our council to implement and speak for them as a council.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor you to believe that our council president fires people on his own is just foolish. I also know that anyone who is fired or resigns has the right to privacy. Therefore, when our council is asked why someone is terminated they cannot inform anyone their reason for letting someone go. That opens our borough up to lawsuits. I\u2019m not accusing people who posted this hateful threat on Facebook of being malicious but if the shoe fits, wear it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Resident Dennis Fritz took to the podium regarding the proposed rezoning, asking council for the \u201cactual, honest to God truth on why you are rezoning these areas you want to rezone …<\/p>\n
\u201cChurch Street one side is going to stay R7-7.8 and the other side you want to rezone to R10. The main reason I know you guys want to do this is four properties \u2013 the fire department property, the property behind the art studio on Hickory, the one on Popular Street and Common Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how this works with you guys \u2013 not all of you but some of you \u2013 you couldn\u2019t get the fire department rezoned last year so now let\u2019s incorporate a lot more people in zoning so we can look more reasonable. Tell me why … and I live in the R7.8 area. That\u2019s going to devalue my property. So why do you have to do all that in the other areas of town that are 7.8 – why aren\u2019t you rezoning that to R10? So I would like a real answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fritz was told this was not a question-and-answer session and the public hearing will be held on that ordinance at the Dec. 1 meeting. Fritz said he knew that but he was \u201cgoing to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fritz said, \u201cwhat you are doing is devaluing a lot of people\u2019s property just so you can cover a couple things on four other properties. I think it\u2019s wrong and as far as I\u2019m concerned a very corrupt council and very vindictive \u2013 a bunch of bullies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Business owner Tim Romig stated \u201cCouncil President Ron Karboski did not take action when he received information that a newly elected council member, Robert Rosak had been convicted of felonies and could not hold the office of borough council according to the laws set forth in the constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romig said \u201cThe council president and Attorney Armstrong responded it was not council president Ron Karboski\u2019s duty to do anything about this situation so they allowed Robert Rosak to be sworn into office by a Lehigh County judge \u2013 the judge not being made aware of these circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Attorney Armstrong should have advised and what Ron Karboski should have done was to file for a writ quo warrant. This is the legal action to file for this situation. Ron Karboski took no action and kept the whole matter a secret from the public and didn\u2019t even inform some of the other council members.<\/p>\n
\u201cRon Karboski did not uphold his oath of office given to him by the constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His sworn oath and duty was to uphold all of the laws in Pennsylvania. Not informing other council members is a well-known trait of his. He even bragged about it to Dennis Fritz and myself during his negotiations with us in reference to the future of the Macungie Volunteer Fire Department. He did not approve that Dennis and I discussed a proposed agreement from the borough with the membership of the Macungie Volunteer Fire Department. He stated he would not have done that and only tells council members what he wants them to know. Ron Karboski also made numerous disparaging comments about council members.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis many derogatory comments were very unprofessional as he was in these meetings representing council in these negotiations. I also know most of the other council members never even saw the proposed agreement that council President Ron Karboski presented to us on behalf of council.<\/p>\n
\u201cRon Karboski has now desecrated the borough office. Only one person remains \u2013 Borough Manager John Brown and he has been advised he is to be terminated effective Dec. 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m certain that the termination of John Brown is a direct result, like others terminated before him, of attempting to stand up against Ron Karboski.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on this and many other acts against borough employees, misuse and abuse of authority and not upholding his sworn oath of office, I again request that President Karboski resign from his office immediately and also that Mr. Rosak resign as he is a felon and he has no right according to the constitution to sit there and make decisions for the borough of Macungie,\u201d Romig said.<\/p>\n
Macungie Police Department Cpl. Mike Mullen attended the meeting representing himself, borough employees, the borough police union and the teamsters union. \u201cIf you look in the crowd, you will see every borough employee of Macungie is here. That never happens in my 24 years of being here. There is a reason for that \u2013 to cast a vote for President Karboski\u2019s inability to run this borough correctly and we are giving him a vote of no confidence. I have many, many reasons I can list here why. This is what your employees are seeing: zoning hearing board solicitor is gone, zoning officer is gone, administrative staff is gone now the borough manager is gone. Being a borough employee, we get to see a little bit more than you get to see out in the public eye, we know the ins and outs of what\u2019s happening in this borough. It\u2019s a little bit different than what\u2019s being portrayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour new solicitor is trying to change policy that affects police officers injured in the line of duty. He supported a sitting council person who has a lengthy criminal history and then appointed that council person to be on the negotiating committee for the police contract. Those are facts. We\u2019ve had multiple ethics violations filed against you unfortunately. Your own police department had to serve you a no trespassing for the Macungie Borough Fire Company.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour command staff on the police side and the public works side … myself, Travis, Tracy and Doug, are all eligible to retire in 2026. There have been no meetings, there has been no succession plan, nothing in place for the continuation for both of those entities. If all four of us leave, both of those entities collapse because there are not enough trained personnel to take it over. You don\u2019t get all of your borough employees out here for no reason on their day off, on their own time.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery other remaining person on this council knows exactly what I mean. I\u2019ve talked to some of you privately and we know what goes on behind closed doors. You have the ability to stop it. Silence is compliance. If you remain silent and let this continue, this borough is going to collapse. Your employees that are here and the residents deserve much better than they are getting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following public comment, various items on the agenda were approved including a conditional offer of employment to an applicant for the position of assistant borough manager and borough manager (one position) for an annual salary of $105,000 for two years.<\/p>\n
Council also unanimously approved the engagement letter of Patrick Harvey, Esquire and the law firm of Campbell Durrant, PC to serve as special labor counsel.<\/p>\n
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