ASHLAND - The borough council's hiring of a new office clerk last week proved to be just as contentious as the council's acceptance of the borough manager's resignation.
During the special meeting Nov. 5, the borough council voted not to hire current part-time clerk Angela Lyden as a full-time clerk to fill a vacancy. It instead hired Terri Paige in a subsequent vote, but reduced the position to a part-time one in the process.
It was at this meting that the resignation of Borough Manager Thomas W. Joyce was accepted in a 4-2 vote. Joyce has tendered his resignation letter Oct. 10, but about one week later rescinded his resignation in a letter to council President Frederick Spieles.
In the letter, Joyce explained that there are many issues the borough is dealing with at this time and decided it would be advantageous to the borough to stay on despite conflicts with some council members.
Speaking as a member of the public after the resignation acceptance, Joyce said he would seek legal advice on council's decision.
The meeting opened with the borough council holding a 10-minute executive session on personnel issues, according to borough solicitor James Diehl. As the council returned to open session, Councilman Patrick Cooney made a motion to hire Lyden as full-time clerk at $13 per hour. Spieles offered the second, adding that the salary was "up for discussion."
The motion as defeated in a 2-4 vote, with Spieles and Cooney voting in favor of the hiring, and council Vice President Ray Walacavage, Patti Wesner, Daniel Weikel and Danny Johnson voting against it.
After voting to accept Joyce's resignation letter, the office clerk matter was raised again after resident Warren "Nick" Lane asked if the council was going to hire someone. Spieles asked for a motion, with Walacavage making the motion to hire Terri Paige, Girardville, for 30 hours per week at $12 per hour. Johnson seconded that motion.
"Does she have any experience working for the state or local government?" Cooney asked.
"She has 22 years experience working in management in banks, handling money, so on and so forth," replied Walacavage. "She is also a notary public."
"So you're going to turn down someone (Lyden) who is already trained for the job for someone who is not trained," Cooney said. He claimed that the decisions being made with regard to personnel are political in nature, with Republicans having that disadvantage.
"This is personal. You made this personal, and it's wrong," Cooney said.
"It is not personal," Walacavage said.
"You're not thinking of the public and this borough at all with these decisions," Cooney said.
Walacavage said when Joyce submitted his resignation, an advertisement was placed in the newspaper for a new part-time borough manager. Spieles said nine applications had been received, but they were not opened until Nov. 5 by him and had not been reviewed by other council members at that point.
"And all of this because you don't like Angie or Tom," Cooney said.
"That's your opinion," Walacavage said.
"And now we don't have a full-time clerk. Just two part-time clerks," Cooney said. "Now that our full-time clerk will now only have 30 hours, and our other part-time clerk is going back to about 12 hours per week, who's going to handle all of the additional workload? You can't pass it on to the borough manager because we don't have one."
Twenty applications were received for the office clerk position, and those were narrowed to six applications for consideration. Mayor Dennis Kane asked if any applicants were from Ashland. Walacavage said three borough residents applied, but all wanted full-time.
"Under my understanding about the additional workload, Patty Moyer is probably going to have to handle a lot of it until they get somebody trained," Spieles said.
Resident Francis Menne, a former council member and president, said the only reason the full-time position was reduced to part-time was to avoid paying benefits. He also said the council should consider hiring people who live in the borough, pay taxes to it and support local businesses and services.
"The (personnel) committee chose the best person for the job," Spieles said.
The vote for Paige was the opposite of the earlier vote, with Walacavage, Wesner, Weikel and Johnson voting in favor, and Spieles and Cooney voting against. The approval is contingent on favorable background checks.
Cooney and Spieles said their negative votes were because the position is not a full-time position and not against Paige.