Dolan: Distrust Between Council, Observers

City Council will take one last crack at resolving its differences to pick a new controller at a special meeting tonight in Town Hall.

If it fails, the selection will likely fall to judges on Northampton County Court, which can be petitioned under Pennsylvania’s Third Class City Code once the city goes without a controller for 30 days.

Council members appear to agree that this is not a desirable outcome. But in five votes over two meetings since , the result has always come out the same: Two votes each for Councilman David DiGiacinto, retired economist William Scheirer and financial planner George Yasso.

To hear Councilwoman Karen Dolan describe it, this deadlock is the result of a “great distrust” among council members and between City Council and a group council-meeting-regulars who are neither elected nor city employees.

At , Dolan described this group as “the shadow council.”

And because Scheirer, the candidate both she and Council President Eric Evans favor, is a member of “the shadow council,” he is being kept away from the controller’s office by her colleagues, Dolan said.

The “shadow council” apparently believes that council members are incapable of thinking for themselves who either vote in factions or because they are beholden to a leader, Dolan said.

The shadow council grades individual members “like sides of beef,” Dolan said – a reference to grading papers distributed, collected and compiled every week by council gadfly Stephen Antalics, which ask observers to give each council member a grade for every meeting.

“We know what you think of us because you tell us,” Dolan observed.

By the same token, Dolan noted that her council colleagues are not blameless. Without naming names, she accused some of them of behaving poorly during the most recent , during which sitting council members defeated members of the “shadow council” who were Republican nominees. Since then, there have also been “broken trusts,” among council members, she said.

Council members have taken to painting “shadow council” with a similar “broad brush” that “shadow council” members paint them with, Dolan said.

“Mr. Scheirer is not to be trusted,” Dolan said. “If you’re on the shadow council right now, you are all being seen the same.”

The retired English teacher compared the two groups to 14-year-olds incapable of seeing how they contributed to causing a fight.

Yasso is supported by Councilmen J. William Reynolds and Michael Recchiutti, who both won election in November.

DiGiacinto, is supported by Councilman Robert Donchez, who also just won re-election, and Councilwoman Jean Belinski. Dolan said that despite his qualifications, she does not support DiGiacinto, because it would require council to stand in for voters for a second time to pick his replacement on City Council.

Tonight's special meeting will start after council's Human Resources and Environment Committee meets at 6 p.m. in Town Hall.