ALLENTOWN — Tension rose to nearly palpable levels at Allentown Borough Hall as council members clashed during the 2015 reorganization meeting.
The six-person Borough Council is now evenly split among Republicans Dan Wimer and Margaret Rose, Democrats Angela Anthony and Robert Schmitt, and independents Madeline Gavin and Wil Borkowski. The members disputed a number of points during the two-hour meeting on Jan. 6, turning municipal appointments and shared-service agreements into battles where political lines were drawn.
After incumbent Anthony and newcomer Borkowski were sworn into the council terms they won in November, the governing body voted 4-2 for Borkowski to serve as council president for 2015. Wimer and Rose cast the dissenting votes.
Throughout the meeting, Borkowski led a number of inquiries into the reappointments of the borough’s professionals.
“I think it’s in our best interests in Allentown to … at least hear other companies that are willing to work for us,” Borkowski said. “If they are, we can review them and see if they’re better than who we have now.”
Though Borkowski said he wanted to specifically discuss legal and engineering services, among other appointments, Mayor Stuart Fierstein said many of them were already discussed during a Dec. 17 meeting of the previous council, which included then- Council President Michael Schumacher.
The mayor said five of the six current council members were at that meeting and agreed to the appointments that were lined up for the reorganization meeting.
Borkowski, however, contended that discussing the 2015 reorganization meeting in December was unfair to him as a newly elected member of the council.
“In this case, these are appointments. We do these every year, and you’re literally handcuffing new people when you did this last year,” Borkowski said.
Fierstein said the predetermination of appointments in December was a byproduct of the resignation of Donald Driggers as the borough’s legal counsel. The mayor said decisions were needed at the time as a result of the vacancy.
“We were thrown into upheaval last December,” Fierstein said. “That’s why [the appointments] were done this way. [It was] not to lock anyone out.”
After Driggers resigned, officials said the Dec. 17 meeting was needed to appoint Daniel Green of Goldzweig, Green, Geiger & Biezynski to serve as borough attorney through the end of the month.
When Borkowski asked why Green was again being appointed in 2015, both the attorney and Fierstein said an assurance was given to the law firm that they would be selected to remain as legal counsel for the entirety of 2015.
Council members also questioned the appointment of Hatch Mott MacDonald, but the firm was approved to provide engineering services for the first four months of the year.
Ultimately, the meeting came to a head when the issue of 15 pages worth of mayoral appointments came up for a vote. In a move that Borough Clerk Julie Martin described as unusual, the council voted down a majority of Fierstein’s appointments.
The action caused an uproar among the remaining Republican council members, with Wimer warning that denying most of the mayor’s appointments could cause a “shutdown” at the municipal level.
Rose also cautioned her counterparts on the council, suggesting that their relative inexperience in government meant that they did not fully grasp the consequences of their actions.
Though the list of appointments had yet to be finalized by the afternoon of Jan. 9, Martin said the council had approved the first four pages of professional appointments. Other exceptions to the council’s denials included positions with unexpired terms and all those related to the municipal court, including the judge.
Martin said the council would decide on the remaining vacant positions during the Jan. 27 council meeting.
The council appointed Linda A. Osman as public defender, Ronald Gafgen as housing inspector, Thomas Planning Associates as municipal planner, and Susan Babbitt as the recycling and Clean Communities coordinator.
The council agreed to enter into sharedservice agreements with Robbinsville for public works services and municipal vehicle repair. The council also agreed to enter into an agreement with Plumsted Township for the services of Chief Financial Officer June Madden.
The council also approved a $592,608 temporary municipal budget, a $112,240 water utility budget and a $170,515 sewer utility budget to cover the beginning of 2015.