3 Monessen recreation board members resign

By KRISTIE LINDEN
klinden@yourmvi.com

Six weeks after it began, the “drama” surrounding the Monessen Recreation Board has seemingly come to an end after three members abruptly resigned Wednesday afternoon.
Chairman Ed Lea, Secretary Brandy Smith and member Marlon Wheeler all submitted letters of resignation Wednesday.
According to Lea, they felt there was no real path forward after the changes that have been and will be made to the board after a new amendment to the ordinance that governs the board is passed.
In his resignation letter, Lea mostly spoke directly to Mayor Matt Shorraw and said he turned what was a peaceful recreation board into a battleground with his “appointed allies, not to make the board better, but to disrupt it.
“The board isn’t perfect and it was in your power as mayor to revamp the operations and the board accepted it,” Lea wrote. “But on several occasions you promised to work with the board on those changes, only to renege on those promises. You had no real intent to work together with the board.”
Lea is referring to a couple instances, including one that happened the night the problems between Shorraw and the rec board began in early February.
At the work session in February, Shorraw listed several issues he had with the board and Lea, who was watching a livestream of the meeting from his home, drove to City Hall to address the comments in person.
Amongst those issues was how rental funds are handled at the Civic Center and while Lea and Shorraw were talking that night, they agreed to meet with each other to form a new financial plan for the board.
Instead, Shorraw arrived at council’s voting meeting one week later with a new resolution regarding the rec board that made several changes to the board including a new financial plan that had no input from Lea.
Another instance Lea refers to is the content of Shorraw’s amendment to the board’s ordinance. It was not discussed at a joint council and board meeting four days before its first reading and it contained sweeping changes to how the board will function.
One of those changes includes moving from a board of five members to seven.
Lea feels this is politically motivated as it would offer Shorraw, who would appoint any new members, a chance to switch the majority of the board to members who support him.
“In 2018, (Shorraw) reduced the numbers from seven to five (on the board), but now he doesn’t have the majority, so now he wants to go from five to seven,” Lea said. “Instead of encouraging the members to work together, you increase the numbers.”
In an open letter addressing the resignations Wednesday, Shorraw wrote, “We cannot have unity, without accountability, and when issues are happening they need to be addressed, and that’s what we did.”

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