Monessen: Appointments to board vacancies spark disputes

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Issues surrounding the Monessen mayor’s decision to mail certain information to all households the month before the primary carried over into council’s meeting Tuesday.

One issue was a perceived lack of consistency in how Mayor Matt Shorraw believes information travels through town and when he thinks more effort is required to get information out and when it’s not.

Shorraw, who is running for re-election in the May primary, sent a letter to all city residents late last week regarding finances that some thought was potential campaign literature, but he has denied that charge.

Shorraw said although the information was originally shared at a March 9 council meeting, not all residents read the paper, attend meetings or can view meetings online and he felt the information was important enough that all residents should know about it.

At last night’s meeting, council voted to accept the resignations of Marlon Wheeler, Brandy Smith and Ed Lea from the recreation board. Those resignations came after several months of clashes between Shorraw and the board, including a threat from the mayor to disband the organization.

After accepting the resignations, Shorraw presented the names of three new people to fill those vacancies — Karla Spangler, Mark Panicucci and Raynelle Mays.   

Council members Lois Thomas and Tony Orzechowski asked if the vacant positions had been advertised and Shorraw said they had not.

“Given all the media frenzy over the recreation board drama,” Shorraw said, people had the opportunity to know there were vacancies on the board.

Thomas pointed out that Shorraw said himself that not everyone gets the paper or has Facebook.

“You guys had this all set up,” Thomas said.

Orzechowski said it was inconsistent with how other openings on other boards have been filled. He asked Solicitor Tim Witt if the positions needed to be advertised.

Witt said they do not, unless the city had an ordinance stating such a requirement. Shorraw said he was unaware of such an ordinance.

Thomas pointed out that the names were not part of the work session agenda last week.

“There are lots of things on the agenda that weren’t on the work session agenda,” Shorraw said. “We’re going to advertise for the two new positions on the recreation board.”

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