SHARE THIS

For the past month I was aware that Councilman Tom Nodoline was organizing a campaign desperately seeking support to turn back the formation of a part-time police force.

Sometimes fear isn’t an easy sale, especially when many of those being propositioned have a bigger fear of declining property values, theft, petty crime, and other problems associated with depending solely on Pennsylvania State Police for protection, or they are simply aware of information that contradicts the fearmonger.

Tom Nodoline presented a petition to Council last night with only 55 names of residents who signed it. Some were obviously friends and family. Many who refused to sign and informed us of the petition, said they were told of taxes “going through the roof” and the borough “going bankrupt,” as part of the enticement to sign the petition.

Two residents who signed the petition later had their names crossed off the list when they actually became aware of the budget allotment for part-time police and the borough being financially sound.

While Nodoline presented Council only 31 homes signed, with the occupants consisting of less than 4.5 percent of the total population, he told Council he could provide hundreds more opposed to moving forward toward a police department. Why he didn’t provide those additional hundreds last night, after a month was spent seeking them, can only be conjectured as, the boast of his overwhelming support against a part-time force being non-existent.

Nodoline, who was once a power figure on a previous Council that shared little information with the public, used the Right To Know Law as a delay tactic for a Borough Hall that remained locked during working hours, and promoted secrecy, now seems to have done a 180 degree turn, demanding that residents, have a right to be informed.

Tom Nodoline is hardly the person to be an advocate for the public’s right to know.

Tom Nodoline, who discovered the body of Councilman Charlie Stout Jr., actually encouraged the placing of Mr. Stout’s name plaque at his seat and keeping the “secret” from the public. The public was told, “Mr. Stout won’t make it tonight” in the months that followed his death, because an appointee replacement for Mr. Stout couldn’t be found.

Obviously still angry at the loss of his muse in the 2015 Primary election, his complicity in all that was wrong with the previous Council, and his own loss this past Primary in May, his feigned and sudden concern for residents financial well-being led to Councilman James requesting him to refrain from cursing during his oration.

Nodoline also vowed that after December (likely his last month on Council due to his loss in the May Primary) he will be at every Council meeting. If true, his attendance in the audience would be far better than his attendance as an actual Council member the last two years.

Unlike Mr. Nodoline, who bought two Jeeps for police vehicles back in late 2013 and then had Council approve the purchases after the fact (and the following repairs, painting, etc. performed by his employer), this present Council has strove to be open and transparent. We are following a step-by-step procedure in getting a part-time police force established. Something not done in 2013 when little research was performed and equipment was bought without a resolution or ordinance passed to form a department.

We were told, when it all came to an end in 2014, that it would cost $1 million dollars to form a full-time force. That is a figure that might be fairly accurate for a full-time force, considering benefits, retirement packages, and Civil Service requirements that would have to be met.

When asked about a part-time force, we were told – inaccurately – that Pennsylvania State Police would provide no coverage at all, if we had any type of police force. Nothing more could be done and only a contract with another municipality could get us local police protection.

I won’t say we were intentionally lied to, but it’s obvious that research into a part-time police department wasn’t conducted by the previous council, as Nodoline claimed was done. PSP does provide coverage during those hours a part-time force is not active.

Unless you actually attended a Council meeting of the previous Council, you didn’t have a clue about what they were doing, or what was happening. It took more than two months to get minutes of a Council meeting and you had to put in a RTKL request to get them. Even if you attended a meeting, you were likely to be lied to.

Of those few residents on the petition, that attended and spoke at the podium last night, I was impressed by their civility. Even Tricia Mezzacappa, though she did mistake some monetary cost figures quoted, presented her concerns to Council coherently, while not getting sidetracked with personal grievances. She stated she isn’t anti-police, but believes it would be too expensive. I can appreciate that concern and the manner in which she expressed it.

Residents who spoke were genuinely concerned about cost and the perceived lack of information provided to residents about the Council planning on forming a part-time force.

That is a concern of mine if, in fact, we are failing to use the tools available to us in providing accurate information. If there is even one resident, who signed the petition because they don’t have the facts, but relied on the word of somebody cold calling them with unfounded predictions of doom and gloom, there is a problem.

Which brings me to the point of getting Borough information out to the public.

While I’ve done what I can through this website and posting Council Meeting videos, they aren’t “official” in the passing along of information. I don’t reach every resident. Some don’t care about Borough business until somebody knocks on their door and gives them a horror story of how future taxes will make living in West Easton financially untenable.

This Council, along with our Borough Manager, Joan Heebner, has worked at trying to improve the distribution of information to residents, but with that distribution there can be complaints.

Earlier this year a newsletter included an accounting of where tax dollars were spent. It was an honest accounting of how tax money was spent and referred to Council as an entity. No one person was praised or chastised in that report. No mention was made of Council members not having participated, or voting for (or against) the decisions of spending. Whether you agreed or disagreed with the spending, the entire Council, as a unit, was cited for the expenditures. This accounting of where money was used is something this Council plans on doing every year, but a complaint of it being a “political advertisement” was still made.

On this website (not the official website) is where you will find how Council voted individually. It’s also something I plan on providing annually, so that residents have accountability on those elected to represent their best interests.

The Borough now has an official website. A website I built and got running shortly after taking office in 2016, to improve transparency. Any further development, from how it appeared then, ended when someone complained I was administrating the site and had the opinion that this should be the responsibility of the Council President (who, respectfully to Dan DePaul, doesn’t know the difference between a bit and a bot). However, with the desire of a temporary Borough Manager at the time trying to appease the person complaining and my own gratefulness of the opportunity to rid myself of an additional 100 hours of free work in further development, I gladly turned over the reigns to Mr. DePaul.

Joan Heebner has been doing an extraordinary job in posting information on the website that includes requests for public participation, meeting announcements, ordinances, MS4 information, advertising notices, etc. While she and Mr. DePaul do not understand the coding of the website, Joan has quickly learned the basic functions to add information displayed on it.

Approved Minutes of Council meetings are made available to the public with no RTKL delays at Borough Hall. These minutes (also newsletters) are also available from the Borough website, as a download. Joan Heebner, or our Sr. Clerk, Dave Gehman, work on getting these available for uploading as quickly as possible. Though not a verbatim recount of an entire Council Meeting, information on proposals, Committee Reports and votes by Council can be found in the minutes.

Joan Heebner has started a Facebook account for West Easton, sharing information about not only West Easton, but other local communities, as well.

Newsletters, though only sent quarterly, also provide useful information. If people actually read them they would have noticed in the Spring 2017 mailing, the public was informed of the Council’s intention to form a part-time police department.

Transparency has been created by providing residents a means to obtain information easily, but we are unable to spoon feed residents that information immediately, if they don’t attend open and public meetings. Information, like a part-time police department, where costs and requirements to form one have been discussed since the beginning of the year. During all those meetings, the availability for public comments was offered not only once, but twice.

So, how can information be made more readily available to residents, other than knocking on everyone’s door?

It isn’t feasible to mail out a flyer after every meeting to tell residents everything that happened.

I try to post a video of each meeting within a week or two of it being held, for those who don’t want to attend in person. However, the Borough is not obligated to link to those videos, nor should they, as it might be perceived as some sort of free advertising, or an endorsement of this website, which I freely admit is opinionated. I video the meetings as a resident, not in the capacity of a Councilman. They are also not “official” records of meetings. But, even those recordings of meetings has been met with complaints.

Tom Nodoline bemoans the positioning of the camera, which has the lens set at the widest possible angle to capture the podium and as much of Council, as the lens allows. The camera rests on the only shelf available in the farthest corner of the room. Tom Nodoline doesn’t like to be recorded (which might be due to that whole Computergate incident in 2015). He seems to believe that the camera focused elsewhere would make a difference in his failed arguments with Council, as he often cries out in protest of it’s positioning.

A request for breakdowns of budgets and line items in their preliminary stages (while in committee) defeats the purpose of having a committee to research possible future costs and past expenditures, because any proposed budget in this preliminary stage is subject to change and revision by the Committee itself. It can also be revised upon its presentation of a final draft to the full Council.

What I could propose is that the official Borough website include motions made during a Council meeting and the results of the motions. It would give notification to residents of future and present business the Council is working on, allowing residents to provide input at the next Council meeting, during the Public Comments portion.

Perhaps the next newsletter might use a larger font to promote its own website, noting that more current information can be obtained. That’s if residents don’t throw them away and actually read them.

I would also remind residents that Committee Meetings are open to the public. More informal than a Council Meeting, you are welcome to attend and can request to be heard if you would like to provide input on the subject being discussed.