For those who attended last night’s Council meeting via Zoom, a loud disagreement occurred between Mayor Dan DePaul and myself that began during the discussion portion on a motion to approve last month’s meeting minutes.
Approval of Minutes is rarely an item of entertainment for the public. It became one last night.
DePaul was upset that credit to him wasn’t shown in the minutes reflecting a change in wording made to the “black lives matter” resolution passed last month.
He was undoubtedly irritated and became louder, upset the minutes showed, “discussion was had” and that the resolution passed, “with a suggested change.”
I pointed out that he had no complaints with that typical wording shown in previous months minutes, as I became as loud as he was at that moment.
The tipping point came when he shouted for a motion from Council, for the minutes to reflect the entire discussion, and “his” change.
When told by me that he doesn’t run the Council meetings and can not ask for a motion, is when he became out of control.
Rather than continuously banging a gavel, as former-Council President Kelly Gross would do to him when he was a councilman, I simply muted him in order to regain some decorum.
He needed a time out, so that I could proceed with asking for a motion that would reflect the discussion in the minutes. Something that would have been easier on everyone if he skipped his preamble of his “accomplishment” and had followed procedure. Request the Chair ask for a motion, rather than him thinking he could make it directly to members of Council.
By a vote of 3-2 the motion passed and the July meeting minutes will reflect his concern with a section of the resolution, that our Solicitor made clear there was nothing wrong with the original wording in the resolution, and it was our solicitor who actually provided the alternative wording to the resolution passed that evening.
Meeting minutes from last night, due to our Mayor wanting verbatim reflections in minutes, may also result in other statements made showing up. Such as the Mayor saying he received 7 or 8 phone calls from residents wanting to know when swings would be installed on playground equipment, stating one resident threatened to move from West Easton, due to the playground equipment remaining closed during the pandemic.
He didn’t say who the people were who called him, but did note he was also unhappy that the basketball hoops weren’t back up, as well.
Apparently, he believes being in the green phase of a pandemic means everything should go back to normal.
Mayor DePaul also stated that I can now only refer to him as, “Mayor” and not the informal, “Dan” as I have on only a very few occasions during meetings.
However, I won’t require him, or anyone else, to call me, “Mr. Council President.” If I did, that would just make me a pompous ass.
The bizarre part of this entire blow-up was it could have been avoided and was unnecessary.
The Council and Mayor all received copies of the unapproved minutes on Friday, giving everyone 3 days to review them for wanted changes. If Mayor DePaul wanted a change made to the minutes he could have contacted the office and had them revised, without the need for grandstanding during the actual Council meeting.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
