It was a very interesting swearing in ceremony.  Originally, a local District Magistrate was going to perform the ceremony.  He did not show up, but we were fortunate enough to have newly elected Judge Tim Krieger swear in the Mayor and the members needing to take the oath of office.  It was very late until we got around to the reorganization part of the council.

I was extremely disappointed by the turn out at the meeting.  There were no citizens present.  I feel in a sense that I left the town down, but at least you the voting public will know what is happening and will be able to take appropriate action on election day.

The idea of vote, at least at this organizational meeting, is a total shame.  It reminds me of a council meeting I attended as a citizen.  The accusation was made that minds are already made up before issues are even voted on.  That was absolutely the case in this organizational meeting were part of the tasks was to elect a President and Vice President of Council.  Going in I had the feeling that the die was already cast for who would be appointed.  I used a parliamentary procedure to inject the nomination of Andrew Shissler as Council President and Ann Lantz as Council Vice President. It is interesting to note that last years council President James Bortz, III already had committees picked out .  He was the one that chose the seating arrangement, and perhaps in the most amazing twist our Mayor asked him when to start the meeting.  It broke my heart when Andrew declined first, but he was actually contemplating for a few seconds, than Ann withdrew her nomination immediately after.  So, the council "leadership" is the same as it was last year.  I had to rethink part of my strategy because no public was present.I will start this at the next meeting.  It is ironic that the Council President, but I had already planned this before I knew that fact.  When there was no public in the audience I knew the time was not right.  I think that part of the issue is that elected members take the oath to serve but don't understand what "fidelity" truly means.

An interesting point is I was told by the "president of the council" before he was elected that I couldn't do something in the way I made nominations.  I sited parliamentary procedure and he said, "let the solicitor" handle this part of the meeting.  The solicitor remained silent because he knew what I was saying was correct.

I will now discuss my votes.  I was the sole person to vote against James Bortz.  I was the sole person to vote against Andrew as Vice President only because he would make a better president.  I abstained from voting on solicitor and Engineering services.  The only reason that I did is because I want to review products delivered against monies spent.  Honestly, if there are individuals or business within the Borough that are interested in performing the services and have comparable or better fee structure I think they should at least be given a chance to bid.  At this time I have no ties or knowledge of persons who may be qualified.  If you are interested contact me.  Within the next 6 months I will do my own evaluation and publish a report of my findings and make it available to all interested citizens.  Please note that this activity is not sanctioned by the council or would even muster its support.  The only reason that I am interested in taking on such a project is the people of this town deserve to have an unbiased as possible report on services that cost the Borough $100,000 in 2014.