DUBOIS – At Monday night’s DuBois City Council meeting, audience member Lester Smiley addressed council regarding his letter to the editor of the Courier Express. More specifically, he addressed City Solicitor Toni Cherry.
Smiley said it was his intent to continue to pursue the issue of whether or not Ed Walsh could be on council due to his residence but then informed Cherry and council that he wanted to “put your minds at ease and put an end to this.” He told them he had abandoned the idea and had a reason to.
After looking into article eight of the city code, he found that it clearly spelled out that the city could elect a person so long as they are qualified. He said he was going to drop the issue and “wants to wish council well, including Eddie, and this city to move forward.”
Smiley wanted to reassure council and Cherry that he doesn’t just “get up to raise hell.” He pursues issues that he strongly believes in, this being one of them. Cherry told Smiley he had that right. She also said to Lester, “I have the right to disagree with your legal interpretation.”
He also wanted council to understand that he and David Logan wrote separate letters to the editor of the Courier Express. He wrote his letter based on what he observed and heard at a council meeting. He said he did not research the subject to the extent that Logan did and does not know how much the City Manager of Johnstown makes.
Council member Randy Schmidt questioned Smiley as to whether the issue of Walsh being a legitimate council member would come up again. Smiley said that it would not and that he is choosing to look at it in the most positive way he could. Smiley said, “I wish him well. I truly do.”
Cherry then addressed Smiley by saying, “I want you to understand that I do take very seriously my job as legal advisor to this council. I spent a lot of time researching the questions that you had posed previously. I don’t want you think that I would ever tell this council something that I believe not to be absolutely correct, and I want you to know if you weren’t to let this go, I would be defending Mr. Walsh’s right to sit as a qualified member of this council as solicitor of the city of DuBois, because I truly believe that when council voted to appoint him, he was a qualified candidate. If I didn’t, I would have spoken up to council.”
Cherry went on to say that it wasn’t a question as to whether Smiley feared her or the election board, but rather that her advice to council is not taken lightly. Smiley told Cherry that he has the utmost respect for her. She responded that it isn’t then just about wishing council well. She told Smiley, “I’m ready if you are.”
Smiley told Cherry she was missing his point and apologized if she misunderstood. She said she had been listening to it for weeks and didn’t misunderstand, she just wanted to finish the discussion. “I don’t take this lightly, no matter what the subject is. I try to do my very best for this council and for the citizens of Dubois. I think I owe them that,” was Cherry’s response to Smiley.
Smiley then stated that his initial challenge was that Walsh is a resident of Sandy Township and not of the city of DuBois. He was told then, at the time of the initial challenge, that it was an inappropriate forum for the discussion by Cherry. He then went to the election board to seek answers, which he found.
Cherry told Smiley that council knows the definition of residence, because she has given that to them. According to Cherry, a residence is “considered by that person to be his residence and whenever he is absent he intends to return there.”
Smiley went on to argue that the definition left it open for a person to hold three or four residences.
Cherry finished by saying, “If it’s over I don’t want to have to hear it again. I don’t want to have to prepare for it again. I don’t want to have to answer it again.”
Cherry then switched lanes and addressed the fees for the city manager, which have come under question by Logan. She said the information in Logan’s letter to the editor of the Courier Express was incorrect and that the fee is not $125,000. The salaries of Sandy Township, Altoona, and Johnstown were all checked to compare the accuracy of Logan’s claims, that John “Herm” Suplizio was earning $125,000 as the city manager of DuBois.
Cherry said Altoona’s was higher and Sandy Townships was the same, however, neither of those manager’s runs a water or sewer company in addition to being the manager.
She said the dialogue is welcome, but “you have an obligation to get your facts straight and you have an obligation to tell the truth. I’m prepared to engage in the dialogue if that what I have to do.”
Smiley said that he was not aware of what the city manager made and just believes in people earning a livable wage. Suplizio again addressed Logan’s statements by saying that the letter he wrote was intended to rile people up. He said of Logan, “He’s the type of guy that could come inside and tell you it was raining and you would go out and check again.”
He informed everyone that Johnstown just hired a city manager on Jan. 5, therefore is not sure where Logan obtained salary information for a city manager that was not there at the time of the publication of the letter. In talking with the mayors of the cities in question, it was found that Logan never contacted them to ask about the salaries of their managers.
Cherry reminded everyone that the citizens have a right to know the truth. The truth is that Suplizio’s salary is close to $80,000. They budgeted $83,000. It is now a question of how much money comes out of which pot, meaning the general fund or the water and sewer.
The salary of the city manager is less than the manager for Sandy Township but does not include some of the extra perks that some managers see, such as a car. Suplizio said that he should have taken the position when it originally came open in 2006. Others applied but were not hired or backed out.
Potential applicants had asked for a $125,000 salary, which is where it is believed Logan is getting this figure. Suplizio stated that by not taking the position in 2006 the city was able to save the money that was allocated for a manager.