West York, PA (WPMT) — Mayor Charles Wasko said he is willing to resign, but it comes with a cost. He sent a letter of conditions to the borough council for his resignation.
According to Borough Council President Shawn Mauck, the letter was received on Tuesday.
“To you Mayor Wasko, if you are watching, do the right thing,” Mauck said. “If you love West York, resign effectively immediately.”
The calls for Mayor Wasko’s resignation started after he posted several racist posts to his Facebook page.
“With what he said, I feel that he should step down,” Sharon Merkle, a neighbor of Wasko said.
According to Mauck, Wasko sent four conditions in his letter. Wasko said if one is met, he will resign.
The first condition, Wasko wants council to “entertain,” his request to hire a sergeant for the police department. Mauck said they already did this. The other three are personnel issues.
“The borough has never discussed employee matters in public,” Mauck said. “It’s for protection of the employee, and we think it’s very reckless of the mayor to discuss employee matters in public.”
I went over to Mayor Wasko’s house to see a note in the window asking the media to not call or knock on his door. Needless to say, he never made any contact with me.
“Our employees are embarrassed. The community is embarrassed and we are going to stand with them until he’s gone,” Mauck said.
“I think that we are going in the right direction,” Christina Hood, a West York resident said. “We can get somebody else in there that can think about West York as a whole instead.”
The borough council will make a decision on his letter at their meeting on Monday.
“We are also looking into any other opportunities that we can take to remove him from office and we believe this behavior is reckless enough to be charged,” Mauck said.
If Wasko does resign, it will become effective on October 21st. A new mayor will need to be appointed.
Mausk said Wasko suspended the acting police chief. Wasko said the chief did not have his bullet-proof vest at a recent West York fire. Mauck said he saw the chief in the vest. The council is now fighting the suspension.
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