A motion to advertise for the position of township manager was squashed during Monday’s Pocono Township Board of Commissioners meeting.
The motion was made by Commissioner Ellen Gnandt, who called the discussion on advertising the position “the elephant in the room.” It was not seconded by any other commissioner.
“So, I would like to know why there’s no second, what are we waiting on?” said Gnandt. “Let’s have a conversation.”
“The conversation, and I think you understand, is that there’s a commissioner that’s going to resign from the position, and then we’re going to appoint that commissioner as the manager,” replied Board President Richard Wielebinski.
Former Pocono Township Manager Taylor Muñoz’s last day was April 5. Public Works Director Patrick Briegel is the interim manager.
In March, the commission voted 4-1 to prepare an amendment to the manager’s ordinance that would remove the requirement for a commissioner to wait a year after their term expires for them to take the job of a manager. Gnandt was the dissenting vote.
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Wielebinski said that the Board of Commissioners ran it through the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission and reported that the commission said there would be no ethics violation if, once the one-year exclusionary period was removed from the manager’s ordinance, the board appointed a commissioner once they resigned from the board.
Wielebinski asserted that whoever else would apply would have “no qualifications whatsoever.”
This drew a “How do you know?” from an attendee, along with a “yeah” in agreement.
Belvin has “stepped up and has more qualifications, is willing to give up a federal job, does more for this township on his spare time and doesn’t get paid for it, and he’s an emergency management coordinator, attends meetings various times of the month at locations, and he’s been a commissioner for six-plus years,” said Wielebinski.
“And this is not anything against Jerrod, but I’m just saying, I thought we were going to advertise,” said Gnandt, saying that she does not know Belvin’s resume.
“I’ve known this man for approximately eight years,” said Wielebinski, adding that he got to know Belvin very well when both were campaigning, and reaffirming that Belvin is willing to give up his federal job for the position of township manager.
Belvin is currently a program manager for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
“I just think you’re doing him a disservice, by not advertising, ’cause people are going to look at it like ‘Oh, you put in your friend,'” said Gnandt. “He could be the best qualified. How do you know if you [don’t] compare it to anybody? I don’t have a resume…”
“First of all, I’m not going to sit here on some Indeed and listen to people who have no qualifications…” said Wielebinski, referring to an online job-searching platform.
When seeking consultation on hiring for the manager on the recommendation of Muñoz, Wielebinski recalled how a township in Northampton County advertised its manager position at $175,000 and did not get any applications until the salary was increased to $200,000.
“I don’t want to do that to our township,” said Wielebinski. “That’s just a disservice to taxpayers, especially when I think we have someone qualified, that’s my opinion, so you know where I’m coming from.”
The idea of removing the one-year waiting period was criticized by attendees of the March 19 meeting, in which the motion to prepare the amendment was passed.
“And people can say what they want to say, but I’ve never done anything against this township. I’ve moved it in the right direction,” said Wielebinski.
Max Augugliaro is the public safety and government watchdog reporter at the Pocono Record. Reach him atMAugugliaro@gannett.com.