EASTON, Pa. — Questions about Easton City Council's code of conduct disrupted its meeting Wednesday, while addressing another supposed disruption last month.
At Wednesday's meeting, Mayor Sal Panto Jr. brought up a copy of a letter Councilwoman Taiba Sultana sent to solicitor Joel Scheer concerning Panto and Councilman Frank Pintabone’s conduct at the July 24 meeting.
In the letter, Sultana declared she found their conduct disruptive as she tried to ask a union member about the Project Labor Agreement voted on that night.
Panto during his mayoral report said he had not violated council’s code of conduct during the meeting, and didn't find his behavior disruptive at all.
“Disruptive behavior means when you disrupt a meeting with anger and vicious conversation and calling people racists and calling people child murderers and things like that," Panto said.
"That's disruptive. Being involved in the conversation about the topic isn't.
"And by the way, I wasn't involved in the conversation at all, so I'm not sure exactly what Mrs. Sultana was talking about, but I would like to know, but she didn't come to me.
"And the city solicitor doesn't run meetings, the chair runs them. So if you have a problem with the way the meetings are being run, you bring it to my attention, not to Mr. Scheer’s attention. He makes decisions based on legality, not on running a meeting.”
'Make sure it doesn't happen again'
Scheer explained that the code of conduct for city council is to ensure civil discourse between council members and citizens alike.
“What ‘disruptive conduct’ is, is very subjective.'Easton solicitor Joel Scheer
“What ‘disruptive conduct’ is, is very subjective," Scheer said. "So I still would have to defer to the chair to bring it up as a discussion item, if there's something about the tenor of the meetings that one would feel violates the code.
"And ultimately, anybody has the right to actually file a complaint with the city clerk, and from there, there would be further discussions."
Scheer said he felt the code of conduct would be “a learning process for the members of council itself,” because of the details included in the document — such as a stipulation to refer to one another as “councilperson” during meetings.
Sultana originally sent an email to Scheer and City Administrator Luis Campos, as she felt Panto and Pintabone had interrupted when she was questioning a union member who was present for the PLA meeting.
“That's exactly what I complained about, right?" Sultana said. "I just wanted to make sure it doesn't happen again."
In the letter, which Scheer read aloud to council, following the allegations of Panto and Pintabone — which Scheer emphasized was a direct statement and not his own opinion — Sultana said, “I would appreciate it if you could consider enforcing the code of conduct as soon as possible.”
Scheer, reading his correspondence to Sultana, stated, “as solicitor, I can answer questions with respect to interpretations, but I’m not vested with control of the conduct of the meeting itself.”
'Don't need to go firing off emails'
Sultana said the correct response to the complaint should have been, “It should not happen again.”
“The response should be that you are the first person who's been elected to this board who's been disruptive,” Panto said in response.
After Sultana said that whenever she asks questions in council all she hears is, “buzz, which is not good, and we need to work on that,” Councilwoman Crystal Rose tried to get the meeting back on track.
“I'd like to request if anyone has issues with the code of conduct during the meeting, they just bring it up at the time. We're really wasting a lot of time right now,”Crystal Rose
“I'd like to request if anyone has issues with the code of conduct during the meeting, they just bring it up at the time," Rose said. "We're really wasting a lot of time right now.”
Rose questioned why the code of conduct had been adopted in the first place.
Panto said the code was the result of “dealing with issues of international politics, not local politics, not local concerns.”
That could refer to Sultana’s suggestion to adopt a resolution urging a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
According to the mayor, members of council were attacked online, with some being called “child murderers.”
Speaking to Sultana, Rose said that if she felt there had been any violation to the code of conduct at that particular meeting, “I’m going to put my big girl pants on and say that, ‘Hey, let’s get back to the code of conduct. You’re being out of line. Let’s act professional.'
"You don't need to go firing off emails and bringing drama into this meeting so we get news feed.”
'Need to do a little retreat'
Pintabone said he would have apologized if he had interjected or disrupted Sultana, but he believed the union representative present had answered her question — which regarded how non-union workers would be impacted — and had gone beyond that response to show why the PLA, which would improve union labor relations for city projects, is needed.
“I take offense to you saying I disrupted the meeting, and for the public watching, or here in the crowd, if you go to last meeting, one hour, 42 minutes, 35 seconds, you can watch the councilwoman ask a question," Pintabone said.
"This is ridiculous as a as a public person, and you're our elected people. I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, they're acting like children, not just children, but you can't hear each other.’”Pastor Susan Ruggles
"The union representative answered the question. I developed the PLA. I brought the PLA forward for a vote. I piggybacked on what you said, and said, ‘Those are good questions for the non-union. The reason why we need to pass this is for the union. It was no disruption.'"
Discourse during Wednesday's meeting became heated enough for Pastor Susan Ruggles to take to the podium to offer some impromptu conflict resolution.
“As a public person, OK, and a professional, you guys all need to do like a little retreat and learn about each other so this stops," said Ruggles, whose husband Roger is on city council.
"This is ridiculous as a public person, and you're our elected people. I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, they're acting like children, not just children, but you can't hear each other.’”
Ruggles offered her services to help improve council’s public conduct.
'Had to interrupt another meeting'
Scheer recited the part of the code he found relevant to the discussion.
“Difficult questions, tough challenges to a particular point of view and criticism of ideas are legitimate elements of free democracy in action," he read.
"This does not allow, however, public officials to make belligerent, personal and pertinent, slanderous, threatening, abusive or disparaging comments in public meetings or otherwise.
"No shouting or physical actions that could be construed as threatening or demeaning will be acceptable.
"If a public official is personally offended by the remarks of another public official during a public meeting, the offended public official may call for a point of personal privilege that challenges the other public official to justify or apologize for the language used.”
During the meeting, both Pintabone and resident Patti Hitzel said there was no semblance of a disruption after they had both reviewed footage from the previous meeting.
Following Wednesday's meeting, Sultana said she felt Panto and Pintabone had violated the code of conduct again that night.
She said she sent the original email to the solicitor and city administrator because she felt Panto was could not appropriately reprimand himself if he had violated the code.
“Mayor Panto and Councilman Pintabone had to interrupt another meeting to show they hadn’t been disruptive before," Sultana said.
"Mayor Panto is the chair of the council and the chair should be the first to follow the rules because he set the tone for the rest of the council.”
