Taking the oath of office from District Judge Tara Smith are newly-elected council Bellevue Council members, from left, Kathleen Coder, Mark Panichella, James Viscusi and Susan Viscusi. Photo by Connie Rankin for The Citizen

Bellevue Council started off the new year with a bang. With four officials not invited to take part in an early swearing-in ceremony, the night took a turn for the worse as council members got a few surprises before the evening ended with a plea from the mayor for everyone to check their egos at the door.

Although Bellevue advertised a reorganization meeting for 8 p.m., as required by the home rule charter, some officials decided not to wait to be sworn into office and convened in the council chambers at 7:30 p.m. Not informed of the time change were newly-elected Democrats Jane Braunlich and James and Susan Viscusi, as well as council member Linda Woshner.

Director of administrative services Connie Flasher said that everyone had received an agenda that indicated the swearing-in would be done at 7:30 p.m. All four denied receiving any notice of the time change. Flasher said that the agendas were e-mailed to everyone sometime around Dec. 23, and clearly stated that the swearing-in would be done at 7:30 p.m.

Present for the swearing-in were several newly-elected Republicans: Kathleen Coder on council, Joe Nolan as tax collector and Lenora Bauer as auditor. Also invited was newly-elected Democrat Mark Panichella, and Mayor George Doscher.
The reason for Panichella's special status quickly became evident as the first order of business was to elect a new president of council. The body's 6-3 Democratic majority should have been a sure thing for Democrat Woshner to regain the presidency, even though fellow Democrat Lisa Blaney-Stewart has sided with the Republicans on most decisions over the past two years. The GOP contingent got some additional support from Panichella, however, who switched his vote to support Coder for the presidency barely 24 hours after committing to vote for Woshner.

The vote to retain Coder as president was 5-4, with David Gillingham Jr. and Mark Helbling joining the affirmative votes. Opposed were Woshner, Braunlich, and both Viscusis.

Panichella expected to be rewarded for his vote with the vice presidency, and Blaney-Stewart attempted to nominate him for that position. Braunlich's nomination of Woshner made the floor first, however, and was confirmed in another 5-4 vote. Helbling joined council's new Democratic block to give the position to Woshner. Opposed were Coder, Panichella, Blaney-Stewart and Gillingham.

Coder was not prepared to make committee appointments, which generally are done at the reorganization meeting. Instead, she passed around a sign-up sheet so that council members could express their interest in particular standing and special committees. Council voted unanimously to allow Coder to make the committee appointments and notify council members by Friday of this week so that the groups can begin meeting next week.

Coder also distributed a paper on which council members could check how they wanted to receive information in the future.

"Communication is a huge issue," Coder said.

The surprises for the evening were not over. Some members learned that night that the newly-hired solicitor is unable to attend Bellevue's regular council meetings.

Solicitor Tom McDermott, hired at a special meeting on Dec. 30 to replace longtime solicitor Michael Georgalas, said that he attends Baldwin Council meetings on the first Tuesday of each month when Bellevue's meeting must be held as mandated by the borough's administrative code.

McDermott said that he could send someone else from his firm to the Bellevue meeting, or Bellevue could change its meeting date.

A motion to advertise a public hearing to amend the administrative code was approved in a 5-4 vote, with Coder, Gillingham, Panichella, Helbling and Blaney-Stewart voting in favor.

The amendment proposed would eliminate the requirement of meeting on a specific day, and instead allow council to change the regular meeting date.

Woshner and Susan Viscusi both argued that the administrative code requirement is a safeguard that ensures that there is consistency in the meeting date for the public's benefit.

"People need to know that on this day council is going to have a meeting," Woshner said. "It'll keep us honest."

"There will be nothing stopping us from making it inconsistent" if the code is changed, Woshner added.

Braunlich said that the specific meeting date was put in the administrative code so that it would be hard to change, with the amendment requiring special advertising and a public hearing, plus adoption of an ordinance after three readings.

Blaney-Stewart said that council should have more flexibility in picking a meeting date.

"We're smart enough to decide when we want to meet," she said.

The evening ended with a statement by Doscher asking that officials put aside their differences -- and egos -- for the welfare of the borough.

"The sum of this council needs to be greater than its parts," Doscher said."There is no one person on this council."

The mayor admitted that he has been guilty of bad behavior at meetings, and said that it was hard for him to recognize that he had been taking a large dose of what he called "Vitamin 'I.'"

"It's just hard to check our egos sometimes," he said, and focus on doing whatever is necessary to work with others.

Coder agreed. "It really is about the betterment of Bellevue," she said.