Meeting minutes spark exhange of words
MASONTOWN – The borough meeting minutes from July 12 were the subject of scrutiny and another exchange of words between council President Carole Daniels and councilman Joe Volansky. And while Tuesday evening the two council members did not directly address one another, it was clear that words exchanged at the July 12 meeting were still at the forefront in their minds.
Earlier this month after a dispute over police hiring, Daniels was upset with Volansky questioning the hires and asked him why he continues to criticize all of her actions since taking over as president this year.
“When you were council president, I didn’t criticize you at every meeting, but since I took over, that’s all you’ve done,” Daniels said. “You’ve criticized me, defamed my character and harassed me and I never did any of that to you.”
Volansky shot back with accusations against Daniels.
“I don’t like being turned in to the Ethics Commission, I don’t like being arrested, and I don’t like being challenged by the NAACP,” he said. “We all know who’s behind it. You handed her the ball and she’ll take it across the goal.”
Daniels said she was not responsible for Volansky’s troubles.
“All of this will come out in a court of law,” she said. “It will come out who they were.”
Tuesday, as council prepared to approve the meeting minutes from the July 12 meeting, Daniels said she wanted to correct the minutes, replacing a quotation attributed to her stating, “You will be sorry you accused me.”
In the meeting notes, the statement had been directed toward Volansky from Daniels and was printed in the minutes distributed to the council by temporary borough secretary Vince Serra.
But Daniels claimed Tuesday that she never said the comment and wanted the official minutes changed to reflect her as instead saying, “It will all come out in a court of law.”
The motion to accept the amended minutes passed by a 5-2 vote, with Volansky and councilman Tom Loukota voting against the new minutes, and in favor of the original minutes.
Later in the meeting, as council discussed soliciting quotes from a company regarding the borough’s commercial crime policies, Volansky questioned Serra about the changing of the minutes, without addressing the entire board and as other members were talking.
“Who is running this place anyway?” Volansky told Serra. “Them minutes were correct. She told you to change them and you changed them.”
After the meeting, Volansky denied that he accused Daniels of changing the minutes when he talked to Serra. He said he simply asked Serra who told him to change them.
“I asked him why he wrote it like that,” Volansky said. “He said he made a mistake. I said that he was the one who took the minutes.”
Serra said he did make a mistake when typing up the minutes, noting that “the phone was ringing and ringing” and he was distracted. Serra said Volansky only questioned who asked him to change the minutes, backing Volansky’s claim and added that his original handwritten notes from the meeting did not contain the quote in question.
After the meeting Daniels admitted that she contacted Serra about the notes to question the inclusion of the quote and where Serra had gotten the statement.
Daniels and Serra both said that after talking about the alleged threat, they both agreed that it was in fact not said at the meeting and should be removed.
“Joe thinks I am the ringleader of everything and I’m not. I did not say that,” Daniels said.