Days Numbered to Choose Slawter's Replacement, Informal Meeting Ensues Without Two Supervisors

NEWTOWN SQUARE–A regularly scheduled meeting on Monday evening was canceled as two–Chairman George Wood and Vice Chairwoman Linda Houldin–out of the four supervisors were absent but an informal public meeting was conducted by Supervisors Joseph Catania and Dr. Ross Lambert.

"Since there's no quorum [the minimum number of members required to be present for an assembly to transact business], this cannot be a public meeting as such and I understand you two gentlemen want to have what they may call 'a gathering' which is fine, but no public vote can be taken or public business," addressed Bruce Irvine, township solicitor.

At the , Wood assured the public that he would try his best to phone in on Monday night's meeting but later informed Jim Sheldrake, township manager, that he would be "out of phone range." It was later noted Wood was vacationing in St. John's Island.

Catania said he received word from Lambert around 3 p.m., who informed him that Houldin also said she would not be able to make it to Monday night's meeting. Sheldrake later announced that Houldin had informed him she had an "emergency at her shore house."

About nine minutes into the meeting, after some prodding from the public and supervisors, Sheldrake tried calling Houldin to see if she would be available to phone in to the meeting but, according to Sheldrake, "it went to straight to vicemail."

A crucial meeting for the board, Monday night marked 28 out of the 30 days where they were to choose a candidate to replace the late Supervisor Parris "Bob" Slawter's seat on the board, who passed away on April 11.

The board may select a candidate to fill the vacant supervisor seat until January if the board comes to a decision within 30 days of the vacancy—in this case, if a decision is made before May 11.

Nine candidates put their names in the ring for Slawter's seat. Those included Chris Driscoll, John Custer, Larry Fischer, John Nawn, Harold Eder, Paul Seligson, John Battista, Angelo Mancini and Dimitrios Stefanidis.

"I think it's important to note that Joe [Catania] and I had proposed several candidates to vote but, of course, the vote was divided 2-2 and the reason why Mrs. Houldin and Mr. Wood did not want to vote is that they felt the position should be advertised for and we should receive these resumes for the position," explained Lambert.

He continued, "So here we are–these nine good people took the time to make their resumes and send them in. And now here we are at the meeting trying to choose one of these people and they're not here."

According to Catania, the resumes of the candidates were to be reviewed over the weekend so that a decision would be made at Monday's meeting to appoint Slawter's successor for the rest of 2011.

"The only way that would not happen is if there was not three supervisors sitting up here tonight," explained Catania. "We expected to have a discussion with the candidates tonight."

Several members of the public stood up and shared their disappointment in the canceled meeting.

Mancini, who put his name in the hat to fulfill Slawter's position, was the first to address the board and public.

"First I'd like to address the board members here–thank you for showing up to at least give the people the opportunity to let you know what their thoughts are relative to the proposed actions that we expected would be covered tonight," said Mancini. "The people that are here, who threw their hat in the ring...the thing is, all of us are here because we have a great interest in the township and we feel that we can contribute seriously to help resolve some of these differences and issues."

Per Mancini's request, each candidate stood up to be recognized before the public. Candidates Stefanidis and Eder were missing at the informal meeting.

Ellen Goss of Woolman Drive shared her disappointment with the canceled meeting.

"I'm very disappointed that Linda and George are not present," said Goss. "I know that George said at the last meeting he would not be here, but we did get a commitment from him to participate finally at the end of the night."

Mark Kay of Excalibur Drive also shared the same sentiments.

"We're very, very disappointed in the late announcement today that the meeting was being canceled," said Kay. We all remember very, very vehemently that George was extremely clear...that he would definitely be trying very hard to come to some conclusion today so we find it extremely, extremely disrupting and embarrassing to us in this town that he didn't even see the time and ability to get on the phone and talk to us for 10 minutes–even for three minutes that he couldn't talk to us."

Catania believes the ideal candidate would have "experience with how the township is run through your attendance or speaking at meetings, or your experience in that, to me, in my mind, would be really helpful because we have a short timeframe."

After Wednesday, the decision is placed in the hands of the vacancy board, in which Joe Lisa is head of vacancy board, and a decision must be made within 14 days. If a decision cannot be rendered in the allotted days, the decision will go before the Court of Common Pleas.