Assembly meeting legal, clerk says

PALMER - Did newly elected borough mayor Tim Anderson call an illegal meeting of the borough assembly?

After former borough manager Mike Scott resigned his office at a special assembly meeting last week, many borough residents began to question whether the meeting was legal at all.

While not everyone saw the notices advertising the meeting, it evidently was.

Last week, Anderson called a special meeting of the borough assembly to review Scott's job performance.

"I think that all this happened, and references have been made that it was a closed meeting," Anderson said at a regular assembly meeting earlier this week.

After voting to go into executive session, at Scott's request, the assembly voted to accept the manager's resignation.

Scott was hired as manager in 1998.

Several members of the public who attended Friday's meeting doubted whether the meeting had been sufficiently publicized.

There was actually plenty of advance notice, Sandra Dillon, borough clerk, said Friday.

"In this particular case, there was more than 24 hours' notice," Dillon said.

To publicize the Oct. 13 meeting, Dillon placed advertisements in the statewide newspaper on Oct. 12 and 13 and an additional notice in the Frontiersman, also on the day of the meeting.

Even assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere announced the meeting at a community council meeting earlier that week.

Borough code allows the mayor or three members of the assembly to call a special meeting if the majority of assembly members are given at least 24 hours' oral or written notice, she said.

"In our particular case, we use the Internet and both the newspapers," Dillon said.

In times of emergency, the borough will also broadcast notices on the radio, she added.

Photo: Former borough manager Mike Scott and borough mayor Tim Anderson at last week's special meeting of the borough assembly. Scott gave assembly members his resignation, which took effect earlier this week.

Photo by ERIC BURKETT/Frontiersman.