STONE HARBOR – Tensions on the Stone Harbor governing body have been public for the last several months. They reached a new level at the Aug. 1 council meeting.
Five members of Borough Council voted to censure Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour for remarks she made at the council’s July 3 meeting, when she raised concerns about a resolution to appoint Manny Parada as the borough’s permanent administrator.
Parada had been in an interim role since the council voted to fire the previous administrator Robert Smith. Smith has filed a legal action against the borough concerning his removal.
Councilwoman Robin Casper was the only one of the six council members to vote against the censure resolution. Councilwoman Bunny Parzych said she felt “forced to say yes” to the resolution but did not explain her remark. Council members Victor Foschini, Frank Dallahan, Jennifer Gensemer, and Reese Moore expressed no reservations when voting in the affirmative on the censure.
The censure resolution, which was read by Dallahan, was not included in the public package of documents accompanying the meeting agenda. It was read and voted on after a closed session when most of the public typically has left the meeting or ended their online access. A request for a copy of the resolution did not receive a response in time for this writing.
The resolution read by Dallahan accused the mayor of “interfering” with the July 3 meeting by “refusing to abide by council meeting protocol by improperly targeting an employee for criticism.”
He said the resolution had been drafted by the borough’s labor counsel, William Blaney, who was in attendance at the meeting. The resolution, still read by Dallahan, stated further that the mayor should not have negatively commented on an employee’s performance in public.
A look back at the video recording of the July 3 meeting shows Davies-Dunhour’s comments were directed at Parada’s performance for less than one minute. In those remarks, she said she did not feel that a public meeting was the place to review an employee’s performance and that she would do that in a private session with Parada.
The comments she did make regarding Parada’s performance were that she felt Parada was lacking in experience in municipal governance, that his communications with the office of the mayor were lacking, and that the borough might be better served by a more experienced administrator.
She also sided with Casper, who felt that having one individual hold both the position of director of Public Works and that of borough administrator was too much power for one person and creates a vulnerability for the borough were the individual to leave suddenly.
Davies-Dunhour also said she wished Parada was more forthright in accepting responsibility for things that do not go exactly right.
The rest of the mayor’s comments at the July 3 meeting were directed at the council, not Parada. She argued that the behind-the-scenes “vote counting” and conversations on issues by council members was coming “close to violating the state’s Open Public Meetings Act.”
She also argued that the council was not using the option for closed session as a way to discuss issues so that “everyone hears what everyone has to say.”
The July meeting did have a closed session on the agenda, with Parada’s appointment as permanent administrator on that agenda. The council voted not to have the closed session. Gensemer, chair of the council’s Administration and Finance Committee, said the goal should be total transparency.
“This is the time to make any statements,” she said.
Davies-Dunhour did remind Gensemer of her call for public discussion and open transparency at the meeting.
“What did you expect,” Davies-Dunhour asked.
The brief statements by the mayor at that meeting are what got her censured.
At the Aug. 1 meeting, following the censure vote, Davies-Dunhour not only denied that she had said anything that rose to the level of censure, but added, “I will not be bullied into silence.”
Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
