Hatboro Manager Resigns

Hatboro Borough Council held a special meeting Wednesday to accept the and to appoint an interim manager. 

Ryan, the borough's manager of 11 months, will finish his last workday on March 16.

The council voted 4-2 along party lines to hire Keystone Municipal Services, at a rate of $80 per hour for 20 hours a week as interim manager. In addition to that expense, Reymer said the consultant would charge $5,500 to lead the borough in seeking out a full-time replacement for Ryan. 

Reymer said William McCauley of Keystone, who has 30 years municipal manager experience, would begin working four hours per day at borough hall beginning March 21. 

Republicans John Zygmont and Vincent LaSorsa voted against Keystone's appointment. Councilman Bill Tompkins did not attend Wednesday's meeting, but circulated a letter which resident David Rich read aloud. In it, Tompkins questioned council's lateness in receiving Keystone's proposal and asked when additional proposals would be sought. 

"If, as I suspect, this decision has already been made by council leadership without any attempt to involve all of council and will be foisted on the rest of us at the consent of a minimum majority, then shame on that leadership for failing the borough," Tompkins wrote. 

Zygmont also took issue with the fact that Keystone's proposal was not dispersed to council until Monday, even though the paperwork was dated Feb. 25. 

"We have no alternatives," Zygmont said, adding that background checks and drug screenings should have been done. "All these things we’re just supposed to go along with?"

Reymer said she met and interviewed McCauley once she "saw the writing on the wall."

In a prepared statement she read after the council accepted Ryan's resignation, Reymer claimed that Ryan had been subject to "intimidation" and "verbal attacks" by Republicans and alleged that LaSorsa, during an executive session in the fall, had become "physically aggressive" toward Ryan and that the matter was reported to police.

In response, LaSorsa looked to Mayor Norm Hawkes and asked if what Reymer said was true. Hawkes said that no one was threatened during the meeting. 

"It was a normal government meeting," Hawkes said. "People pound on the table."

Council Vice President Nancy Guenst disagreed.

"I will not sit in a meeting with you without police present," Guenst said to LaSorsa. "It doesn't matter at this point. We lost a very good manager."

LaSorsa said he left the meeting in question because he "felt threatened." Since then, LaSorsa said he and Ryan had "buried the hatchet."

"Me and Tommy talked," LaSorsa said. 

Ryan did not attend Wednesday's meeting.