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Current, former council members interrupt Ridley Park meeting
During the public comment portion of a recent borough council meeting, former councilman Len Pinto and council members Sue Murtha and Jared Brennan got into and argument while Barbara Ormsby of the DelCo Times was present/. She filed this story for the DelCo Times.
The argument started when Pinto criticized Murtha about her performance as a member of council.
Murtha said Pinto and others have been twisting her arm for several months to get her to leave council.
“I can tell you it is not going to happen,” Murtha said.
Pinto told Murtha she was on council to serve the people, not for a personal agenda.
“We are all neighbors first, that’s why you are here, to serve the people,” Pinto told Murtha, asking her what she had done during her time on council.
Brennan told Pinto his remarks were of a personal nature, and he defended Murtha’s work on council, saying that she had prepared the budget for the past three years.
Brennan also accused Pinto of pointing at him during his comments.
Brennan said he has received “thousands” of emails thanking him for what he is doing as a councilman.
At times the exchange grew heated and council president Bob Berger rapped his gavel for order.
Murtha said she was “aware” that Pinto “is up here as a puppet.”
Murtha and Brennan were instrumental in circulating a petition in the community asking PennDOT to consider other options in the design of the Sellers Avenue bridge over Amtrak’s right-of-way that is to be replaced in 2014.
The two have clashed with other elected officials over the bridge issue, and there have been other areas of disagreement at council meetings during the past several months.
Comment
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Comment by Howard McCoy on January 18, 2013 at 7:43pm -
News is news to the DelCo Times which didn't report on the December meeting until Jan 14 The links above show it was "Published: Monday, January 14, 2013." All of us at RPOL are ahead of this "old news" because of the blog by Jared. My Ridley Park news spiders constantly craws the web for Ridley Park stories and I publish them when I see them. We haven't had very many feel-good-Ridley-Park stories in the news in some while...like we're on a loosing news streak.
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Comment by Rebecca Clemmer on January 18, 2013 at 6:46pm -
Ken, I attended the January meeting. It's fine to mention the December disruption, it's fine to know it happened, but I was wondering that it is being brought up again for no apparent reason than to mention it and keep it at the forefront.
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Comment by Kenneth Harper on January 18, 2013 at 4:07pm -
Hi Rebecca, If you watch the january council meeting, Jared does mention about the Dec. meeting incident that Len Pinto was involved in. I think Jared was right with his statements made in Dec. & also this month also. Why does a resident come to a council meeting & ask them to step down?? If this person thinks he or she can do a better job than they should run for council.
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Comment by Rebecca Clemmer on January 18, 2013 at 3:40pm
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Apparently the altercation occurred during the December meeting. Why is this coming up again now? There were no such problems at the January meeting.
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Comment by Kenneth Harper on January 18, 2013 at 2:33pm
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I wanted to get a camera installed for the borough hall parking lot so councilors don't have to worry about any damage being done to their car. Or for that matter anybody who parks their car in this lot.
Didn't happen.
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