"Rescind or Resign" - Former Council Member Calls on Majority to Abandon Pay Hike or Resign

By Jeff Woehrle

Like most Mount Pocono residents, I am sickened by the actions of four members of Mount Pocono Borough Council at the last meeting (December 9, 2019).

President Claudette Williams, along with Council Members Donna Casole, Aida Montanez, and Stacy Keeler attempted to vote themselves a last-minute pay raise that would have doubled their own salaries. This was an unscheduled and unadvertised vote, and it comes barely a month following election victories by two of those individuals. This is grossly inappropriate, and smacks of not only extreme ignorance of perception on the part of those council members, but outright self-dealing deceit.

This underhanded move comes as Mount Pocono Borough Council raises taxes on beleaguered residents and has allowed Mount Pocono Borough employees to go without a raise for the third year in a row. This is positively despicable.

In the name of fairness and common decency I call on Mount Pocono Borough Council to immediately abandon consideration of the council pay increase and paid health insurance for themselves. Furthermore, the money earmarked for those unearned and undeserved raises should be distributed among Mount Pocono’s full and part-time employees in its entirety…giving them their first raise in three years. Given the willingness of the council majority to spend that money on themselves, justice demands that it must be made available for the employees who actually work for this town and are not just trying to feather their own nests on the backs of taxpayers.

Absent the abandonment of this obscenity, I ask for the immediate resignations of Claudette Williams, Donna Casole, Aida Montanez, and Stacy Keeler. This job is clearly beyond your capability.

Mount Pocono wants its integrity back.

Jeff Woehrle

Jeff Woehrle is a long-time Mount Pocono resident. He owns and operates Woehrle’s Bait Shop Route 940 & Park Avenue in Mt Pocono. Jeff was a member of Mount Pocono Borough Council until December 2017, when he retired. While on Council, he served as Vice-President, chair of the Streets & Building Committees, and on the Borough Finance Committee. Jeff was also a member of the Mount Pocono Planning Commission.