2 Apollo council members resign amid clashes with council president

Two Apollo councilwomen resigned Thursday because of leadership issues and clashes with borough council President John Steele.

“I don’t appreciate how business is conducted since we voted in John as president,” said Ashley Stiffy, who resigned as council vice president Thursday, along with Councilwoman Nancy Walker.

“I feel bad,” Stiffy said. “Once he took that gavel, he became a dictator.”

When told of Stiffy’s comment, Steele said, “I’m sorry to hear about that, but I would prefer to say that I’m a businessman.”

Steele added: “I regret that the two girls had to resign to resolve their issues. Everything is coming around. You just have to follow the rules a step at a time.”

Stiffy’s most recent issue concerned revisiting the hiring of two part-time police officers. During its Feb. 27 meeting, council agreed to hire two part-time officers who would work fewer than 10 hours a week for $15.50 per hour.

Steele voted against the hires.

“It wasn’t a sound financial decision,” he said. “There were no (financial) parameters given.”

Steele removed Stiffy, Walker and Councilman Chad Gradwell in March from the public safety committee.

“He notified us by an email, without a meeting. He just did it,” Stiffy said.

Council did not hold a meeting in March.

According to Stiffy, Steele sent a future agenda item this week that included revisiting the hiring of the two part-time officers.

“That was the last straw for me,” Stiffy said. “I don’t want to be on a council that is going to ruin a police department,” she said.

In response to removing council members from the public safety committee, Steele said the committee “didn’t follow the right procedures.”

So Steele took them off the committee, he said.

Although the action is likely legal, it’s not how she would prefer the council to operate, Stiffy said.

Out of six borough council committees, Steele appointed himself to four of them. He chairs two committees, the finance and human resources committees, and is a member of the public safety and property/planning committees, according to the March 2020 committee assignment letter sent to council members.

Steele criticized the public safety committee for not reporting information on the new police hires to the council in executive session.

“You never do it in an open meeting,” he said.

Although the measure passed, Steele disagreed with the hiring the two-part time police officers because the impact on the budget was not considered, he said.

“I got outvoted,” he said. “I’m not upset, and I’m not resigning.”

Steele said that he cannot take up the issue currently with council because they cannot meet in executive session (in person) because of coronavirus concerns.

Walker said she was resigning because she couldn’t work under Steele’s leadership style, including “taking people off of committees who have been on them for years.”

Among other issues, Walker was upset that Steele didn’t consider a candidate for an open council seat during council’s February meeting, she said.

Steele allegedly told Walker that her candidate’s letter was “not timely,” she said.

Then Pat Zelonka was appointed to council.

“He pushed Zelonka through and didn’t let me present my letter of interest,” said Walker, who said she had told Steele about the candidate eight days ago.

Steele said of Walker’s council candidate, “it was done wrong. It was not turned in to the office, so how would I know.”

The borough is accepting letters of interest for the two open council seats. Letter of interest should be sent by May 28 to Deanna Shupe, borough manager, P.O. Box 306, Apollo, PA 15613.