A Halfmoon Township Board of Supervisors meeting that was at times as strange and disorderly as it was long ended on Thursday night with a failed attempt to fire the township manager.
Supervisors voted 3-2 against a motion by chair David Piper to dismiss township manager Denise Gembusia immediately with two weeks severance pay. Supervisor Charles Beck joined Piper in voting in favor of her termination, while Patricia Hartle, Robert Strouse and Ronald Servello voted against it to defeat the motion.
Asked why he introduced the motion, Piper said Gembusia, who was hired in early 2020, was “defiant.”
Earlier in the meeting, supervisors and members of the public discussed the recent resignations of two longtime public works staff members after changes to their job descriptions and hours. Piper suggested those resignations were due to issues “in the [township] family.”
But Strouse said the job description changes were made at the direction of the board and unanimously approved by the supervisors, save for Servello who was not on the board at the time.
“So you’re going to scapegoat her for our personnel issues that we voted unanimously for,” Strouse said prior to the vote.
Piper had the item placed on the agenda as “manager action,” and at least some of the supervisors and Gembusia were not told what that specific action would be, though speculation swirled on social media in advance of the meeting.
At the start of Thursday’s meeting, Strouse asked for clarification of the agenda item.
“We’ll get to that when we get to it,” Piper responded. “It’s related to the last meeting that we had.”
Nearly four hours passed before they got to it.
Early in the meeting, Piper removed the resignation of longtime roadmaster Scott Brown from the consent agenda — items considered routine approvals — for discussion.
From there a lengthy discussion ensued, with the board voting 3-2 to not accept Brown’s resignation, even though he had already accepted another job. Piper said he hoped to have more time to entice Brown to stay and to ensure roads were taken care of during winter storms.
“You know like in the military you turn in your resignation, the general tears it up and says ‘I’m pretending this didn’t happen,’” Piper said. “I want to make sure we are covered.”
Township solicitor Zachary Rice said accepting the resignation is merely a “formality” and has no bearing on whether or not an employee continues in the job.
“Either the employee has resigned and maintains that decision or he doesn’t…,” Rice said. “If that employee resigns with a date certain, then that employee has resigned and it would sort of be a legal fiction to presume that person is still in that position unless they were to formalize a decision to stay on board.”
Gembusia and supervisors noted that the township does have part-time road crew members who were out treating roads on Thursday night and a contract with a private company for snow removal. Brown, Gembusia said, had agreed to continue helping as needed under terms to be determined.
Piper next motioned to increase the hourly rate for two part-time laborers by $8.50 an hour, from $16.50 to $25.
Strouse said he was in favor of increasing the rate but that doing so on a whim was “completely improper,” and that salary and budget analyses needed to be conducted first.
Piper said he believed the money was available in the budget.
“Trust me there’s tens of thousands of dollars floating around in there that should be allocated toward important things like road maintenance that are probably not as important,” Piper said.
The motion ultimately failed.
As part of an ongoing review of costs and benefits of regional programs, the board received a report on the township’s participation in C-NET, Centre County’s government and education access networks, which, among other things provides television broadcasts, live streaming and archiving of township meetings.
Piper immediately motioned to begin the process of withdrawing the township from its agreement with C-NET.
“It doesn’t mean we won’t negotiate for future services, but the contract is untenable in my opinion,” Piper said. “Maybe it’s a good service, but I don’t think it’s worth the money.”
Tax dollars are not used to fund C-NET. Instead, participating municipalities contribute a portion of the money they receive from Comcast’s cable franchise fee. Halfmoon contributed $16,375 for 2022, less than half of the franchise fee it receives. Municipalities are also required by law to forward a separate public, educational, and government access fee — pass-through fees charged to subscribers by Comcast — to C-NET for capital and equipment costs.
Public comment was overwhelmingly in support of keeping C-NET, with residents saying it allows them to stay informed even when they cannot attend in person or by Zoom. Some also noted that while the township’s Zoom cut out several times on Thursday night, they had no problem with C-NET’s YouTube stream.
Cynthia Hahn, C-NET executive director, said the nonprofit organization provides wide accessibility online, through cable, Roku and Amazon Fire. It also provides cameras, audio equipment and production services.
“The distribution network that C-NET has created goes far and wide [beyond] anything you would have from simply allowing residents to attend via Zoom,” Hahn said.
Piper said he had no plan for replacing C-NET’s services if the township withdrew.
“I want to provide what the commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires under the second class township code, which is a recording secretary recording minutes,” he said.
Strouse said C-NET is the major way the township provides transparency.
“You’re proposing removing transparency, the way our residents and taxpayers access our meetings,” Strouse said. “Zoom is absolutely different from what CNET provides us.”
The motion ultimately failed 3-2, with Hartle, Servello and Strouse voting no.
“If we do decide to reevaluate it in the future we should have alternatives, at least consider alternatives,” Servello said. “It’s obvious to me that a lot of people feel strongly about having it, at least more than I thought.”
Finally, three hours and 55 minutes after the meeting commenced, supervisors arrived at the “manager action” item.
First though, Servello suggested that the remaining items on the agenda be tabled until the next meeting because of the late hour and bad weather.
Piper said he intended for the board to go into executive session to discuss the item as a personnel matter, which led residents and other supervisors to ask why it was put on the agenda as “manager action” instead of “executive session.” Strouse said it was inappropriate to specify the personnel matter on the agenda if that was the intent.
“I don’t want to discuss it out here in public but you will see the result of it,” Piper said.
When one resident said she had been anxiously waiting for the item to come up, Piper responded, “I figured you were all fired up about it, so look I got everybody out here.”
Supervisors never went into executive session, though, with Piper abruptly making the motion to dismiss Gembusia.
Before the motion failed, several residents spoke in Gembusia’s defense.
“When Denise came in for her interview we found an individual who had experience about what the job entailed,” resident Virginia Squier, who was involved with the interview process, said. “She had been an elected supervisor in a previous community, and she walked in knowing the intricacies of a class two municipality. She was hired, the pandemic hit and she was not able to be properly welcomed into our community because we all went into lockdown. But during the time she has been here the positive impact she has had on our community has been significant.”
Strouse also praised Gembusia’s performance.
“She has brought a level of professionalism to the organization of the township and gotten more accomplished in the two years that she’s been here… than the previous 10 years of the previous manager,” Strouse said. “I think she’s been doing a wonderful job and I’m still confused as to why we have a manager action without any information as to what that action would be.”
Strouse and Hartle also asked what the plan was to conduct township business without a manager. Piper responded that they would find a new one. When they pointed out it took six months to hire Gembusia, Piper said “then it will take six months.”
After the motion failed, Piper simply said, “The manager stays. Welcome.”
Several residents attending via Zoom called the board “dysfunctional.” One told Piper he was “condescending.”
Squier asked if the board could reorganize with a different chair, which would require a majority vote of the supervisors.
“I have to say Mr. Chairman, I think the meeting was incredibly long because of the way you handled it,” Squier said to Piper. “I think that sometimes you talk over people. I think you are sometimes disrespectful to people who are trying to say their opinion and I would like to ask if there is the possibility for a reorganization for the board of supervisors. I am not comfortable with the way this board is run.”
