Residents in Pottsville learned Monday night that if you dare to question or challenge elected officials publicly, you better pay your garbage bills.
In something from the “You Don’t See This Every Day” file, a couple city residents had their supposed outstanding garbage and tax bills read aloud by members of City Council in response to criticism of the way Pottsville’s police force is managed.
Scott Price, who last month said Republicans are coming for the open seats on City Council this November, and Laura Kryzanowski, a perpetual thorn in the side of Pottsville government, were each called out by Atkinson and Councilwoman Dottie Botto for their alleged outstanding trash and tax bills, which they said were “public knowledge.”
Atkinson even said that it’s because they, and others, don’t pay their bills that Pottsville can’t have nice things, like more police on the street.
The discussion all started during the Public Comment portion of Monday’s City Council meeting.
Kryzanowski spoke and then Price took his turn. Price started a back-and-forth with Atkinson, mostly, about the status of the city’s police force. Price believes there should be more police on the streets in Pottsville and challenged Atkinson’s claim from last month that Pottsville is, generally, a safe place.
He also said that the city is losing experienced police officers.
Atkinson then said that Pottsville essentially can’t afford more police coverage.
“Part of the problem that we have here in the city is that the police department budget has now reached the point where you are consuming all of your tax revenue,” Atkinson said, repeating something he said in December. “We’re trying to run the rest of the city on revenue that’s generated by permits and fees. That is not feasible.”
The conversation continued with Price continually offering criticisms of the city’s declining number of officers and Atkinson replying. At times, both sides agreed on some issues.
Then, at some point, Price said, “I feel horrible for this police department and the way you guys treat them.”
That pulled the trigger and things got weird inside Council’s chambers.
Atkinson said, “If everybody paid their bills and everybody paid their taxes … and I see you laughing, Laura, you owe over $3,000 in garbage bills. If everybody paid their bills, we’d be able to afford more cops. We’d be able to afford more street workers and we’d be able to afford more code enforcement.”
Botto joined in, adding, “Mayor Atkinson brought up a good point … If people paid their bills, we would have more money. Scott, you owe money, it’s public knowledge. Laura, you don’t pay your bills either. We need that money to be coming in by everybody in Pottsville.”
The back-and-forth continued a little longer. No problems were solved by any of it. Then, the Mayor ended the Public Comment portion of the meeting with one parting shot.
“OK, everybody had their three minutes. We’re moving on. But Mr. Price, you’re also not paying your bills to the city,” Atkinson said, clearly not consulting any notes while reciting the next part.
“You owe over $1,100 in the rears [sic] in trash bills. Over $900 of that already went to collections. And you’re on the rounds to get liened.
Well, if everybody paid their bills,” the Mayor concluded, “We’d be able to afford things, wouldn’t we?”
Instant Reactions
Inside Council chambers, things got quiet pretty quickly after this conversation got uncomfortable.
Typically, City Council meetings don’t get a whole lot of attention on the livestream feed either. But Monday’s session was definitely different. Many of the more than 100 comments were directed at City Council for calling people out in the manner they did.
Go to the City of Pottsville Facebook page to read all the comments.
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