Heated Dispute With Council Pushes Mahal Out as Pottsville Administrator

Pottsville must begin the search for a new City Administrator after Ian Mahal stepped down from the position Tuesday night.

He did not go quietly and some Council members were equally not quiet in expressing their displeasure – especially in recent weeks – with Mahal’s job performance.

Mahal announced he was stepping down following a nearly two-hour closed-door executive session that consumed the balance of a special meeting of City Council on Tuesday.

The Canary learned through conversations that had Mahal not resigned on Tuesday, Council members would have immediately discussed his future as the City Administrator. He likely would have been relieved of his duties.

“We said we’re going to leave it up to you when we go out there. We’ll leave it up to you. If you don’t resign, we’ll have a discussion on what we’re going to do. There were things that needed to be talked about and addressed,” Councilman Andy Wollyung said. “Everybody felt equally that it was the right thing for him to step away.”

It was only back in February that Mahal was selected from a field of 10 candidates for the job after long-time City Administrator Tom Palamar left the position. The City was paying Mahal an annual salary of $95,000.

Mahal’s resignation was effective immediately following the unanimous council voted to accept it. He was granted 30 days pay as part of his decision to resign as City Administrator.

Before council members voted to accept Mahal’s resignation, the outgoing Administrator said his decision to step down was due to a “staunch disagreement” with City Council. After making his statement, Mahal heavily set his microphone on the council table, clearly showing he was not happy about stepping down from his job.

His comments during the meeting and afterward, to The Canary, underscored that.

“I’d like to speak to the public,” Mahal said. “I’m a man of my word and a man of my name. I’ve thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed breaching the gaps between the communication breakdowns over the years and the relationships formed with our sewer authority and our other authorities and bridging the gaps through party affiliation and prioritizing what needs to be prioritized in the city.”

What Happened Behind Closed Doors?

It’s nearly impossible to get any local government official to speak about what happens in a closed-door executive session but Mahal, Wollyung, and Councilwoman Cat Mahon’s comments to The Canary shed some light on what happened during some of those 110 minutes or so on Tuesday night.

Mahal said, “There was more of a personal focus on me that was false.”

He said he believed he was going to be fired if he didn’t resign. Wollyung and Mahon said they would have voted to relieve Mahal of his job.

“They made personal accusations that had no basis, that were never brought up to me,” Mahal said.

He then attacked Pottsville officials, both council and attorneys, that give an indication of his frustration level while on the job since earlier this year.

“I am fully proud of prioritizing what hasn’t been prioritized in the past, such as accountability, transparency, efforts towards grant funding, and speaking truth to the perceived power that the attorneys and the council members who have raided this city for years think they have,” he said.

Mahal said, “When your council chooses to throw their Chief (of police) under the bus and your attorney is missing in action when it comes to police duties but fails to invoice even a sneeze, that’s an issue.”

In a parting and highly political shot, Mahal said, “I fully expect that the people of Pottsville will come up and show up to vote.”

“We can’t pay for patience.”

Council members did not respond directly to Mahal’s accusations during or after the meeting, but afterward they spoke about broader concerns with his job performance and management style.

Following Tuesday’s meeting, Wollyung and Mahon discussed with The Canary their perception of the Council’s thinking on Mahal’s job performance, especially how they viewed him as a manager inside City Hall, and how the City and its Administrator parted ways.

When discussing their perception of his job performance and how things got to where they were on Tuesday night, Wollyung said that one of Mahal’s strong suits was his ability to forge relationships with people.

“Absolutely, I think those things were pros on his behalf. We did start looking at grants. We did start building community relationships, all things that are vital to the success of this and have not been done before,” Wollyung said.

But not working in Mahal’s favor, the councilman said, was his perception of the Administrator’s management skills.

“The issue was the day-to-day management of people, managing legal things that we have to conduct in a certain way, legal things that have to be filed a certain way, issues with giving information about Right to Knows outright instead of redacting personal information out of them … Those are the issues that came forth that we couldn’t trust anymore,” Wollyung added.

He said the City couldn’t afford to wait for Mahal to learn to manage these issues anymore.

“We’re watching out for a budget but you can’t pay for patience. We’ve given enough time for things to develop him here as a manager and we talked to him about some concerns we had,” he said.

Wollyung said those discussions with Mahal happened “over the last couple weeks.”

“It’s nothing new,” he said.

Mahon added criticism that Mahal was “showboating” and not sharing Council’s vision on how to move Pottsville forward.

“We need people who are locked in that have a vision and a mission that isn’t just showboating and making it all about them and their career,” Mahon said. “We can see what the problems are. There is no argument on what the problems are in the City. We need to get on board and fix them. If we’re just doing and saying things to get attention, we’re not doing any real work and that’s what we need. We need people to do real work, especially the jobs that get paid a ridiculous amount of money.”

Council members abruptly adjourned their special meeting on Tuesday. They did not vote to advertise looking for Mahal’s replacement.

DEVELOPING STORY: On Tuesday, council members also voted on an important police personnel issue and to seek proposals for legal services starting in 2026. We’ll have more on those topics later today.

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