Awkward Drama Highlights Pottsville Council’s Vote on Towing Ordinance

If you were dreading uncomfortable conversations among your family members around the dinner table on Thursday, just know that few things could be more uncomfortable than what residents of Pottsville saw Tuesday afternoon among their City Council.

After voting to table a towing rotation ordinance – thanks to a tie-breaking vote by Mayor Bill Messaros – both sides of the debate went at each other during a nasty, verbal confrontation, with each lobbing accusations at one another over the towing issue.

The battle lines were drawn somewhat just prior to that vote to table a towing rotation ordinance.

Councilwoman Dottie Botto, who voted for setting aside the legislation along with Messaros and Councilman Tom Wood, made a statement, saying she believed the board was “jumping ahead” with the issue before Solicitor Ed Brennan could write an ordinance to govern the rotation.

She then took a swipe at Councilwoman Cat Mahon, who previously said she remembered a towing rotation being an issue when she was in middle school.

“I have not been thinking of towing since I was in middle school, as Councilwoman Mahon has been,” Botto said. “In middle school, I was thinking about being with my friends and boys.”

After the vote, the proverbial gloves came off, however, and Botto, Mahon, and Councilman Andy Wollyung went after each other, hurling accusations of personal and political relationships interfering with their ability to vote objectively on the issue.

Soon after the vote, Wood reached for and looked down at his phone and excused himself from the board room. Messaros stayed silent as the other three went back and forth at each other.

“I just think it’s crazy that this back-and-forth has been to the point that we’re now holding it up more from all the way of November of last year and then finding out all the details we have. I’m dumbfounded by it. I really am,” Wollyung said.

He added, “I get it. There’s a personal relationship there along the way with a certain company. And I get that there’s hard feelings because of a relationship with the city for so long but nobody’s …

“Andy, are you implying me? That I have a personal relationship,” Botto interjected.

He responded, “Well, somebody must.”

Botto presumed Wollyung was speaking about a supposed personal relationship with Womer’s Garage. She said that she worked with children in the families of both companies that lobbied for a towing rotation and for “many students” in 36 years of working in special education.

Botto then turned slightly to Mahon and said, “Now, Cat, I do realize you put in an email to all of us that you’re the one with a real career. But let me tell you, teaching is a real career. and if you want me to get a whole bunch of teachers to sign something saying teaching is a real career, it is a real career.

“I do not have a personal relationship with any towing company. The only personal relationship with a towing company I had was with my great-uncle Mutz, who had a towing company in Pottsville,” she added.

And if that wasn’t personal enough, it got even more personal and political.

Botto said, “In all fairness, Andy, you were seen with a towing company on your campaign route.

“And I was not going to bring this up (looking in Mahon’s direction), you were seen at Roma with dinner. You were seen grocery shopping with somebody,” she added.

Wollyung then chimed in and said, “If we’re going to bring up personal relationships, then we’re going to bring up that an officer is dating one of the towing rotation people from Womer’s. So, if we’re going to do that … ”

Botto replied, “They’re not voting.”

“Right,” Wollyung said. “But I’m not voting on a company. I’m voting on a rotation so that other companies are eligible. There’s other people involved with that. This is so ridiculous that this is such a back-and-forth.”

Botto answered, “It’s ridiculous that you’re making this personal.”

Mahon then interjected and said, “Dottie, are you doing OK?”

It was at that point that Brennan determined things had officially gone off the rails and encouraged Messaros to move on with the meeting, saying things were “spinning out of control.”

Regarding his clinching vote to table a towing rotation ordinance in Pottsville, Messaros tells The Canary that he thought it was more “appropriate” for the incoming administration to have more input on the conversation.

“They’re going to have to do all all the organization, the preparation, maybe even research,” he said. “There’s a lot of unseen issues that go along with this. It can be quite cumbersome under certain circumstances. I think it’s important that we do look at it that way.”

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