Pigeon Drama: Councilman Says Neighbor Was Singled Out Because He Called Him Corrupt on Facebook

Frackville’s council president said last week that he instructed the borough’s code enforcement officer to take action on his neighbor in response to something he posted on social media.

Last week, Frackville councilman Ron Jordan engaged in a back-and-forth discussion with a resident during the public comment session of the regular monthly meeting regarding the much-talked-about ordinance governing the feeding of wild animals.

During that conversation, Jordan said he instructed Frackville’s code enforcement officer to post a copy of that ordinance on his neighbor’s property after he learned that the neighbor had been disparaging him on social media.

Back Story

In July, council members voted unanimously to resume enforcing an ordinance that had been on the books for years regarding the feeding of wild animals, including birds and stray cats, in an attempt to alleviate an issue with pigeons damaging properties.

Soon after that action, code enforcement officer Nick Hazlett posted a Notice of Violation on the property of Robert Wuttke. Wuttke believed it was because he had a bird feeder on his property.

Hazlett said Thursday that the notice was posted because he conducted an investigation and found that Wuttke’s bird feeder was being visited by pigeons. He said he then gave Wuttke an extension on the notice in July in order to give him time to address council members on why he thought it was unfair that he had to remove his bird feeder.

In the meantime, Hazlett said that there was then evidence that “chumming” of birds was occurring in that same area.

Wuttke did take his concerns about being forced to remove his bird feeder to council members in August. Jordan, though, was not in attendance.

At last month’s meeting, Jordan responded to what Wuttke had said in his comments to council the month prior and also to what apparently had been said about him on Facebook prior to those comments.

The councilman said he was “appalled” that people believed he was “corrupt” in how he managed his job as president of Borough Council.

Upon Further Review: Targeting or Not?

The bird feeder drama continued last week when Frackville resident Susan Earll peppered Jordan with questions during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Earll wondered if Wuttke, Jordan’s neighbor across the street, was targeted by the council president for speaking out against him.

Jordan essentially said he did because he was appalled by the insinuation that he was corrupt. Apparently, people were saying Jordan and council members were corrupt and broke the law by passing the wild animals ordinance without proper notice.

In reality, council members only voted to enforce that ordinance that had already been passed.

Jordan responded to Earll’s comments and questions and admitted that he did target Wuttke because he was talking about him falsely on social media but did not intend to have him cited for feeding the birds.

Jordan said he instructed Hazlett to just post a copy of the ordinance on his neighbor’s property.

“Right away, those people across the street from me decide to go to social media and bash council that we are corrupt and we are not following the law by posting the new ordinance. So, I’m the neighbor. And I said to the code enforcement officer, take the current amendment and post it on their windows due to the fact that they are on social media falsely accusing this body of doing something corrupt. That’s all I did,” Jordan said.

He said Hazlett erred in posting a Notice of Violation on Wuttke’s property.

“Unfortunately, Nick gave him a notice of violation. That’s not what I directed him to do. I just asked him to post the amendment so they understand we’re not trying to do anything corrupt.

“So, as a neighbor, I told our code enforcement officer to go post the amendment on their door so they understood we’re not doing anything corrupt. It was a mistake but here we are. Unfortunately, Nick put it as a violation and then all the ‘corrupt’ sh** starts so I thought no sense pushing it any more so I just left it go,” Jordan said.

Hazlett said he did not target Wuttke and cited his investigation into the pigeon situation. He said properties that got posted are ones where he saw evidence of pigeons congregating.

“He added: “When I went out and I did the investigation into the situation with the bird feeders and the feeding and all that stuff, the properties that got posted were published with Notice of Violations which had the ordinance information in it because that’s where the pigeons were congregated.

“I visibly saw them flying to those bird feeders and eating the seed. I had to go back to one of those individuals because he then started chumming and there were peanuts all over his property, all over the neighboring property out on the sidewalk, and you can visibly see all of the feces that was there because of the chumming,” Hazlett said. “The situation existed. It was real.”

He added, “It wasn’t targeting. It was where I saw the pigeons. Every other property that I see pigeons at has also been posted.”

Despite what Hazlett said prompted him to act in posting the notices – and he said he granted an extension to recipients in order to give them a chance to take their concerns about them to council – Jordan said he wanted the ordinance posted because of what was being said on social media.

He emphasized that in his conversation with Earll:

Earll: “As president of the council, you went out of your way to ask him to put the ordinance on somebody’s door?”

Jordan: “What’s wrong with that?”

Earll: “What other doors did you put it on?”

Jordan: “The people that are running their mouth on Facebook.”

Earll: “You mean that was retaliation for them putting you on Facebook?”

Jordan: “By telling him to post the ordinance? Just the ordinance? That’s retaliation?”

READ MORE ON THE BIRDS SAGA IN FRACKVILLE:

• Council President Says He’s Appalled By Accusations of His Corruption
• Frackville to Begin Enforcing the Feeding of Wild Animals, Including Feral Cats

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