For Upper Darby Council, it’s all a matter of the ‘minutiae’
UPPER DARBY >> Council again spent a good hour discussing the minutes of a previous meeting and how minutes in the future will be handled at its committee session this week.
Council President Donald Bonnett asked Solicitor Kelly Sullivan to comment on the situation since the Nov. 14 committee meeting and Nov. 14 special meeting minutes were tabled in December and January.
“She prepared a memo and on the second page there is a statement about the narrative,” Bonnett said. “It should be ‘what is done, not what is said.’ The purpose of a committee meeting is to establish action for the next (public) meeting. We may have to resort to hiring a stenographer for public hearings.”
The township tapes the committee and council meetings and they are transcribed by the township secretary.
In December, Councilwoman Laura Wentz wanted to amend the (public hearing) minutes, noting a name of a person and a portion of a statement were omitted.
Bonnett admitted to finding some blanks spaces in the (Nov. 14) minutes due to the inability of the secretary to decipher who was speaking and what was said exactly.
“We are going to try to fill in the blanks (of the Nov. 14 public meeting),” Bonnett said using information provided by Wentz.
Wentz recommended getting a better recording system and Councilwoman Barbarann Keffer suggested videotaping council meetings.
“We need to explore the options,” Bonnett said. “People are mumbling or they are not being audible.”
Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Judge Jr. concurred.
“People are not speaking clearly,” Judge said. “It’s not the system. We are working on bringing a new system in here.”
Councilman Jack Bierling asked officials to review the minutes they receive electronically prior to a meeting and make corrections to the secretary before it comes to a vote.
In other business, Councilwoman Sekela Coles asked council to contact PennDOT to establish a school zone on Marshall Road where it intersects with Lamport Road and Sherbrook Boulevard and write to the Upper Darby School District to assign another crossing guard at the same location.
“It’s a major intersection and not all cars observe flashing lights or stop signs,” Coles said.
She wants a crossing guard to stay longer or another one assigned to cross students getting off the bus from the K-Center or the Kelly Elementary School later than students not bused.
Coles announced the fourth annual Black History Month poetry contest she initiated for fourth and fifth graders in the township.
Entries must be emailed to Coles at scoles@council.upperdarby.org by 4 p.m. Feb. 28 and include the students name, school, home address and contact phone number.
Winners will be contacted and invited to the March 20 council meeting to read their poem and receive a monetary award.