Sewickley official keeps post in party-line vote
Council chief criticized for posing with militia
The Sewickley Borough Council president who faced calls to resign after appearing in a photo with armed militia members at a protest in April was not removed from his leadership post Friday. In a special council meeting, a party-line majority of the nine-member body sided with the defense of his intentions and record in the community over doubts about his judgment and how it impacted the borough’s image.
The vote to keep Republican Jeff Neff in command of the council came at the end of the marathon virtual meeting, which included more than two hours of impassioned comments from Sewickley residents about a viral photo of Mr. Neff posing with an armed militia group at a Pittsburgh protest organized by detractors of Gov. Tom Wolf’s statewide stay-at-home orders and business closures.
In the photo, Mr. Neff — who is running for state Senate in the 37th District — is holding a campaign sign at the center of the firearm-touting Iron City Citizens Response Unit, a militia group that purports to stand up against “tyranny and oppression.” Its members were seen in other photos at the rally wearing patches of insignia that included a symbol the Anti-Defamation League claims has been appropriated by some white nationalists.
It was a photo that led Sewickley Mayor Brian Jeffe to call on Mr. Neff to step down and elicited responses from a split council and dozens of residents — some of whom said Mr. Neff damaged Sewickley’s reputation, ignored science to attend a large gathering against the governor’s orders and took too long to apologize for the photo. Others defended Mr. Neff’s intentions and insisted that calls for his ouster were politically motivated.
Mr. Neff opened the meeting with a lengthy statement, in which he expounded on his roots in the community and said he realizes the photo “looks terrible” because the group was dressed in “an intimidating way” wearing camouflage and holding military-style weapons. Though he noted the militia group says it “explicitly [denounces] any form of racism and all are welcome,” he said it doesn’t change that the picture was interpreted “as a form of aggression or racism or white supremacy.”
Claiming he didn’t know the group was a militia, Mr. Neff said he is not a member of a militia, recognizes that people are “deeply disturbed by the image of this group in
camouflage with weapons” and admits appearing in it was in poor judgment.
“I denounce white supremacy, and I always have and always will,” Mr. Neff said.
“I made a mistake. I apologize to this council for what they have been through. I apologize to the members of the community, and I ask you to forgive me,” Mr. Neff added.
Democratic members of council countered the only way to restore the public’s trust is to remove Mr. Neff from the presidency or otherwise risk giving “tacit support for divisiveness, extremism and hate,” as one councilwoman put it.
Councilwoman Christine Allen, who had called for the special meeting, said she was concerned about the “apparent disregard for public health and the defiance of the state’s stay-at-home order” by Mr. Neff and the protesters and also warned the photo associates Sewickley with white nationalism.
“This is a defining moment for Sewickley. As we watch events unfold, we need to take action to be very clear that we all stand against white nationalism,” Ms. Allen said, adding civil discourse is important, but “tolerance stops at Nazis and white nationalism.”
Alleging Mr. Neff put his state political campaign over his duty to Sewickley, Councilwoman Cynthia Mullins said it’s a matter of “standard of leadership,” and he should step down from the council presidency to focus on his Senate bid. She also fought against claims Democrats were undertaking a political hit job and said calls from residents asking Mr. Neff to step down were not “make-believe.”
In the aftermath of the photo, first reported by Pittsburgh City Paper, Mr. Neff said the picture was “over analyzed,” and that “inevitably, political opponents try to capitalize on them.” He accused his Republican primary opponent, Devlin Robinson of inflating the situation for political purposes.
Mr. Neff’s defenders on council, who joined him in voting 5-4 along party lines to keep him in power, defended his record in the community as a lifelong resident, youth sports coach and volunteer firefighter and said calls for him to step down were based on intolerance of people holding different political opinions.