Longtime township supervisor resigns
Fluharty argues with fellow officials over spending, road paving issues
Only four months after township supervisors’ Chairman Doug Mueller abruptly stepped down from the board, another supervisor has made a surprise resignation.
This time it was veteran board member Ralph Fluharty, who has served the township for 31 years between his time on the township planning commission and then on the board of supervisors.
The resignation came Monday night as Fluharty sparred with the other supervisors over spending on road paving.
As the other supervisors scrambled to understand the finances involved — with Su-
pervisor Andrew Kelly at one point calling it “a shell game” — Fluharty argued the cost of paving materials is currently so low more roads should be paved while “we have the men and the equipment.”
But the resignation evidently was not entirely spontaneous.
After Fluharty stopped conversation cold by telling Chairman Phil Agliano “well, I’ve got another problem for you. I’m resigning my post,” he pulled out a prepared statement which he proceeded to read.
“After 31 years of service to this township, 17 years on the planning commission and 14 years as a supervisor, I am resigning the position as of tonight,” read Fluharty.
“I believe my concern for the residents of the township and the employees are not shared by the board, that’s my opinion,” he said.
“It’s also my opinion that the decisions are not always in the best interests of the residents of the township,” Fluharty said. “I say that because of salaries, I say that because we’ve got poor roads, but we want to talk about a budget that we formed back in November and December, when we didn’t know that blacktop was going to be $40 a ton rather than $65 a ton.”
Agliano said he would not consider accepting Fluharty’s resignation until the end of the meeting “after Ralph has had a chance to calm down.”
But after the meeting wore on, and the supervisors adjourned to an executive session, Fluharty did not join them. Instead he listened with a smile on his face while others left in the audience tried to convince him to change his mind.
Outside the meeting room, Fluharty, 82, said he was done.
He said the township’s reserve fund has now grown to $1.6 million, which he considers a good thing, but only if the money gets used for things the township needs when the time is right.
The low cost of paving materials this year would have allowed for the paving of many extra miles of “poor roads” in the township — he was advocating for re-paving Swamp Picnic Road Monday night — but the other supervisors insistence on cleaving to budget estimates made when the price was unknown cost valuable time, he said.
“We should act on it,” he said. “I hope things go well for them, but I am apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
After the executive session, the board was advised by solicitor Andrew Bellowoar that if they did not act to accept Fluharty’s resignation, it would leave his status an open question and prevent the board from naming a replacement.
Ultimately, the board voted unanimously, “with great reluctance,” to accept Fluharty’s resignation.
They then voted to authorize interim manager Greg Prowant to advertise for those interested in applying with a letter — and resume — Supervisor Charles D. Garner Jr. emphasized.
It has been an extremely unsettle year for New Hanover Township government.
Muller’s resignation led to a muddled appointment process for his replacement, Marie Livlsberger; an appointment that had to be made twice because the meeting at which she was first selected was not property advertised.
Additionally, former solicitor Paul Bauer resigned and the board terminated former manager Kevin Tobias, just six months after giving him an $11,000 raise.
Several township posts are vacant, including the planning commission post Algilano resigned from after taking the chairmanship of the board of supervisors.
Now, with a new solicitor in place, the township has an interim township manager while a consultant it has hired conducts a search for a permanent replacement.