Yardley Borough Council to Interview Seven Applicants for Vacancy Tuesday

The Yardley Borough Council set a interview date for  applicants to to fill the now vacant council seat

Yardley officials said the plan is set and candidates will be interviewed for the position in a public hearing Tuesday, February 11, at 7 p.m.

Borough Manager Paula Johnson said there were eight candidates in total, with seven being available for interviews this Tuesday night.

Steve Andrews, Matthew Curtin, Victoria Czechowski,  Uri Feiner, Dan Mohn, Dawn Perlmutter, Constance Webster, all applied to be interviewed for the council seat, Johnson said on Friday.

Two of the candidates, Democrat Feiner, and Republican  Mohn have served previously on council.

Andrews, borough officials said, had to withdraw his application because he will be traveling the day public vetting takes place.

Residents are allowed and encouraged to attend the meeting and to ask questions of the candidates during the public vetting.

Candidates will be interviewed one at time, while the other hopefuls will wait in a separate space downstairs.

Council will then vote at the end of the meeting on who earns the seat with plans for the new member to be sworn in at the February 18^th council meeting, Johnson said.

The vacancy was created when councilman-elect Patrick McGovern decided not to be seated due to racially insensitive remarks/posts he made on a secondary Facebook account specifically targeting now resigned Councilwoman Sandi Brady.  The Social Media account was under a pseudonym McGovern used, he said.

The weekend after Election Day, McGovern announced he would decline to be seated. Soon thereafter, manufactured and doctored posts appeared on various Facebook pages, attributing additional “ugly” comments to McGovern.

A source with intimate knowledge about the “doctored posts” said the the meta data of those additional posts clearly illustrated someone looking to add “more fuel to the fire.”

Council chose Republican Ryan Berry to fill Brady’s seat for the remaining two years of the existing term. Berry was defeated in his re-election bid.