Lower Saucon Township’s Acting Manager Resigns

Lower Saucon Township’s search for a new manager has additional urgency, after Acting Township Manager Cathy Gorman tendered her resignation prior to Wednesday’s township council meeting. Gorman is also the township’s Assistant Township Manager and Director of Finance.

The March 19 meeting began with council members–who had just met in executive session–discussing a motion to accept the resignation. It was not immediately clear who had resigned, and the discussion quickly became contentious.

“Don’t let the public know who resigned because of your utter incompetence,” councilman Jason Banonis said, after council vice president Victoria Opthof-Cordaro said council needed to begin hearing public comment. “You drove another person out of this township. Let’s hire another township manager. It’s been a year. It’s been a year since we had a township manager–a full-time township manager–and this is the consequence of it, and you don’t want the public to know about this.”

“Please look at yourself and how you behave,” council president Laura Ray told Banonis. “This is the whole reason for all the problems here.”

After Banonis urged council to “have a vote on my motion” and told attendees “they don’t want you to know who resigned,” Gorman exclaimed, “I will end this right now, I will end this right now, I will end this right now.”

“I gave the township my resignation,” she said.

“Thank you, Cathy, for disclosing it,” Banonis said.

Gorman said she believed that rather than council disclosing the information, she believed Opthof-Cordaro, Ray and councilwoman Priscilla deLeon were giving her the courtesy of an opportunity to tell people herself. “It should be released right away,” she added.

“It’s Cathy’s right to choose when she wants to disclose that, not ours,” Opthof-Cordaro said.

The fact that Gorman’s husband, Gary Gorman, is running for a township council seat in the upcoming primary election was also discussed.

“If her husband gets elected, she obviously can’t serve as township manager. I had a conversation with her about that about a week or two ago,” councilman Tom Carocci said.

He added that he has made “at least two or three motions” to hire Gorman as township manager, and said “it’s probably for the best that she moves on, because one, they’re not going to hire her or they would have two years ago…so she should move on to something where she’s appreciated…”

Carocci then moved to amend Banonis’s motion to accept Gorman’s resignation.

“We’ll accept the resignation only if she won’t accept the full-time township manager’s job,” he said.

“I’ll make that amendment,” Banonis said.

“Again, you’re putting her out there,” said Opthof-Cordaro. “He wants to put her on the spot.”

“Yeah, this is not how you handle things like this,” Ray added.

The meeting was then interrupted by an attendee shouting at council.

“It is not your turn to speak,” Ray said, pounding the gavel on the dais, as the shouting continued.

“Enough. Move on,” a visibly upset Gorman then said.

As the disruptions continued, Ray declared a recess less than 15 minutes after the meeting began.

When the meeting reconvened about five minutes later, Carocci reiterated that he would only vote to accept Gorman’s letter of resignation if “they don’t make her township manager; full-time, permanent township manager.”

“You can’t force a person into a job with a motion,” Ray responded.

“You’re forcing a person in a public meeting to comment on a personnel matter. It’s completely inappropriate. The way that you’ve been treating (Gorman) this evening is despicable,” Opthof-Cordaro said.

She went on to say that she would accept Opthof-Cordaro’s resignation with regret.

“First and foremost, I’d like to thank the staff here. They’re wonderful to work with and it’s an honor to work with all of you,” Gorman said. “And secondly, I hope I did the township well for the last 19 years.”

A vote on Banonis’s motion to accept Gorman’s resignation only if she “is not given the offer to be township manager pursuant to a contract of multiple years with guarantees in place that she would not be fired for political reasons, and only for cause” failed 3-2, with deLeon, Opthof-Cordaro and Ray voting against it.

A subsequent motion by deLeon to accept Gorman’s resignation “with regret” passed by a vote of 3-2, with the three councilwomen voting in favor of it.

Gorman has worked for the township in various administrative capacities for nearly two decades. Her resignation was given with 30 days’ notice, deLeon said.

The next township council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Lower Saucon Town Hall. Meetings are livestreamed on the township’s YouTube channel.

A full recording of Wednesday’s meeting can be watched on YouTube.