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Niles director must have high standard

Niles has had its fair share of troubles in recent months, and frustrations are running high as the city works to overcome a gaping deficit in the city’s general fund budget.

Workers have lost their jobs, including some on the front lines of the city’s safety forces. Budgets have been cut and at least two city leaders have quit in recent weeks, and the former mayor’s home and business have been the focus of executed search warrants.

We might expect a public display of frustrations from residents who helplessly are witnessing the implosion, or even from employees who have been laid off or who are being stretched thin. Still, no scenario in which name calling or disrespectful public speech should ever be viewed as acceptable.

We especially never should expect to see a public official lash back publicly at a citizen, telling him to “shut up” and being ordered by police to return to his seat.

We are speaking, of course, about last week’s public exchange between Niles Service Director, James DePasquale, and citizen George Kuriatnyk during a Niles City Council meeting. During the exchange, Kuriatnyk admonished DePasquale telling him “Don’t you open your mouth,” and commenting that he trusts the mayor, “but not the guy behind him.” DePasquale was sitting behind Mayor Tom Scarnecchia.

DePasquale responded by standing and shouting back, “Don’t you talk to me like that.” At one point, he also told Kuriatnyk to “shut up.”

Acting police Chief Capt. Jay Holland approached DePasquale and ordered him to sit down.

In the days following this embarrassing public display, DePasquale acknowledged that he regretted his “emotional response.”

He should.

But we were further bothered by a statement he later made transferring much of the blame to Council President Robert Marino Jr. Days after the outburst, DePasquale described the council meetings as a “sideshow,” and insisted that Marino has “lost control of the meetings.”

Of course we expect the president of council, who oversees the meetings, to take a proactive approach in controlling such outbursts. He has said that speakers may “agreed to disagree” and should not “impugn character” or “speak derogatorily.”

In this instance, the speech fell way short of those guidelines, and we implore Marino to do better.

However, as the number two person in the city’s administration, we also expect DePasquale to conduct himself with a higher standard. The buck should stop with him and the mayor.

Finger pointing is something we’ve all come to expect in the world of politics, but an ugly, embarrassing display of this during – or after – a public meeting benefits no one.

editorial@tribtoday.com

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