MAYOR PACIFICO CREATES FEAR NEEDLESSLY

This letter to the editor is written with much thought towards the excellent employees of the city of Altoona. Our Police, Fire, and Public works employees  whom give their all every working day of the year. Six years ago I was elected to serve on the commission to change our form of government  to Home Rule which meant we would elect a full time Mayor who was supposed to work with Council to run the city.  Just recently, the Altoona Mirror ran two front page stories, one on a Saturday and the following Monday that predicted the possible ruin of our finances with the possibility of going back into act 47 which would include many layoffs. Mayor Pacifico was the center point of both of these articles which created fear and antagonized our workers needlessly. "Since when do we  negotiate our employee contracts on the front page of the Altoona Mirror" stated Councilman Bruce Kelly when he chided the Mayor for what was stated in both articles. I can definitely say without reservation that Kelly is the most qualified and experienced member of City Council and that he was 100% correct in his criticism of the Mayor for NOT consulting the rest of Counjcil before going to press with these stories. Three years ago we werer emerging from Act 47, we had nearly a ten million dollar surplusm at the time, and when our Council met in August, our finance director gave a report that stated we were only  1/2 million dollars away from where we were last year at this time. That is not too bad for having gone through a Pandemic with high enemployment which is a credit to our tight City finances. The Altoona Mirror bears some responsibility for these front page stories about what could happen to us down the road. How about we just stick to what is really happening for the sake of our great city!