Several speakers urged Springdale Council to better answer resident demands and offer more transparency in government business Tuesday in the latest part of a monthslong conflict in the small borough.
The meeting came after the arrest of William “Danny” Rosenmund after he spoke over his allotted three-minute time during council’s April meeting. Rosenmund was charged with aggravated assault after police say he resisted arrest.
Among the five people who took the podium Tuesday, none directly referenced the arrest, including Rosenmund’s wife, Kaitlyn Ockree.
Ockree did, however, push residents to come forward with stories about what she called “corruption” in Springdale Police Department.
She said she’s long been a victim of “intimidation” by Police Chief Derek Dayoub, stemming from a 2014 traffic stop, during which Ockree said Dayoub pulled his gun on her.
“The data center is coming. ICE is here. Multiple families have been harmed by recent events,” she said. “We will continue to be taken advantage of unless we speak up.”
Ockree’s comments reference a series of events in Springdale that have placed it at the crossroads of several national political issues and left local officials and some residents ever more divided.
Last summer, developers backed by a multibillion-dollar New York hedge fund announced their intentions to build a massive data center at the site of the former Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale.
That set off months of meetings, during which residents often offered fierce resistance. In the end, the data center was approved in December.
The data center controversy was followed by Springdale Police’s decision to quietly enter into an agreement to cooperate with ICE without a public vote late last year.
Local officers used the agreement to arrest a Peru-born resident in February and hand him over to ICE. Randy Cordova-Flores, a father of two, had initially been stopped for a supposed traffic violation.
The arrest set off another firestorm as residents held a protest in the borough that briefly turned violent, resulting in recent charges for a local man.
Rosenmund’s April 21 arrest, which saw him tackled and pinned to the floor by four officers, proved shocking to several onlookers during an otherwise mundane meeting.
The months of often-bitter debate seemed to leave resident Cindi Renaldi exasperated.
“Let’s stop. Let’s start over,” she said. “We need a fresh start.”
She said the conflict was perpetuated by “negativity” on both sides, but she did question why council members don’t offer more information during meetings.
As the meeting progressed, many councilors simply said their committee reports had been filed, without further elaboration.
And during the public comment period, Springdale Solicitor Craig Alexander advised council members not to respond to residents’ questions as they asked them. Instead, council members answered some — but not all — resident queries in bulk at the end of the meeting.
Renaldi, who often attends meetings, said she’d like to hear more in-depth explanations from officials on what they’re doing.
Matt Lang, another longtime meeting attendee, said he’d also like more information about council reports.
He said he recently attended a supervisors meeting in Upper Burrell, where a separate data center project is planned.
The meeting, Lang said, was much more casual, and officials made an effort to answer questions from the public.
“What do we need to do to enact change?” Lang said. “People are frustrated, people are mad. No wonder there’s tensions. No one feels like they’re being heard.”
After the meeting, Lang said he still wasn’t satisfied, but he’s unsure of his next steps forward.
If it comes to it, he said, he would consider gathering a group to run against sitting council members in the next election.
Ockree wasn’t as optimistic. She said she thinks people are scared of retaliation by police if they attempt to speak out.
“I don’t think anything’s going to change,” she said.
Still, she said that wouldn’t stop her for trying.
Council member Deborah Piontek said after the meeting that she understands the frustration of the residents, but council simply can’t discuss some things, including Rosenmund’s arrest.
“It’s a work in progress,” she said.
Dayoub did not respond to a reporter’s request for comment at the meeting.