A growing number of Allegheny County Council members are calling for the council’s president Pat Catena to resign his position and suspend his State House campaign following a campaign mailer that targeted at transgender athletes.
In a Wednesday press release, Council members Jordan Botta and Dan Grzybek joined Council members Paul Klein, Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, Lissa Gieger Shulman and at-large members Bethany Hallam and Alex Rose in calling for Catena to step down and a new election to be held.
“We had hoped that President Catena would have taken responsibility for himself and stepped down, but this has so far not happened,” the joint statement read. “We will take action instead.”
Per the Home Rule Charter, calls for presidential elections must have the support of at least eight members.
The subject dominated the Tuesday evening council meeting, as nearly four dozen community members attended to call for Catena’s removal. Attendees spoke for over an hour about the community harm caused by Catena’s campaign mailer, which targeted his opponent for being supported by a group that also supports transgender participation in sports.
Catena silently listened to the concerns, without directly addressing the crowd, and told reporters after the meeting that he acknowledged his mistake and said that he had “some soul-searching to do.”
Council member DeWitt Walton attempted to bring forward a motion to call for a new vote for president, but was interrupted by the council’s solicitor, who said such a motion would have had to have been added to the agenda ahead of time. Walton’s motion was supported on Tuesday by Grzybek.
“I suggest that President Catena resign tonight, right now,” Walton said Tuesday evening. “But nonetheless, we are going to do this in two weeks, no matter how you try to delay it.”
Catena did not respond to a request for comment.
Following the meeting, Botta introduced a motion of no confidence as Catena’s mailer targeted transgender individuals and “undermined confidence in the leadership and impartiality expected of the Office,” the motion, which calls for Vice President John Palmiere to assume the role as president, reads.