Shane W Potter

SLIPPERY ROCK — Even after a proposed 287(g) agreement between the borough’s police department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was voted down by council, residents spoke their minds regarding the decision at the Tuesday, Sept. 1 meeting.

About a dozen residents signed up for public comment during Tuesday’s meeting. Some expressed disappointment at council’s decision and urged reconsideration, while others expressed continued support and condemned statements made on social media regarding council members who voted against the agreement.

Resident Liam Bull claimed some residents received a text message urging them to show up to the meeting and, “‘let (council) know you won’t stand by while criminal illegals are allowed to roam our streets.’”

“At first, when I saw this, I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Resident Jonathan Faust also commented on the alleged text.

“I find it completely inappropriate. The targeting of these council members, the singling out of them,” he said.

He called on Mayor Jondavid Longo to condemn the text and the “targeted harassment” of council members who rejected the agreement. Longo said he does not believe the text contained any harassing statement.

“What you’re asking me to do is to condemn the fact that public officials, whose votes were public and whose emails and names are public, is not to be communicated at all to the public at large,” Longo said.

Resident Bryan Whitby said he was disappointed the agreement was rejected. He urged council to reconsider the agreement at a later time.

“I and millions of other legal immigrants believe in following the laws of the nation. Don’t like the laws? Run for office and change the laws. This is not about race. This is about the law. We are a nation of laws. Law enforcement enforces the laws,” he said. “God forbid any one of your family or my family, by chance, get assaulted by some transient illegal alien coming through our town.”

Jodi Barrett said she felt the agreement would be a step toward safeguarding for the future.

“We don’t know if we would need it. But it would be nice to know that our officers have the extra training, because it’s needed,” she said.

Before the meeting adjourned, Councilwoman Alex Tuten said the decision she and others on council made was not a decision made out of fear, but rather personal conviction.

“We listened. We learned, and then we had the courage to vote what we thought, personally, was best for our community or our constituents according to our own conscience,” she said.

She said she will always appreciate feedback from residents, but hate emails do not help with making decisions.

“This kind of rhetoric doesn’t teach anything. No one learns and no one listens,” she said. “Please don’t waste air on that. Don’t waste time on that. It does nothing except create hate and anger,” she said.

Councilman Jeff Campbell echoed Tuten’s statements while also reading an explanation of his vote he did not get the chance to read last meeting. He said less than 10% of police departments under the agreement received funds from ICE and that borough police Chief Terry Fedokovitz was against it.

“The police chief was not in favor of this agreement and said ‘it did nothing to help and it was not worth the aggravation.’ His words to my ears,” he said.

However, just before the meeting was adjourned, a resident named Tim Mickle asked to speak. Councilman John Hicks told him he would need to sign up to speak at the next meeting as the public comment period had ended. Longo intervened, stating he felt the decision to not let Mickle speak was unfair.

“We allowed a bunch of people to speak last meeting who did not sign up,” Longo said.

Hicks told Longo the meeting had moved on and a heated exchange between the two followed before council voted unanimously to go into executive session.

The next borough council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15.