LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — Pending a successful background check, the township will have its newest township manager, potentially starting work by mid-August.
Township Council on Wednesday voted 3-1 to hire Brian S. Bond to the role at a salary of $142,500.
Councilman Thomas Carocci was the lone dissenter, and Councilman Jason Banonis was absent.
While no detailed information was provided before or during the meeting regarding Bond’s credentials, a Brian Bond appears to have served both Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg boroughs in similar roles.
The search
Former Township Manager Mark Hudson resigned a few months back, taking a similar position in Hanover Township, Northampton County, after serving Lower Saucon since August 2022.
“In March, the township hired Keystone Municipal Solutions to conduct the search for a new manager,” Council President Priscilla deLeon said.
“Brian Bond was selected from a pool of roughly a dozen candidates.”
Carocci repeated that he didn’t vote to bring on the municipal services firm, and that he and Banonis never saw one resume during the search.
“So this is the first I’m hearing of this candidate,” Carocci said.
“I’ll be voting against him simply because, again, we were not informed. A few of the other candidates were [informed]; we were completely left out of the process.”
“It’ll be more the same. We’ll have to do a lot of right-to-knows to get answers because, much like our solicitor, it seems like just another one of Priscilla’s poodles here that will cover up and not share information with members of council who were elected by township taxpayers.”Lower Saucon Township Councilman Thomas Carocci, speaking on the incoming township manager
Township solicitor Steven Goudsouzian said everyone on council had been given notice about qualified candidates and provided a proper chance to meet with them.
Carocci responded, saying he never even got a phone call from Bond.
“It’ll be more the same,” he said.
“We’ll have to do a lot of right-to-knows to get answers because, much like our solicitor, it seems like just another one of Priscilla’s poodles here that will cover up and not share information with members of council who were elected by township taxpayers.”
'Please turn your mouth off'
DeLeon said council at one point met in executive session to meet with the search’s top two candidates. She said Carocci and Banonis chose not to take part.
Carocci and deLeon then spoke over each other as she knocked her gavel.
“We did everything very similar to the way they did it for Mark Hudson — very, very similar,” deLeon said.
Councilwoman Victoria Opthof-Cordaro said she was “very excited” to second the motion in hiring Bond.
“From what I have observed through this process of hiring a manager, is that we have two members of council that have chosen to take every opportunity to extend the length of our meetings, to cause disruption during our meetings, to have every member of our audience get aggravated, irritated, upset because of inflammatory comments and things that have been said,” Opthof-Cordaro said.
“Now we have somebody trying to lay the groundwork to irritate a new manager.”
“I guess [Carocci] doesn’t read his email and doesn’t care enough to look into the important task of hiring a manager. ... We did make sure the candidate’s fully aware of how things go here because we don’t want somebody coming in not aware of the situation.”Lower Saucon Township Councilwoman Laura Ray
Before Councilwoman Laura Ray shared her thoughts, she told Carocci to “please turn your mouth off.”
“I guess [Carocci] doesn’t read his email and doesn’t care enough to look into the important task of hiring a manager,” Ray said.
“We did make sure the candidate’s fully aware of how things go here because we don’t want somebody coming in not aware of the situation.”
Township resident Dave Boulin said he couldn’t imagine interim Township Manager Cathy Gorman not sending out proper information to all of council as needed.
“If what [Carocci] says is correct, I’m really disturbed,” Boulin said.
