Jerry Palagonia resigns as Whitehall commissioner after string of absences

April 12--WHITEHALL -- Jerry Palagonia, a longtime Whitehall commissioner who tried last year to unseat Mayor Ed Hozza Jr. and is the subject of a township ethics board investigation, is stepping down from his post.

Palagonia has attended only one township meeting so far this year and was not at Monday's commissioners meeting. That put him at risk of removal under regulations spelled out in the home rule charter.

The commissioners unanimously accepted his resignation. Hozza thanked him for his service and wished him well.

After serving 14 years as a commissioner, Palagonia said he did not intend to serve out the rest of his term once he lost the mayoral race to Hozza, his political rival. Palagonia's term expires in 2017.

"I can't work with the mayor. I couldn't work with him before [the election] and I really can't work with him now. My vote doesn't count there anymore," Palagonia said Monday. "I'm not a sore loser. He's a sore winner."

In an email sent Sunday night that is serving as his letter of resignation, Palagonia said he is stepping down "due to personal and business reasons keeping me in Florida." He said his resignation is "in the best interest of our citizens."

A new commissioner must be appointed within 45 days by a majority vote of the board, according to the township charter.

The township revived its previously dormant township Ethics Board to examine whether Palagonia wrongfully disclosed a police incident report after Hozza used a sander to wax the asbestos-laden floor of the municipal building basement. The police report, which Palagonia said he shared with his mayoral campaign team, was passed on to The Morning Call.

Officer Leah Van Note, the police officer who responded to a fire alarm set off during the sanding incident, called for the ethics probe because she contends the information, which included mention of her possible exposure to asbestos particles, should never have been made public. In June, Van Note demanded Palagonia resign.

Palagonia said he's yet to be invited to testify before the board, but said he'd have plenty to say.

A 2010 state court case between the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records and the state police established that police incident reports are exempt from the state's Right-to-Know Law.

But that doesn't mean the release of such documents is necessarily a violation of the law, according to Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel with the Pennsylvania News Media Association. An agency can share the information with the public, Melewsky said, as long as no other law or court order would make the document confidential.

Incident reports were routinely provided to the media in the past, Melewsky said.

Public officials might pass along such a report, Melewsky said, to expose wrongdoing. Van Note's concern that her medical privacy might have been compromised with the release of the report does not hold water, Melewsky said, since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, covers only certain entities.

Hozza said it would be up to the township's five-person ethics panel to determine whether they will continue with the probe targeting Palagonia. The board has no executive power, but will issue a report with its findings once complete, according to Hozza.

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