Jan 27, 2014 2 min read

I have to address the dirty trick that Mayor David Rhome and his willing accomplices pulled at the Canonsburg Borough Council meeting on Jan. 6 when it was time to seat new Councilman John Severine.

Even though the mayor knows that John Severine has lived in the same house in the east end of Canonsburg all his life, Severine was told he needed to produce a notarized affidavit of residency before he could be sworn in. That would be fine if Severine had been told before the meeting that he needed this document. But no one informed him.

Standing in the wings at the meeting is John Bevec, who just happens to have a notarized affidavit of residency in his pocket. Is that something someone just happens to carry on them? Does anyone smell a rat? So Severine was not sworn in and did not get to vote. By doing this, the mayor and his cronies overturned an election and the will of the people in Canonsburg.

Bevec wants to float a $33 million loan for the sewer authority on the backs of the Canonsburg taxpayer. With the way the council is stacked, he will probably get his way. It’s pretty clear to me that this trick was planned well before the meeting that night.

Jeff Nestor

Canonsburg