Joseph Orso III, who was on the agenda to be reappointed as solicitor, angrily left before his appointment could be approved, shouting, “I’m not putting up with this.”

Contacted the day after the meeting, Orso stated that prior to the meeting he had been asked by the supervisors to come back to be the solicitor and he had agreed.

He said that he had served in that position in South Williamsport for 25 years and the meetings had always been professional and respectful.

“I don’t want to be a part of that,” Orso said, referring to the township’s acrimonious meetings. “I’m not going back.”

Muncy Township Supervisors discuss the lease agreement of the Muncy Twp. Fire Department during the twp meeting Tuesday evening. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

His actions followed Amy Ruth-Swart questioning his reappointment as solicitor, a position he had, less than a month ago, said that he could not continue in due to a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship. The agenda for the meeting listed Orso’s payrate at $325 per hour, an increase over what he had cited as his fee when he was first hired in April, something that was questioned several times by township residents.

“Anyone with sense has to ask, why Mr. Orso? Why more interest in our township? Why at a higher payrate? Why return to an almost unheard-of situation between a lawyer and a client when a broken professional relationship and fundamental differences occur? Where are the ethics?” Ruth-Swart said.

“And supervisors, quickly consider what we want in the best interest of our township. Why is this circus continuing? I’ll end with these fitting words: don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself, why you keep going to the circus,” she added.

At one point, Ruth-Swart’s comments were interrupted by township Secretary Kathryn Harper, who shouted that Ruth-Swart’s three minutes were up. When Ruth-Swart continued talking, Harper stood up and shouted, “Sit down, your time is up.”

Others in the audience offered to give Ruth-Swart their comment time allowance but Harper persisted in shouting that her time was up. At that point Harper physically grabbed Ruth-Swart’s arm in an attempt to push her into her seat.

The crowd did not respond well to her strong-arm tactics with someone shouting, “Get her (Harper) out of the building.”

Harper returned to her seat and things calmed down as the meeting moved on to the next round of chaos.

Prior to the supervisors’ meeting, the township’s planning commission had met to review several items, including the FAMvest/Bass Pro land development plan.

“We’d like to move forward with the FAMvest. The planning commission has recommended that the supervisors move forward and sign the plan,” Larry Spatz, chairman of the planning commission told the supervisors.

“Wait, wait, what was that,” Lauchle responded, visibly surprised.

Spatz reiterated the planning commission’s recommendation to move forward, sign it and have the township engineer begin his review, which set off what could be described as a word salad from Lauchle on why that wouldn’t be happening.

Referring to an email from Township Engineer Dan Vassallo, Lauchle said that she understood that he was “asking if he could just start to view it.”

“He had, he only saw whether or not it was complete, if everything was there, and he said he wasn’t sure where to be for it, the thumb drive, many of the issues that come as plans that are entered, as the administrator will tell you, everything wasn’t there. That’s what was incomplete. What we discussed last month, now he said, listen, it’s not complete, but should I start to review the actual…he had not done the plans himself. Do you not understand that?” Lauchle asked Spatz.

“We understood. The planning commission unanimously voted that we recommend that you sign the plans and move forward on it,” Spatz stated again.

“Without the engineer even viewing it…He’s not viewed the development,” Lauchle said.

When questioned by one of the residents why the engineer hadn’t reviewed the plans which had been submitted, Lauchle stated, “he is asking to have it viewed where the plans are over there, he is asking now, can he view it? He gave us whether or not everything was there, and it was incomplete, but he did not. That’s the everything that comes in…The map, the thumb drives, the checks. There’s a book that comes with it. He had several things last month that he said the package itself is incomplete. Now he put it in and said, ‘Okay, I told you that.’ And he wants the planning committee to look and see if, has some of that came in, because those items had come in before this board was coming on as the new board. So that was brought in December 3. So he said some of these are not.”

“We still can’t access the computer back before December 16. So he’s just saying make sure planning, and then you put in an email this week, and you contacted Larry to say, can I start reviewing the plan? So I’m surprised you’re saying, hey, let’s approve them. He has not seen the land development plans, he’s just to make sure the package thus is what we’re saying…that’s the first thing the zoning or the engineer will look at to make sure everything is there, so if it’s not complete, you send it back or tell the developer, hey, we’re missing these items. That’s what Dan (Vassallo) did. That took him a lot, he had done that over a month ago, actually. When first Mr. Orso came on the last time, he asked, ‘Can I just review to see if everything’s complete? That’s all he did. And I think that was may 1, he came back and said it was incomplete, and now he’s just requesting to review,” she said.

According to Vassallo, the township’s engineer, who was contacted for clarification the day after the meeting, he has had the land development plan since around March 24 but he has not received authorization, either “digitally, verbally or by email” to proceed with the review. He had done a completeness review to make sure that all the different components were correctly submitted according to the township’s land development ordinance, but has not started the final review.

Barring any changes or revisions to the original plan, Vassallo could begin that review as soon as he is given the okay to begin.

“I’m just waiting for the authorization to proceed,” he said.