Monessen mayor remains missing in action at council meetings

MONESSEN – The newly elected mayor of Monessen missed his third consecutive city council meeting Thursday, helping to cause nearly $200,000 in unpaid bills to pile up without a quorum at the table.
The city in Westmoreland County has a lot of other unfinished business because of Mayor Matt Shorraw’s refusal since May to attend council meetings, Councilman Anthony Orzechowski said in a failed attempt Thursday to hold another meeting.
“This is a joke,” Orzechowski said. “We’re handcuffed.”
Shorraw, 27, issued a statement Monday in which he mentioned he has been receiving unspecified threats and said that he feared council, if he attended a meeting, would name the former mayor to replace a vacant seat on council. He also said council can pay bills in his absence under the terms of ordinances.
The vacant seat was created by the May 28 death of councilman Ron Chiaravalle. Newly elected councilman Gil Coles hasn’t attended a council meeting since February, without offering an explanation for his absences.
“Nobody has heard from him,” Monessen solicitor Joseph Dalfonso said. “He hasn’t even turned in the paperwork to get paid.”
The absences have left Orzechowski and councilman David Feehan as the only elected officials at recent city council meetings.
Dalfonso said Shorrow is wrong in believing the city could pay expenses other than payroll without council’s approval. He also said council needs three votes to replace Chiaravalle.
It appears Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway will be given the task of replacing Chiaravalle after a month has passed since his death, Dalfonso said. Her ruling could be delayed by court assignments and summer vacations, he said.
Orzechowski and Feehan sat at the council table for more than an hour Thursday listening to questions and complaints from residents, some of whom appeared to be frustrated by Shorraw’s disappearance from the council table.
A woman who declined to identify herself offered support for Shorraw, and she said he’s “a man of God who has a path for this city.”
Another woman, whose identity was not revealed, called Shorrow a child and said he is “going against this city.”
The former mayor, Lou Mavrakis, approached council and said he had no intention to seek the vacant seat on council.
“This is a nightmare that I did not run for,” Orzechowski said.
He said Shorraw’s telephone voicemail at City Hall is full and that “his mail is piling up.”
Shorraw, who is an assistant band director at Monessen High School, was elected to his first term in office in November.
He did not respond to an email Thursday night seeking comment about his absence at the meeting.