Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow
Sunday night, less than 24 hours before Pat Sabatini officially becomes mayor of Bristol Borough, he answered some pressing questions to LevittowNow.com had for him in a 10 minute phone interview.
Sabatini, who had to take his candidacy to the courts to continue his effort to become mayor, soundly defeated incumbent Bob Lebo in the November election. The mayor-elect has remained quiet since election night but has held meetings with a number of trusted friends and confidants formulating his priority list and getting a sense of what the citizenry is looking for from him in terms of what kind of mayor he is going to be.
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“Good, bad or indifferent, what my constituents can expect are answers and accountability,” Sabatini said.
Sabatini plans to bring on former mayor Bob Lebo as a special unpaid liaison to familiarize himself with the position adding that Lebo has years of experience in the police department and it makes sense to get all the experienced advice he could get as he takes on his new leadership position.
“I think Mayor Lebo was put into a bad position from the start and was kept bogged down” Sabatini said. In response to questions about Lebo’s responsibility for some of the issues the the former mayor faces. First and foremost I want to clear away the cloud that’s has been hanging over the police department since the settlements and Bob can be more than helpful to me in that effort,” he said.
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Questions about Police Chief Arnold Porter’s future have been circulating through the alleys and shortcuts of the borough like a police cruiser hiding in plain sight for months now.
“Mr. Porter is our police chief and we’ll see what he wants to do as we move forward,” the mayor-elect said in response to questions about Porter’s future with the police department.
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Sabatini then addressed the overall issue of the police department and moves by council to probe the department.
“One thing I know is a review of policy and procedure isn’t enough,” he said. “That’s why I’ve made a working list of agencies and contacts that have nothing to do with Bristol or are connected to the borough in anyway and plan to hire one to conduct a independent investigation in the hopes of getting a clean bill of health.”
“If not we’ll take the appropriate steps to rectify the problems if any.”
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Mayors supervise police departments in Pennsylvania and Sabatini has the full support of council, Ralph DiGuiseppe said at a November council meeting. Adding that any questions about the department need to be addressed once and for all.
Sabatini said he realizes the biggest task facing him is earning public trust from citizens saying in order to properly assess any situation adding “you can’t fix a machine without knowing what’s wrong with it.”
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“Bristolians need to know first and foremost my first challenge will be to establish a working trust with residents of the borough,” he said. “I am going to be honest with them and keep them informed as they should be. We have a new start and beginning and plan to hit the ground running – at full speed.”
The Bristol Borough Council will hold its reorganization meeting Monday night at 7 p.m. the municipal building. Bristol Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe, west ward Councilwoman Betty Rodriguez, newly elected north ward Councilman David Girard and Mayor elect Sabatini will all be sworn in tonight.
