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  • About a week before city council voted to reject Mayor Anthony Mastrangelo’s reappointment of Tom Sansone as police chief, the mayor — coincidentally or not — moved to pull Sansone from the parking meter task. And if that wasn’t strange enough, Mastrangelo decided to give the job to his son.

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February 1, 2012

Our Opinion, Part 2: Mayor’s hiring of his son raises more serious questions

By Staff New Castle News

NEW CASTLE — (Second of two editorials)

If you ask New Castle residents to identify the biggest problem in local government, one word will stand out:

Nepotism.

The term, of course, refers to the hiring of one’s relatives for positions, regardless of the fact others are equally — or more — deserving of available positions.

With this community’s government jobs and benefits gaining desirability compared to many of their private sector counterparts, examples of nepotism are sure to attract attention and raise serious questions about the motives of elected officials engaged in the practice.

And that brings us to New Castle Mayor Anthony Mastrangelo.

Recently, Mastrangelo made a change in the collection of money from the city’s parking meters. For several years, this task had been led by New Castle’s police chief, Thomas Sansone.

But about a week before city council voted to reject Mastrangelo’s reappointment of Sansone as police chief, the mayor — coincidentally or not — moved to pull Sansone from the parking meter task.

And if that wasn’t strange enough, Mastrangelo decided to give the job to his son.

In doing so, Mastrangelo made two arguments in favor of the move. First, he said he wanted the police handling other responsibilities more attuned to law enforcement. Second, in finding someone to handle the meter collection task, the mayor defended the hiring of his son on the grounds he needed someone he could trust.

On the first point, devoting more law enforcement time to criminal matters makes sense, but what is the evidence any problem existed in this regard?

And if it was a problem, why did it take four years for the mayor to come to this conclusion?

As for Mastrangelo’s second point about hiring his son for reasons of trust, that would be all well and good if the mayor was running his own small business. But he’s not.

Mastrangelo should understand that the hiring of a relative raises serious public questions. And let’s not forget New Castle has endured two significant scandals in recent years involving parking money.

After the first scandal, a system similar to the one Sansone operated was put in place. However, it was abandoned, which led to the second scandal.

The police were heavily involved in collecting parking meter money to protect the funds and maintain public trust. Now the mayor has shifted the duties to his son.

And then city council mysteriously refuses to support Mastrangelo’s retention of Sansone as chief.

None of this serves to instill confidence in New Castle’s decision-making processes. It creates a swirl of politics around the position of police chief — something we consider highly inappropriate. The people of New Castle need to demand a more professional approach to filling top city posts.

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