Reading Mayor Wally Scott has little to show

by Steve Reinbrecht

So Wally Scott has been mayor of Reading for almost five months. The biggest part of the job is finding good people to fill key jobs in the city government.

The poor city needs the best help and leadership it can get to survive a world that is very unkind to small cities, which well-paying employers have fled but poor people fleeing worse places have flocked to.

Wally drove off two apparently very competent if not excellent administrators – the police chief, William Heim, and the city manager, Carole Snyder, and hasn’t been able to hire permanent replacements.

On Tuesday, Cumru Township hired Reading’s acting police chief, Madison Winchester.

Although he never impressed me, Lenin Agudo, the city community development director, left his important job early in the year. Alejandro Palacios is the acting director, but I can find no information about him.

On Friday, Wally fired David Ruyak, ‎operations division manager. In July, Ruyak was given a $6,000 raise because he had taken over the curbside waste program. Wally has proposed a complicated trash hauling program, an old theme of his.

The parking authority appears to be in disarray, with a floundering Wally-appointed executive director and the loss of its longtime finance director Christina Gilfert, who quit after 15 years.

In April, Wally fired Ron Natale, a 13-year City Hall veteran who had run the codes department since 2010.

Several different people have told me Wally seems to be developing Alzheimer’s disease or some sort of dementia.

He certainly didn’t impress this letter writer:

“We hear stories that clearly show that he [Scott] lacks a grasp of fundamental concepts of economic development and city management, which was evident in his comments in last week's Berks Community Foundation program at Albright College. Quoting lines from Cheech and Chong movies, declaring that Mexico should be a U.S. territory and touting his railroad theme and Monopoly board plan as a way to incentivize new business left the audience dumbfounded.”

Scott could shake up the Reading Redevelopment Authority, where apparently two men have worked full time for years, trying to sell a 50-acre plot.

People have also told me about the friendly relationship between Scott and the new City Hall reporter, Dan Kelly. I hope it’s friendly AND professional. Reading needs better journalism.