Reading Eagle should demand that new mayor explain firing

by Steve Reinbrecht

The Reading Eagle is right to choose Wally Scott, Reading’s new mayor, as top of the list of people to watch in 2016.

  

I hope the newspaper itself will be reporting his actions.

It could start with why Scott fired David Kersley on Monday, Scott’s first day on the job.

Kersley, the city’s business analyst, apparently announced his termination on FaceBook about 5 p.m.

He was hired under Mayor Tom McMahon in December 2009, and has an MBA.

National Public Radio featured Kersley as somebody arriving to turn the city around.

“In Reading, there was even a box of checks sitting uncashed in somebody's office. It was discovered by David Kersley, another expert called in from outside to help Reading.

“Kersley found the checks through one technique he uses to understand how a city functions: Sometimes he'll imagine himself as a piece of paperwork, and walk himself through the system.”

As part of his job, he wrote articles for the Reading Eagle explaining policy .

Monday evening, I could find no mention of him on the Reading City Hall website.

I haven’t read an interview by anybody asking Wally Scott whom else he plans to fire.