LAWRENCE COUNTY Injunction delays naming of Union Twp. supervisor

The two supervisors can't agree on who should fill the vacancy.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Union Township Supervisor Steve Galizia won a temporary injunction that forces township officials to wait until he returns from vacation before having a meeting to name a new supervisor.
Judge Ralph Pratt of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court issued the order after a hearing Thursday morning. He ordered the meeting to be postponed until 3 p.m. next Thursday.
Galizia had asked that the meeting be postponed because he will not be available until next week. But Supervisor Kevin Guinaugh and Mickey DeLeone, township vacancy board member, had set a meeting for 3 p.m. Thursday.
Deciding vote
DeLeone must cast the deciding vote for a supervisor to serve until the end of the year because Guinaugh and Galizia have been unable to agree on a replacement for Supervisor Ralph Nuzzo, who died in April.
Galizia's attorney, James Kearney, told the judge that Galazia informed Guinaugh that he would only be available on June 2 for a meeting.
Kearney also asked that DeLeone be excused from the vacancy board because he is an employee of the township sewer authority.
Kearney said allowing DeLeone to vote on a new supervisor would in essence allow him to appoint his employer.
Kearney said township supervisors appoint members of the sewage authority who are the direct employers of DeLeone.
Township attorney Richard Flannery argued that Galizia's attempt to stop the meeting was an effort to drag out the appointment of a new supervisor.
The vacancy board has until June 6 to appoint a new supervisor or the matter would be turned over to common pleas court.
Flannery added that Galazia wasn't concerned about DeLeone's status as a sewage authority employee when he voted to appoint DeLeone to the vacancy board in January.