Near-brawl erupts at Niles council meeting tonight

NILES

Embarrasing. Disgusting. Disgraceful.

Those words, voiced by city council members, accurately describe nearly 45 turbulent and occasionally tense minutes during tonight's council meeting. The verbal conflict began with several union representatives yelling angry accusations at council and reached its nadir when Service Director James DePasquale nearly came to blows with a resident who called him “a liar.”

The hostilities permeated the period set aside for public comments. When George Kuriatnyk, who was previously the object of an unsuccessful attempt at a protection order, leveled the “liar” accusation at DePasquale, the service director jumped up and tried to get to his antagonist. Acting police Chief Jay Holland blocked DePasquale from engaging Kuriatnyk in a fight.

The near-brawl followed emotional and occasionally loud comments from public employee union leaders who angrily criticized council for not acting on a union proposal to transfer employees out of the deficit-ridden general fund into positions paid by enterprise funds.

Overshadowed by the raucous session was an announcement from Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia that he has ordered all department heads, court employees and non-union workers to begin paying a portion of their health care premiums.

Read more about the meeting in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.