Several on Williamsport City Council are responding to the sentence — a year of probation — a former city administrator received upon conviction Monday in Dauphin County Court.
William E. Nichols Jr., 72, pleaded guilty to felony charges of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds (F2) and tampering with public records (F3) and received a year probation from a Dauphin County judge who also thanked him for his service to the city.
As council had to regretfully approve arranging a second and third payment of a combine $1.4 million to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), that was discovered to be required for repayment due to Nichols’ misappropriation of the federal transit grants, Council Vice President Eric Beiter insinuated that a “political vendetta” of Mayor Derek Slaughter against Nichols has placed the city in a “financial mess” in a PennLive article.
Beiter told the Sun-Gazette he did not excuse Nichols. Beiter said what Nichols did was wrong by shifting around grant funds and obfuscating the trail but he added that he thought there is a type of “closure” for him as well as for the city. He told PennLive he has every right to his opinion.
“On a personal level this is closure for Nichols and for the city,” said Beiter, who was among the first on council to express opposition to the repayment demand by the FTA, because he said the city had done everything it was asked for in terms of being cooperative and complying with every request the agency wanted from the city.
“I am torn between two aspects,” Beiter said. He added that he was torn because in his view evidence presented to the grand jury did not indicate any personal gain to Nichols through his action.
The judge indicated what Nichols did was done in a “altruistic” way for the benefit of the city and declined to give Nichols a sentence that included 40 hours of community service, which the prosecutor asked to have included in his sentence.
Councilwoman Bonnie Katz, who was quoted in the PennLive article saying a lot of people did not know all of what Nichols did for the city, also told the Sun-Gazette did not excuse Nichols for his actions.
City Controller Margaret Peg Woodring could not be reached for comment.
“It is fair to say that this $1.4 million FTA repayment has put the city closer to what is a clear financial dilemma,” Councilman Vince Pulizzi said.
Slaughter has suggested that Beiter and Katz resign over their support of the recently convicted Nichols, explaining the reasons in a comprehensive statement included in a column in today’s Sun-Gazette.
“I will just say that it is ridiculous that the guy responsible for the city being investigated for three-plus years, resulting in us (the City) having to pay back $1.4 million only has to call a phone number once a month for a year as his punishment,” Councilman Jon Mackey, chair of the public safety committee, said in a statement. “I also don’t think now is the time for infighting or requesting people resign, that won’t get us anywhere. I would say the only person who should resign is the judge in the Nichols case, especially if the reports are true that he thanked Bill for his years of service to the City at the end of the trial.”
“There’s nothing wrong with having the opinion that Bill Nichols served his community well and supporting him as an individual and former city employee, notably given the comments from the judge in the ruling that show signs of leniency in the case,” Council President Adam Yoder said in a statement. “In terms of the case and the investigation, the outcomes of the case don’t align with a lot of the expectations that the public narrative has set. When you have a situation like that, it’s fair to question the merits and motivations of the work. But that’s part of upholding the law, when something is brought forward sometimes there’s a gap between what’s expected versus what is actual. This will continue to be the case beyond our tenures in office and is the price of enforcing the law.”
“Suggesting anyone resign from office for simply having an opinion or expressing support for someone who’s been convicted of a crime falls short of the leadership we need right now, isn’t productive in solving the issues faced due to this investigation, and counters the longstanding tradition of second chances that make Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and America the greatest places to call home,” Yoder continued. “We’d be wise to respect opinions, keep our differences of opinion above board, and focus on the next steps we need to take to continue to position the city for success.”
