Penn Hills deputy mayor calls for removal of economic development committee chair
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Small-town politics has reared its ugly head again in Penn Hills.
Penn Hills Deputy Mayor Catherine Sapp accused Tyler Tomasino of the “shameful” and “unacceptable” creation of a political cartoon that ended up on social media days before the Nov. 5 municipal election. She said the Economic Development Committee chairman should be removed from that board for it.
The cartoon draws from the movie poster of the 1985 cult classic film “The Goonies.” The post is entitled “The Sequel: Tony’s Cronies,” referring to State Rep. Tony DeLuca (D-Penn Hills).
The faces of the movie’s characters were replaced with mugs of DeLuca, Planning Commissioner Jerry Chiappinelli, Mayor-elect Pauline Calabrese, Councilman-elect Frank Pecora and Sapp.
Each political figure also received a nickname. Sapp’s was “Cathy ‘Deputy Dip Sh*t’ Sapp.”
When reached over the phone, Tomasino neither confirmed nor denied creating the cartoon.
Tomasino, a council candidate in the primary, was a supporter of Councilman John Petrucci’s candidacy for Penn Hills mayor and helped on his campaign team. He was appointed to the Economic Development Committee in the fall of 2018.
Specifically, Sapp does not like the cartoon creator’s use of profanity and she resents its message.
“I am a woman who walks in my own two shoes and makes my own decisions,” she said.
Sapp, the municipality’s only minority council member, said the cartoon was circulated on Facebook days before a municipal election where Penn Hills voters selected Calabrese to be the municipality’s new mayor.
She said she didn’t know who originally posted it. But Sapp herself was one of the people who shared it on her personal Facebook account.
Her Oct. 31 post was meant to pit voters against Petrucci, who ran against Calabrese. Sapp supported Calabrese through her candidacy.
Sapp alluded to a racially charged motivation behind the creation of the cartoon. In one of her comments attached to the post, she wrote: “Low life seeking power to shame the people and the blacks!”
“My name is the only one with profanity. I don’t use that type of language. I’ve never disrespected our Penn Hills residents, I’m polite to them all. I demand that same respect … if he thinks that way, I hope it’s because he dislikes my character and not the color of my skin,” she said.
Richard Stafford, a service professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College said Sapp’s effort to remove Tomasino is totally within her and council’s discretion. However, his suggestion is to count the votes before making another motion.
“Otherwise, you do have the danger of embarrassing yourself” through a political backfiring, he said. “These kinds of spats, so to speak, are very typical of state and national politics … but all politics is local. It gets really back and forth. It sounds to me like one of those examples, where the relationships are bad.”
He said it would be wise for council to establish a code of conduct for elected and appointed officials – which differs from a code of ethics – which is currently on the table.
According to Penn Hills’ codified ordinances, the municipality has a code of ethics and conduct for its employees, but not for elected and appointed officials.
The proposed code of ethics addresses conduct, in part: “The people have a right to expect that every public official and employee will conduct himself in a manner that will tend to preserve confidence for the government he represents.”
“Penn Hills should have its own ‘code of ethics and conduct’ to guide behavior,” Stafford said. “Note that the state ethics law is the minimum requirement, but municipalities can go beyond.”
The professor said council should convene to outline certain acceptable behavior.
“They could even go on a council retreat after elections to create better relationships to get out of this unnecessary — or destructive — conflict. This just sounds like name-calling,” Stafford said.
Petrucci, in an interview with the Tribune-Review, said there is no proof Tomasino was the creator of the poster and that he doesn’t remember how the cartoon ended up on social media.
“The only thing (Tomasino) did was share it,” Petrucci said, initially stating Tomasino shared it on Facebook. He then desired to retract that statement and said Tomasino only shared it through a text message.
When asked how the cartoon ended up on Facebook, Petrucci said he doesn’t remember. He also said he had no knowledge of any campaign assistants creating such a cartoon.
“But this is trivial,” he said. “A lot of stuff happened during that campaign. My signs were stolen, they wreaked havoc on my signs and I think some of them cut my face out of them. I have a good idea who did this, but I can’t prove it.”
He said politics should be left out of council chambers. But if Sapp wants to play that game, he said, Chiappinelli should be removed from the Penn Hills Planning Commission. Petrucci said Chiappinelli, the Penn Hills Democratic Committee Chair, mailed a negative political flier about him to 6,000 Penn Hills residents.
“Tit for tat,” he said. “It’s only fair.”
Sapp’s motion to remove Tomasino from the advisory board at a Nov. 18 council meeting never went to a vote because Mayor Sara Kuhn tabled it.
Council will meet at 7 p.m. on Dec. 2, 16 and 27 to hold public hearings on the municipality’s 2020 budget and vote on other items.