Slatington residents questioned borough council meeting this week about the way meetings are conducted, and minutes are taken.

Resident George Moyer asked why comments he had made at a Sept. 29 special public meeting regarding the sewer budget had not been recorded in minutes.Vice President Gwyneth Neff said she presumed, if Moyer had not been standing at the podium and given his name and address that night, that was likely why his comments had not been included. She suggested he make a point of coming to the podium in the future in order to make comments "a matter of public opinion."Moyer also asked, "So why don't you allow us to make comments later on in the meeting rather than at the beginning, because we don't know what you're going to discuss up here?"Afterward, resident Ed Ziegler said he knew of an act, but couldn't remember its number, which required that when anything comes up for vote, council is supposed to ask if there is any public comment on it.Next, resident Mel Gildner said he and his wife had looked over a 280-page "Customer Detail Report by Number" regarding sewer and water rates throughout the borough.He said that after studying it, he and his wife had discovered a way the borough could make an extra $50,000 per quarter by taking on 250-plus new customers.When Neff asked Gildner where he had gotten the customer report, which Neff had handed directly to former councilwoman Kris Burek upon her request at a meeting in October, Burek said from the audience that she had given Gildner the report.When Neff said the report was only intended for Burek and "not to spread throughout," Burek said it had no confidentiality listing on it.Neff then said, "This just shows how you're all in cahoots. ... It amazes me how you all feel that there is a conspiracy in the borough."Burek said Neff's usage of the word "cahoots" implied "something malicious" and that they are simply "searching for facts."Though Councilman Jon Rinker strongly disagreed with Gildner's assertion that so much money could be made from modified water and sewer rates, he did try to discuss the matter in further detail, including allowing Burek, who had not previously signed in, to come to the podium.However, the conversation involved eventually became a back-and-forth verbal exchange between Burek and Neff, with Neff finally saying that if Burek was not happy with the borough, she had every right to move out of it."It's always the same five who come," Neff said. "If there was an issue with sewer and water, this arena would be packed."Burek said no one else comes because they are "tired of banging their heads against a wall."Later Police Chief David Rachman said, "I'm not saying who's right, who's wrong, it doesn't really matter. But the democratic process is (that) you elect officials to run the business of your municipality. If you're unhappy with the way that they're running it or you think something is illegal about it, then you take those appropriate actions to remove those people from office, or you vote in new people or you find other candidates. And that's how it's done. Things aren't run by public opinion, elections are. But the business of the borough is in the hands of, for better or for worse, the people who sit on council."