Ben Kafferlin came to Lansford last week with a message.

Kafferlin told council that as he opened the door to the borough building, he heard a “domestic dispute” with people screaming at each other outside.

And he began delivering something council hasn’t heard in a long time: a sermon.

Not a lecture.

Not a report.

A sermon.

Standing in front of council and a handful of the regulars who show up, Kafferlin spoke with the cadence of a Sunday preacher.

He urged Lansford’s leaders to confront the truth they’ve avoided for years, that the borough’s biggest problem isn’t financial, structural or administrative.

It’s cultural.

And he made it clear as a bell.

“It’s the fact that nobody here can seem to get along,” he said, later adding, “That kind of culture is not conducive to governance or any kind of progress.”

Kafferlin said his firm, hired as part of the state’s Strategic Management Planning Program, could make all kinds of recommendations to make Lansford better, but they won’t help without cooperation.

His message wasn’t sugarcoated.

“That’s the elephant in the room,” he said.

He told council that trust in Lansford is so broken that even the most precise wording gets twisted into suspicion.

He said resentment has grown to the point where meaningful communication is almost impossible.

And he told them that no policy templates, no revenue options and no technology upgrades will fix anything until the people in the room fix themselves.

Anyone who’s familiar with Lansford knows that the elephant Kafferlin referenced has been trumpeting for a long time.

But those who have the power to make worthwhile change — councils past and present — have been so busy sniping, shouting and arguing that they’ve reduced local politics into a wild wedding reception where everyone looks for the spot on the bride’s dress.

Wednesday’s meeting was a perfect example.

Before Kafferlin spoke, council accepted the single-sentence resignation letter of Jack Soberick, who’s been hounded for his perceived non-attendance. His absence spoke volumes.

Soberick was the second council member to resign this year.

George Gilbert, appointed as council president at its January reorganization, resigned after just two weeks in the post, citing “persistent conflict, limited collaboration and an overall lack of mutual respect” that “created conditions that hinder productive decision making and positive progress for the borough.”

Harassment and hostility from certain citizens, he said, had “taken a significant personal toll.”

Maybe Gilbert was onto something.

After Kafferlin left the session, the wheels came off the meeting.

On Wednesday, council member Bruce Markovich raised a letter from code officer Shane Monk, who claimed he was working in a “hostile environment.”

What followed was the familiar Lansford spiral: talking over one another, contradicting one another and arguing about who approved what and when.

Every answer sparked another argument. The solicitor — admonished by a resident earlier in the meeting for giving bad advice — was asked to attend an executive session on the matter.

That said, on Sept. 16, a marathon council session begins at 4:30 p.m. with Monk, then continues at 5 p.m. for interviews of five candidates to fill a vacant staff post. The treasurer resigned a few weeks ago, too. A special meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Who knows how long that will last?

A session that long is enough to make anyone walk out.

And with the clock ticking just past 9 p.m. last Wednesday, Council member Joe Butrie did exactly that. “I’m done,” he said, heading for the door.

It was just one example of the dysfunction that Kafferlin described minutes before.

Lansford council has a record.

The shouting matches, the walkouts, accusations of bias, personality clashes and even an alleged confrontation between a council member and a police officer.

It all wastes precious time that could be used focusing on real issues.

Lansford’s long-standing problems — blight, staffing shortages, pension issues and infrastructure needs — aren’t unsolvable. They’re just unsolvable in a room where every disagreement becomes a grudge with every word under a microscope and responses coming from razor-sharpened tongues.

Kafferlin’s message to council was one of PEACE — Positive Energy Activates Constant Elevation.

That acronym is a foreign concept in Lansford.

He hinted at hope, professing his belief that they are leaders who care deeply about the community.

Caring isn’t effective, though, especially if it doesn’t involve cooperating and communicating and sharing that sentiment to make things better.

Instead, the cacophony continues in council chambers.

The elephant in the room is trumpeting louder than ever.

And the only way there’ll be peace and progress in Lansford is if everyone — including council and community members — stops feeding it.

ED SOCHA |

tneditor@tnonline.com

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 45 years’ experience in community journalism.