Johnstown City Council met Wednesday night, but not every council member stuck around come voting time.
Councilman Jack Williams walked out before any votes on ordinances or resolutions were made.
Both he and Councilwoman Charlene Stanton showed up wearing life preservers and carrying oars with signs that read “debt”, “code enforcement” and “ethics.”
Stanton told WTAJ that they dressed like that because they will “continue to ‘paddle’ against the status quo and stand firm to our convictions.”
Council discussed ways to make the meetings, which are notoriously long, shorter and more efficient.
Council approved an ordinance for first read that would limit public comments for residents to five minutes each and add time for groups and organizations to address the council.
Councilwoman Sylvia King said one meeting a month is not enough. She said adding council workshops would cut down on confusion and discussion time.
Safety was another big topic.
Council voted against moving curfew up to 8 p.m. for unsupervised minors, saying it would be hard to enforce and might penalize children who haven’t done anything wrong.
Council members also agreed to ask state police to help patrol the city when extra help is needed.
City Council agreed to let city police participate with the county drug task force that’s now run by Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office.
Given recent crime throughout the city, including deadly shootings of teenagers, council members said the new task force agreement comes at a critical time.
“I love Johnstown. Johnstown has so many great things happening for it. Yes, we are going through a bad period, but we’re not the only city. And I think people have to remember that,” said Councilwoman Rev. Sylvia King.
With the lack of resources financially for our city and other municipalities and boroughs, we’ve got to work together,” said Mayor Frank Janakovic.
Council also said they’d like more input from youth in the city. They hope the Junior City Council will attend meetings in the future.
The next city council meeting is scheduled for March 14.