DV Journal

Former Yeadon Police Chief Anthony “Chachi” Paparo settled a reverse discrimination case with the borough for $2.5 million.

Paparo, 60, claimed in his lawsuit that former Council President Sharon Council-Harris, former Vice President Learin Johnson, and former council members Tomeka Jones-Waters and Carlette Brooks decided to get rid of him because Paparo is White and the town is 90 percent Black.

Paparo says he believes he could have been awarded more if the case had gone to trial, but he decided to settle because he didn’t want to bankrupt the small borough and harm the residents, of whom he remains very fond.

“I didn’t want to be at the point where we went to court and Yeadon got hit with a verdict, like the Starbucks thing, $25 million and then Yeadon doesn’t exist anymore,” Paparo told DVJournal.

In June 2023, a jury ordered Starbucks to pay $25 million to a Philadelphia store manager who claimed she was fired because she was White.

He also appreciated other council members who came forward in depositions and “talked about what these four (council members) were doing when they could have easily remained mute. But instead, they had the courage to come forward and say, ‘Hey, you know what? They’re firing this guy because he’s a White guy.’ And that’s one of the things I’ll never forget.”

Also, in February 2022, more than 1,000 residents signed a petition supporting Paparo. They opposed him “being targeted by the individual defendants because of the color of his skin,” Judge Michael M. Baylson wrote in his ruling to deny the borough’s motion to dismiss the case.

According to court records, some of the council members who wanted Paparo gone mentioned his race to other council members and that they wanted to replace him with a Black chief. They had also approached some Black officers to see if they’d be interested in the chief’s job. Ironically, the new chief, whom the council hired after sacking Paparo, was White.

Detractors pointed to a $287,000 settlement with the police union over part-time officers. Paparo used the part-timers to supplement the force during the COVID-19 epidemic and civil unrest in 2020.

On Feb. 27, 2022, Yeadon Council fired Paparo by a 4-3 vote. Council Member Liana Roadcloud said then that the vote was “about race. This is not about money.”

Paparo said he was deeply wounded by the damage to his reputation. The most difficult thing has been his inability to find another police job since Yeadon Council terminated him. He noted borough officials circulated a “Fast Facts” flyer about him to every residence in town and posted it online.

“For me, it wasn’t about the money. It was about getting my reputation back. I worked hard to build my career,” said Paparo.

Paparo said he applied for job after job without any luck. He believes potential employers would look him up online and read Yeadon’s allegations of mismanagement.

“To not even be considered for interviews when I’m applying is very, very hard to comprehend and a hard pill to swallow,” said Paparo. Although Paparo lives in Chester County, he applied for some 150 law enforcement jobs, looking in other states, as far away as South Carolina.

“It was completely about race,” Paparo said. “They got caught and had to come up with something, so they went back two years to find an FOP grievance that had nothing to do with what was going on. If it wasn’t for the courage of (the council members who supported him) and the community, I could have been just railroaded.”

Under the settlement agreement, Yeadon and the other defendants did not admit wrongdoing. The Yeadon Borough manager and solicitor did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyer Robert DiDomenicis, who represented the council member defendants, declined to comment.

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This piece first appeared in Broad + Liberty.

On November 20, 2022, FOX 29’s Steve Keeley reported that there were four homicides in just the last six weeks in the small Delaware County borough of Yeadon. As Keeley reported through his popular Twitter feed, that was more homicides than the entire four-plus year tenure of Yeadon Borough’s former Police Chief, Anthony “Chachi” Paparo. This is noteworthy because in February, Paparo was terminated by Yeadon’s Borough Council — an act Paparo alleges was done in order to replace him with an African American Police Chief, despite his having support from the Mayor, according to court filings in the federal discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Paparo and Lodge 27 of the Fraternal Order of Police in March.

Meanwhile, neighboring Philadelphia is facing another year of shocking violent crime. This comes three years after Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney proclaimed that he would appoint an African American woman as police commissioner before a national search for the most qualified, experienced applicants was conducted. The result was the appointment of Danielle Outlaw, whose prior commands were as a Deputy Police Chief in Oakland and as Chief of the Portland Police Bureau. Oakland, which has 709 sworn members and Portland, with 795 sworn members, both saw an increase of crime during Outlaw’s tenure.

Philadelphia, with over 6,300 sworn members, is the nation’s fourth-largest police department, over nine times the size of Outlaw’s largest command. Since Kenney’s 2019 appointment of Outlaw, murders has shot up from 356 to 562 in 2021, with over 470 officially reported in 2022 so far, not counting over 103 “S-job” (suspicious deaths) which are likely to add to the official homicide tally at a later date. One must wonder if Kenney’s decision to restrict his search for commissioner within narrow gender and racial characteristics was prudent considering the life-and-death implications of the job.

In both Yeadon and Philadelphia, the harsh reality of murder rates raises questions as to the accountability of those charged with public safety – from both law enforcement executives and the elected politicians who oversee their appointment and the fair administration of justice. Traditionally, the appointment of police chiefs and commissioners was completely in the discretion of the Mayor or County Executive. As crime was always a major issue for which politicians were held accountable, these elected leaders historically ranked political optics behind track records when making appointments in this regard.

Outlaw’s last boss, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was quoted in a Philadelphia magazine piece on Outlaw saying “This position is inherently political, not in a partisan manner, but in the sense that it is under public scrutiny and maintaining public trust is done in a political environment. You have good instincts and judgment already, but learning more about political history and relationships in Portland is important to being successful in the position in the long term.” Ironically, Outlaw only served for two years as Portland’s police chief before leaving for Philadelphia. What’s more disturbing, as crime has emerged as a key issue in daily news coverage, is that there has been no public discussion of Outlaw’s effectiveness in her role, despite rising crime and scandals within her ranks.

Which brings us back to Yeadon. Last month, a federal judge denied the borough council’s motion to dismiss Paparo’s lawsuit against them. If the suit is successful, it will be one of the first to create case law on using identity politics, in this case race, to appoint and/or terminate a law enforcement executive.  The suit alleges the four individual defendants decided that Yeadon is “a black town,” and that that representation should be reflected with a black chief of police.

The suit claims Johnson called Yeadon Police Detective Ferdie Ingram on the morning of Jan. 3 to offer him the job, but he declined. Ingram allegedly told Johnson that he already had a police chief he supported. That support was also apparent in the community, the suit notes, with 1,100 people signing a Change.org petition aimed at keeping Paparo in the role. Paparo originally alleged four counts for violations of his equal employment and equal protection rights in a suit filed March 7, as well as a violation for failing to provide him with a fair and impartial due process hearing under the 14th Amendment.

He later added defamation, retaliation and false light claims following distribution of the flier titled “Ten Fast Facts Yeadon Residents Want to Know,” which he said was sent out to residents at taxpayer expense. The flier, attached as evidence to the amended complaint, notes that the same council members accused of racism in removing Paparo were actually the ones who hired him to begin with, over three other qualified Black candidates. Yeadon Mayor Rohan Hepkins appeared on the Dom Giordano radio show on November 21, 2022, as a defender of Chief Paparo, noting that he would like to see Council bring Paparo back in light of their recent spike in homicides.

The events leading up to Kenney’s appointment of Outlaw in 2019 present similar questions. Mere weeks after being heralded a hero in his handling of an hours-long hostage siege in where six police officers were shot, Richard Ross abruptly resigned as Philadelphia Police Commissioner. While the resignation came in the wake of a sexual harassment suit (Ross wasn’t the alleged harasser,) sources within the Philadelphia Police Department noted friction between Ross and Kenney, specifically over Ross’ unwillingness to fire officers for a social media scandal in where no specific department protocols were violated, and differences over the use of the bully pulpit regarding District Attorney Larry Krasner’s radical charging and bail policies.

As an interim appointee, Kenney tapped Deputy Commissioner Christine Coulter as Police Commissioner. Coulter, a career Philadelphia police officer whose start patrolling the streets of Kensington was documented in a 1991 episode of the series “Cops”, was well regarded by the rank and file of the department. However, it was shortly in Coulter’s tenure that Kenney publicly declared his decision to hire an African American woman to lead the department, which narrowed a national field to only three clear choices – Outlaw, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, and Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall.

Shortly thereafter, Outlaw was appointed, leaving many to wonder if the choice had anything to do with both Hall and Best’s strong reputations for speaking truth to power over their elected managers, especially in response to politically based decisions over law enforcement and termination of officers.

Hopefully, the outcome of Chief Paparo’s lawsuit or simply through public scrutiny in the upcoming election year – we can help local politicians remember that public safety appointments are too vital for our society to make using identity politics.

Personally, growing up in New York through the “crack explosion,” I recall the historic appointment of Lee Brown. He was the first African American Police Chief in Houston, then became NYPD Commissioner, and then returned to Houston as their first black Mayor. There is nothing wrong with firsts, but with something as vital as assuring the public safety of a major American city – you also have to be the best.

This is why we have laws that govern race and gender discrimination in employment, because the hiring and firing of people based on race is not only hurtful for the employees in the organization – but may result in further victimization of an already at-risk community.

A. Benjamin Mannes, MA, CPP, CESP, is a Subject Matter Expert in Security & Criminal Justice Reform based on his own experiences on both sides of the criminal justice system. He has served as a federal and municipal law enforcement officer and was the former Director, Office of Investigations with the American Board of Internal Medicine. @PublicSafetySME

Anthony “Chachi” Paparo, who was fired from his job as police chief in Yeadon Borough, contends the town council terminated him because of his race. He is White, and the borough residents are 90 percent, Black.

The council members wanted a “Black chief for a Black town,” Paparo told the Delaware Valley Journal during a podcast recorded the day after he was fired.

Paparo’s lawyer filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Monday against the borough and the council members who voted to terminate him: Council President Sharon Council-Harris, Vice President Learin Johnson, Council President Pro Tempore Tomeka Jones-Waters, and Council Member Carlette Brooks

Paparo is seeking monetary damages, lost wages, and his old job back according to his lawyer, Harold Goodman.

“Here, each of the individual defendants agreed and conspired with one another to terminate plaintiff Paparo’s employment as chief of police of Yeadon Borough on account of his race, White, and in order to hire a Black chief to replace him,” the suit said.

Paparo’s race never mattered, the suit said, until the new group of council members was voted into office last year.

“To them, Yeadon was a Black town, and they wanted a Black chief of police to replace plaintiff Paparo. And they plotted and conspired to achieve that result even before they took office on January 3, 2022,” the suit said. The council voted 4-3 to fire Paparo at a Feb. 17 hearing after a “due process” proceeding. The lawsuit claims the due process hearing was not fair.

“It was a sham proceeding, the votes to fire him already cast and known beforehand,” the suit said. “Moreover, it occurred among false and defamatory charges that Chief Paparo was guilty of money mismanagement and wage theft in connection with the borough’s collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police.”

More than 1,000 people signed a petition supporting Paparo, and many came to that meeting with signs expressing their support of “Chief Chachi.”

Paparo was part of the Love is the Answer movement, which seeks to build better relationships between the police and communities of color. Paparo told DVJournal he worked hard to help the community, for example, by providing animal control services with his traps and putting up deer fences for elderly residents himself.

“It’s another way to meet people other than just through a 911 call for an emergency or an accident, or you’re a crime victim, or you’re having a problem with your neighbor,” he said. “I’m coming there. We’re just talking, one on one human to human, and then interacting.”

Meanwhile, “before they were sworn in, the four individual defendants had already decided that because Yeadon was ‘a Black town,’ they would terminate the employment of Chief Paparo and replace him with a Black chief of police,” the suit said.

The council members who had decided to fire Paparo offered him three months’ salary if he would resign. Paparo declined that offer, the suit said. As a “pretext” to get rid of him, council members blamed Paparo for a $387,000 settlement with the FOP over overtime paid to part-time officers during the pandemic, the suit said.

The suit points out town officials agreed to that amount as part of an arbitration settlement, and Paparo had never seen the consent decree until the day he was fired.

Supporters of Paparo’s firing had an oversized copy of the check on display at a Feb. 10 council meeting.

“Not a single witness testified against Chief Paparo. Not a single document was introduced to support the majority’s decision. Indeed, not a single question was put to Chief Paparo in response to his lengthy, detailed account of his accomplishments, his dedication to the town of Yeadon, and the reasons why he, with the mayor’s approval, hired part-time officers to help keep Yeadon safe during periods of significant staff shortages and during the civil unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder and the COVID-19 epidemic that roiled Yeadon and its adjacent communities,” the suit said.

“Paparo has suffered irreparable harm to his unblemished reputation for honesty and integrity, a reputation built over the 37 years he has served as a law enforcement officer. That reputation, so consistently built and reinforced, was taken away in the flash of a 4-3 vote based on the false premise, lacking in any due process, that he was guilty of money mismanagement and wage theft, a scar from which he cannot recover,” the suit said.

Retired Upper Darby Police Chief Mike Chitwood had promoted Paparo to captain when he worked in Upper Darby before coming to Yeadon.

“He was a very, very good cop, excellent,” said Chitwood. “He was in charge of SWAT.”

“If you fire somebody because of the color of their skin, that’s not appropriate,” said Chitwood. “That’s not fair, and it’s absolutely insane.”

But if there was a budgetary reason, that would be a different story, he said.

“Obviously, they’re denying they fired him because of racism,” said Chitwood.

The borough’s public information officer referred the Delaware Valley Journal to a “fact sheet” that was sent to every household, saying that Paparo had violated the FOP agreement, among other issues that led to his dismissal.

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Anthony “Chachi” Paparo, who was ousted by Yeadon council Thursday evening from his job as the borough police chief, told the Delaware Valley Journal podcast Friday he may file for an injunction against the township to prevent the borough from hiring a permanent replacement for his former job, until after litigation is completed.

“The reason I was being terminated, the reason that I was going to be let go is because they wanted a Black chief, this new council wanted a Black chief for the Black town,” he said.

Paparo contends the council violated his civil rights and due process rights, but he wants his job back and does not want to “harm the residents of Yeadon.” Yeadon solicitor Mark Much did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

“I want to come back to…continue to carry out what we were doing,” he said. Paparo was part of the Love is the Answer movement, which seeks to build better relationships between the police and communities of color. Paparo told the DVJounal that he worked hard to help the community, for example, providing animal control services with his own traps and putting up deer fences for elderly residents himself.

“It’s another way to meet people other than just through a 911 call for an emergency or an accident, or you’re a crime victim or you’re having a problem with your neighbor,” he said. “I’m coming there. We’re just talking, one on one human to  human and then interacting.”

“And, when I tell you that the, uh, the narrative of the strains between police and communities of color is not what’s going on in Yeadon,” he said. “We, we are there sign of hope for in the world that that’s how much positive stuff.”

“I don’t do anything based on the color of someone’s skin,” he said. “And I don’t think that because it’s a majority Black town that that needs to be a requirement or even something to look at. I mean, if, if, if I wasn’t doing the job, if I wasn’t uniting the community…”

Paparo contends that when a new group of borough council members were elected, they decided to fire him and hire a Black chief to replace him. Yeadon is a majority Black community.

However, more than a 1,000 residents returned his love, signing a petition and coming to council meetings to tell the council members to keep Paparo as chief. People in the community were “coming out and droves” (to support him), he said.

Instead, the council used a financial premise regarding police overtime as reason to fire him. Council President Sharon Council-Harris cited a $387,000 fine that arose out of an overtime-related grievance with the Fraternal Order of Police as the reason for the chief’s dismissal.

Hpwever. lawyer Harold Goodman said the consent order the borough entered into over the fine had a no-fault clause and it was unfair to saddle Paparo with blame. He called the fine a “pretext” and a “coverup” for the council’s real motivation to get rid of Paparo.

In the podcast Friday with the Delaware Valley Journal, Paparo said that he learned the new council members were talking about replacing him with a Black chief of police last year but did not take it seriously.

His reaction to what happened?

“I’ll be honest with you. It destroyed me,” said Paparo.

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“Vote them out! Vote them out! Vote them out!”

That was the chant from an angry, standing-room-only crowd as Yeadon Borough council members at a special meeting Thursday night as it voted to oust Police Chief Anthony “Chachi” Paparo after four years in the position.

“This night will go down as a day of infamy,” Yeadon Borough Mayor Rohan Hepkins said.

It was an end Paparo and his supporters saw coming. A newly-elected Black majority led by Council President Sharon Council-Harris made it clear they were poised to remove the popular law-enforcement officer, who is white, at a meeting a week ago.

The vote was delayed to give Paparo a chance to defend himself against allegations that his financial bungling of the department cost the borough $387,000.

Council members sat through a two-hour due-process hearing for the former 32-year veteran Upper Darby police officer before voting to terminate him and replace him.

The chief’s camp promised to sue the borough over the decision, and his backers believe the decision to remove him was racially motivated.

Paparo’s attorney, Harold Goodman, cited internal conversations among councilmembers regarding replacing Paparo with a Black colleague who fits the demographics of the majority Black municipality of 11,500 in Delaware County.

A legislator phoned one of Paparo’s detectives and offered him the job, telling him to draw up contract details of what he expected, Goodman said. The mayor picked Lt. Shawn Burns as interim police chief.

Giving a detailed timeline of events that included a meeting to offer the chief a three-month buyout, Goodman asked the four council members who ultimately voted to remove Paparo to recuse themselves. He said their impartiality was in question as they basically accused the chief of “wage theft” and were acting as both “judge and executioner.”

He called the due-process hearing a sham, claiming borough solicitor Mark Much was in touch with police union officials the day before the hearing about finding a replacement. Much claimed it “never happened.”

Dressed in dark slacks, a collared shirt and tie with his badge and gun clipped to his hip, Paparo pleaded his case as his wife stood by his side. For about 30 minutes, he recounted how the department changed for the better under his leadership.

Council President Sharon Council-Harris cited a $387,000 fine that arose out of a grievance with the Fraternal Order of Police as the reason for the chief’s dismissal.

Goodman said the consent order the borough entered into over the fine had a no-fault clause and it was unfair to saddle Paparo with blame. He called the fine a “pretext” and a “coverup” for the council’s real motivation to get rid of Paparo.

Paparo explained that staff shortages in 2019 and 2020, during the height of the pandemic and civil unrest, caused him to apparently go over the number of hours designated for part-time officers. Some of those part-time officers became full-time hires, Paparo said, adding the contract language was unclear and he would have been vindicated if the grievance went to arbitration.

“It doesn’t work today in this environment,” he said, holding up the collective bargaining agreement.

Paparo said any staffing decisions he made were first run by Mayor Rohan Hepkins.

“He said, ‘Do what you gotta do,'” Paparo said.

Paparo admitted being stung when he walked into the last meeting and saw the oversized check with the amount of the fine prominently displayed at the front of the room.

“That destroyed me,” Paparo said. “There was no reason to humiliate me that night by putting that check up. That was beyond wrong. It was despicable.”

Paparo concluded with a simple “Do what you will,” before walking away from the podium and embracing his attorney.

Councilwoman Liana Roadcloud, who is Black, said it was disingenuous for colleagues to claim the chief’s removal was financially motivated. She accused colleagues of frivolously spending taxpayer money on reimbursements for hotel stays and lunches.

“It is about race. It’s not about money,” she said. “It’s a damn shame.”

Supporters felt so strongly about the chief’s leadership that more than 1,000 people signed a petition to keep him on the job, saying he made the community stronger and safer. They packed two meetings, recounting stories about the chief’s commitment to the borough.

One woman told legislators her 11-year-old son wanted to “grow up to be like the chief.”

“This man is not sitting behind a desk. This man is out on the streets keeping us safe,” she said.

Hepkins said it was unfair to hold the chief solely accountable since he is the chief executive of the borough.

“I’m embarrassed for Yeadon,” he said.

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Anthony Paparo remembered walking into his first roll call as a police officer in Upper Darby. Another officer saw the fresh-faced rookie and remarked that he looked like “Chachi” from the sitcom “Happy Days.”

The nickname stuck with Paparo, who retired with the rank of captain after serving 32 years as a law enforcement officer in Upper Darby. He went on to become police chief of Yeadon Borough in 2018, striving to foster harmony between police and residents in the predominantly Black borough of 11,500 in Delaware County.

Having seen happier days, Yeadon is now caught up in a controversy over Paparo’s future as police chief. It has become a flashpoint in a debate over race and social justice that has divided residents against a faction of Black council members who appeared poised to oust the longtime law-enforcement official, who is White.

At a special council meeting Thursday night, Paparo’s camp rushed to his defense. Several people gave impassioned remarks and held up signs that read, “Keep Chief Chachi.” An online petition garnered more than 1,000 signatures for Paparo, who residents said ushered in changes that made the borough safer and more secure.

Critics point to the chief’s alleged financial foibles at the helm of the 21-person department. An oversized check for $387,000 prominently displayed at the meeting, representing a fine opponents say he stuck borough taxpayers with through mismanagement.  There was also a placard with a blownup excerpt from The Philadelphia Inquirer that said Paparo had been “repeatedly warned” taxpayers would be on the hook if he continued using too many part-time officers to supplement the force during the public health crisis and civil unrest of the last two years.

One speaker, an attorney, turned the alleged faulty evidence around and accused council members of using it as a propaganda tool to influence citizens without giving them “an opportunity to be heard.”

“Sir, you are not recognized,” Council President Sharon Council-Harris said.

“I am going to be recognized in court,” the man fired back.

In an interview with Delaware Valley Journal before the meeting, Paparo said he believed the allegations against him were a “smokescreen” for the council’s actual motive to get rid of him.

The chief said he began hearing rumors of his pending firing about a year ago, but dismissed them as borough scuttlebutt. Those rumblings, he said, came into sharp focus in January when Council-Harris and three colleagues were voted into office and took control of the borough council.

Soon after, Councilwoman Learin Johnson phoned one of Paparo’s Black subordinates to ask whether he was interested in taking over as chief. Paparo said he learned of the conversation from the detective who confided in him about the phone call.

Paparo’s supporters say the call is evidence that a desire to remove him is racially motivated, the Inquirer reported. It cited conversations with Yeadon Mayor Rohan Hepkins and Councilwoman Liana Roadcloud, who told the newspaper Johnson “specifically mentioned Paparo’s race” during conversations about ousting him.

Paparo said he was offered a three-month buyout to resign but declined, forcing a political showdown.

“I’m a cop. I don’t do politics,” he said. “I’m putting it in God’s hands.”

The Council-Harris faction was believed to have the votes needed to fire Paparo and seemed poised to do so Thursday.

After convening in executive session for more than 15 minutes to discuss the personnel move, council members, in a surprising twist, halted the vote. After consulting with the township solicitor and Paparo’s attorneys, who asked for the chief to be given a chance to defend himself against the allegations at a future hearing, the council agreed. The council moved to give Paparo a due process hearing.

“Chief Paparo needs to be afforded due process, and he will be,” Hepkins said.

The move followed a spirited debate about the chief’s character and qualifications to continue leading the borough police, with many speakers giving testimonials about his leadership and kind demeanor.

One longtime Black resident told council members Paparo was a genuine person who once came to his house and tossed around a football with his son.

“If ya’ll want perfect, you need Jesus up in here,” he said. “Is he a good person who does a little bad? I think this person here is a good person.”

Others cited Paparo’s efforts to improve racial relations in the borough. He hosts an online radio show to keep the community informed about what his officers are doing, and he started a “love garden” to bring residents together. As chief, he also screened a movie for officers and residents to learn about the pitfalls of racial profiling and how to guard against it.

“The color of a person’s skin shouldn’t be predicated on what they can do for a community. I think it’s important to diversify a department,” Paparo said. “I think one of the problems this world creates is problems for individuals of ethnic origins to want to be a cop based on everything that’s going on. [It’s hard] trying to good guys to apply when you’re talking about defunding the police, removing qualified immunity.”

Some speakers took the council members to task over perceptions they were targeting Paparo because of the color of his skin. Council-Harris fought back against those claims.

“I wasn’t born a bigot,” she said during the meeting.

Council-Harris, who did not respond to messages from DVJournal, told The Inquirer that her rationale for ousting the chief is because he cost the township a $387,000 fine as part of a Fraternal Order of Police grievance.

In 2019 and 2020, he hired part-time officers to supplement the force but “exceeded the number of hours” that were designated for extra help, violating a provision in the union’s collective bargaining agreement, the outlet reported.

Paparo defended his decision saying he needed to hire those part-time officers to ensure the borough was protected during the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest.

“If it comes down to $387,000 to make sure my town is safe, it was money well spent,” he said.

Residents said there are better ways to correct the issues, like possibly putting Paparo on an improvement plan with outlined benchmarks and consequences if he doesn’t adhere to them. Others called on power-hungry politicians to resign saying they lacked “character and ability” to do their jobs impartially and were running the borough “like a dictatorship” by ousting Paparo.

For now, Paparo’s future remains in the air.

“I don’t see color. They don’t see color,” Paparo said of borough residents. “I see family. And they see family.”

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