Last week the Times Herald reported that Borough Council fired Borough Manager Fran Marabella on Friday, March 14th after an unaminous vote taken two weeks prior.  Last night during a meeting of the Conshohocken Business Development Commission, council member Matt Ryan informed the commission that Marabella had in fact resigned and that Borough Council would accept his resignation during its March 19th meeting. The agenda for this meeting confirms this.  We asked Ryan if the Borough would still pay him his buyout ($70,000) now that the story is that he resigned.  He confirmed the Borough intends to make this payment due to his years of service.

Lets look back at the quotes from last week provided the Times Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer regarding this situation:

Bob Stokley (Councilperson for Ward 6) to the Philadelphia Inquirer
“It’s a lot of work, holding those two positions,” said Stokley, who indicated that the council decided several weeks ago to terminate Marabella. “We feel it was a little too much for him.”

Ike Griffin (Councilperson for Ward 1) to the Times Herald
“We fired him because we didn’t think he was doing the job right. It was a unanimous vote,” Griffin said. “That vote was taken at our last executive meeting two weeks ago.”

So two different newspapers, speaking to two different council members, confirm there was a vote taken to fire Marabella. The two council members didn’t say that council asked him to resign, they said that council “decided several weeks ago to terminate” and “we fired him”.

So what took place on Friday and over the weekend to turn this from a firing to a resignation? Did Borough Council decide they handled the situation poorly and decided to offer him the opportunity to resign? Did both papers misquote members of Borough Council? Something else? We hope to find out more during tonight’s meeting of Borough Council.  If you want to attend, the meeting is at 7:00 p.m. at Old Borough Hall at West 8th and Fayette.