Newly-appointed interim manager describes ‘incredibly broken’ financial situation at borough hall
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Mike Cadau seated at a Shenandoah Borough Council meeting on Jan. 20, 2025, where he was named interim borough manager.
SHENANDOAH – Borough council appointed an interim manager Monday who says the borough is in rough shape, describing “freelance spending” and alleging a scene eerily familiar to when it was bankrupt in the late 1980’s.
Mike Cadau was first appointed secretary/treasurer at a Jan. 2 reorganization meeting, ousting borough manager Tony Sajone from the post by a 4-3 vote.
Sajone was absent from the reorganization meeting. He was hired as borough supervisor/manager in 2020, as reported by the Sentinel, the Pottsville Republican, and WNEP-TV.
Aside from voting in a new secretary/treasurer, council has not taken action regarding Sajone’s employment with the borough, saying he was only secretary/treasurer.
Cadau is a Shenandoah native and is Shenandoah Valley’s only state champion with a title in track and field. He moved away for awhile, he said, including serving time in the military.
“We decided we wanted to live here and I’m really glad I have the opportunity to do this,” Cadau said. He described himself as “regimented” and transparent.
Council voted to approve Cadau as interim borough manager at Monday’s meeting by a 5-1 vote, with Michael Whitecavage dissenting. Katie Catizone was absent.
“I’m a firm believer that you have to find out what’s broken in order to fix it,” Cadau said, telling council and the public that he intended to describe “a lot of stuff that is incredibly broken.”
He said that confidential information was in the open in the borough office. The office is a secured area only accessible by employees and elected officials. He believes the information should have been in a filing cabinet.
Cadau added that improvements are coming for computer security, including new emails, moving away from the internet service provider domain currently used.
Regarding finances, he said “we freelance spending.”
He said that the borough had a $661,000 deficit heading into 2024, as reported by Sam Deegan CPA.
Cadau claimed the borough operated without a budget. However, state law requires municipalities to prepare a budget, advertise it for ten days, and adopt it before Dec. 31. Shenandoah did this.
He referred to that budget as a “glorified checkbook.”
“That’s not a budget,” Cadau said. “A budget is saying we have money here obligated for that, and underneath that is what we are expending to get to that.”
Cadau said that a loan related to the ongoing sewer plant replacement project was called in because the bank was “panicky” because of a lack of communication.
Hobbs referred to it as a major issue, particularly for the borough’s credit rating.
Cadau added that PPL Electric Utilities bills were apparently unpaid. He did not not how long they hadn’t been paid for. On Dec. 11, a payment of $103,030.96 was made to PPL.
He raised concern that liquid fuels money had been used for the bill. However, liquid fuels money can be used for streetlights so long as there is not a specific tax earmarked for street lighting.
Another instance, a life insurance policy lapsed for an employee who passed and their family was paid from the borough general fund.
“Anything that I have found that I feel is questionable or based on legality, I do mention to Shane and I sit down with the proper law enforcement agency,” Cadau said.
Regarding borough operations, Cadau said the borough will implement a weather plan for extreme cold weather events to keep trash crew workers safe.
Regarding the audit, Council President Joe Boris said he was unaware of the audit results and said he was told by Deegan “it was tough to get answers” out of borough hall.
“I’m not here to blame anything,” Boris said. “We’re going forward, not backwards.”
Council Vice President Mike “Zeckie” Uholik said “Elections have consequences.”
“I’m not pulling my own horn,” Uholik said. “If [Boris, Gawrylik,] and me didn’t get in, this borough would still be in Area 51. It’d still be going and nobody’d know nothing.”
“This town has to know what’s going on,” Uholik said.
“As far as Tony Sajone, that was not a political move. That was job performance,” Uholik added.
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