Aspinwall council votes to censure mayor who admitted to recording private meeting

ASPINWALL, Pa. — It was a heated meeting in Aspinwall on Wednesday as the council voted to censure Mayor Scott Zimmerman.

This comes weeks after he admitted to recording a private meeting without consent.

Mayor Zimmerman apologized for what he called a quote “brain fart.”

A number of community members spoke in support of the resolution to censure.

“We now live in a town where our police officers, borough employees and council members have to wonder if their private conversations are being recorded,” one man said.

“What you did was not a faux pas, far from a faux pas, it was a felony,” another said.

Some spoke on behalf of the mayor.

“It sounds like an innocent mistake two months into a term. The reaction council has had strikes me as extreme,” one man said.

The issue stems from a February 16^th meeting involving the mayor, solicitor and handful of other officials.

According to the resolution, Mayor Zimmerman recorded the meeting on his phone without the consent of others. It’s a felony in Pennsylvania.

“Pennsylvania is a two-party consent state. They better have given you consent or you’re in violation of the law,” WPXI Legal Analyst Phil DiLucente said.

He says it all has to do with whether there is an expectation of privacy.

In a public meeting, for example, there is no expectation of privacy. That’s not necessarily the case in a smaller, private gathering.

Council members ultimately voted 5-1 in favor of the censure with one abstention.

“I appreciate their need to do so, and I understand it,” Mayor Zimmerman told Channel 11.

He did not, however, resign his post. A request to do so was in the resolution, but the council cannot force it.

We asked him why.

“Because I don’t think it rises to that level. It really is that simple.”

Right now, the mayor is not charged with a crime.

In order for him to be removed from office, it would take an impeachment and conviction by the state legislature.

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