Fighting City Hall From Within: An Ongoing Series
Matt Shorraw, Mayor, City of Monessen
A Mayor’s story of exposing corruption, and searching for ways to revive a Rust Belt city in Pennsylvania.
Part I
Introduction
I’m writing this series to chronicle what has been happening in my city — to expose it; to share it with others; to shine a light on what small cities without watchdogs are going through; and to discuss my hope for the future — not only for Monessen, but for communities across the Rust Belt.
I took office at the age of 26, as the youngest Mayor in the City of Monessen on January 2, 2018. After disagreeing with my predecessor on local issues, as well as disagreeing with the direction of the country in 2016 (especially, after Trump visited Monessen in July 2016, and the Mayor at the time decided to trash-talk our city on national news), I decided to run for office — and I beat my predecessor — twice.
I ran on the hope the my city, a democratic, yet fairly conservative city would rise to the occasion to reinvent itself; and I truly felt that I could affect that change. Monessen is a former steel-producing city, south of Pittsburgh, PA along the Monongahela River. After the mills left in the 1980’s, the city has been left picking up the piece — even still, to this day. I knew what the issues were, and what residents wanted to see. I knew that one of those issues was corruption; but, I didn’t know how deep it went. Little did I know, it was pretty deep, and the next year-and-a-half or so would be the most rewarding, yet most challenging and sometimes heartbreaking time in my life, so far.
I also knew that the city could not move forward until the corruption could be addressed, held to account, and cleaned up, and an effective city government administration was put in place. In the process of me learning about the depths of the corruption, I’ve experienced threats, harassment, intimidation, attempts at impeachment, and more. I’ve protested council meetings, written to press, spoken with state and federal agencies, and explored ways to inform the public. I’ve done all of this, simply because I love the city. It is my home. Monessen needs to progress and move forward, because there are real people with real problems out there; and unfortunately,there are too many people attempting to run the show, who do not have the best interest of the city at heart.
This series will attempt to chronicle what has happened so far as well as what is currently happening. I will also outline my vision for the future, and how that fits into the greater narrative of communities like Monessen — especially rust belt communities struggling to pick up the pieces.
