Fireworks erupt at Parkside Borough council meeting over claims of pot and profile on swinger website

A Parkside Borough virtual council meeting got ugly when the council president said she was tipped off that fellow member Scott Sidlow had a profile on a swinger website that invited others to his home for play and marijuana.

"Mr. Sidlow, I'm not sure what you can say," she said.

"I'm not sure why you think this is a public matter. This is complete invasion of my privacy. I'm going to go on, please do not interrupt me," Sidlow said.

"I'm going to interrupt you for one minute. Can you explain why you were doing foursomes in your house when you have two children there," council president Shirley Purcival said.

FOX 29 spoke to him Thursday.

"In the past, my wife and I reached a position of trust in our relationship and we created a profile. It's just words on a profile, it's not an actual occurrence," Sidlow said. "Anything that may or may not have happened. My children are not involved."

He admits to smoking pot, saying the borough itself voted to decriminalize it.  The firestorm, he says, is really about Republicans trying to sabotage the more recently-elected Dems.

"This borough council president is doing everything she can to prevent us from passing any legislation," he said.

That's not true, according to the mayor and council president.

"Mr. Sidlow and I have not agreed on almost anything since he came on council," Mayor Thomas Deitman said. " But Mr. Sidlow has a right to express his opinion. This is a separate issue."

They say it's an issue of morality and of smoking pot which still breaks the law.

"When you take an oath of office you swear to uphold the laws. He is not. He's violating the law," Purcival explained. "My moral issue is based on my faith. Mr. Sidlow stated he's not committing adultery. I don't understand how you can say that."

But the council member says he won't be bullied to leave.

"This is borough council. We're 2,500 people in this community. What kind of government are we running here? This is ridiculous," Sidlow said.

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