The Landau campaign released the results of their analysis of the Executive Director and Personnel Departments at the Delco Courthouse:
Of the 40 employees working in the Personnel and Executive Director's offices, 38 are registered Republican and 31 are Republican Committee people or local GOP donors.
Landau also pointed to contracts given to political contributors, including those for independent audits on county expenditures.
"Our supposed independent auditors are some of the largest contributors to the local GOP coffers in the County," said Landau, pointing specifically to one auditing firm which doled out nearly $50,000 to local Republicans.
The Delco Times also covered this story: They added that ...
Mingis, Gutowski and Co., which has donated nearly $48,000 to various Republican candidates and the Delaware County Republican Finance Committee since 2000, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State Campaign Finance Reporting Web site.
Last month, county council approved Mingis, Gutowski for various single audits worth a total $83,400. Gee, that's a pretty good return on "investment". Kind of suspicious that an "independent" auditing firm is contributing money to the party of the people hiring them.
The Times also clarified one of Pat's claims about Landau getting $136,000+ from Nether Providence a supposed. example of Democratic patronage. Turns out the Democrats weren't the majority at the time.
Peterson referenced IRS 1099 forms from Nether Providence Township showing law firms Landau worked for received more than $136,000 in legal work between 1998, when Peterson said Democrats took control of council there, and 2001.
But Democrats actually got a voting edge there late in 2005. During a January 2006 reorganization, they did bring on several firms employing or run by Democrats, such as Bruce Bikin’s firm, Montgomery, McCracken, Walker and Rhoads, which was appointed as special counsel on labor and personnel matters, and Frank Daly, of Daly, O’Brien and Bongaardt, who was appointed solicitor.
Between 1998 and 2001, Landau’s firms — Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen LLP — racked up $113,006 from the township, and Hoyle, Morris and Kerr in 1998 received $23,381; a total $136,387 to the two firms.
But Sara Lynn Petrosky, former Democratic Nether Providence councilwoman and council president during that period, said council brought in all candidates for the various legal positions and reviewed them, Democrats and Republicans alike. Sometimes, she said, Democrats didn’t get who they wanted, just as some Republican council members didn’t get the people they wanted.
Back to Landau's press release:
Nepotism:
Landau also took exception to the high percentage of family members working in the courthouse. Eight of the 40 employees in Personnel and the Executive Director's office had family members working elsewhere in the county government.
Conflict of Interest:
Pointing to other potential conflicts, Landau noted that two executive county employees hold office in their local municipality.
And in Bucks County:
Sadly, this type of GOP behavior is not limited to Delco. In Bucks County, a study conducted by the Santarsiero & Marseglia campaign of
county-related Boards and Authorities in Bucks County found that patronage
and pay-to-play is prevalent to an embarrassing degree.
- Breakdown of the partisan Development, Planning and Emergency Service Boards
- 9 Republicans and 0 Democrats on the Bucks County Agricultural Land Preservation Board
- 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats on the Conservation District Board
- 9 Republicans and 0 Democrats on the Federal Lands Reuse Authority of Bucks County
- 11 Republicans and 1 Democrat on the Housing Development Corporation
- 5 Republicans and 0 Democrats on the Housing Finance Board
- 5 Republicans (chaired by Harry Fawkes) and 0 Democrats on the Industrial Development Authority
- 11 Republicans and 0 Democrats on the Local Emergency Planning Committee
- 3 Republicans and 4 Democrats on the Open Space Review Board
- 8 Republicans and 0 Democrats on the Parks & Recreation Board
- 8 Republicans and 1 Democrat on the Planning Commission
- 4 Republicans and 0 Democrats on the Redevelopment Authority
- 11 Republicans, 1 Democrat (a county employee) and 1 Other on the Solid
Waste Advisory Committee - 4 Republicans and 1 Democrat on the County Water and Sewer Authority Board
Executive Committee - 18 Republicans and 0 known Democrats on the Bucks County Economic
Development Corporation
and Authorities:
11 comments:
I had always heard the rumors about corruption in the County seat, but never thought it was as bad a people said. Turns out I was wrong- IT’S WORSE!
Evan-
This is just the tip of the iceberg. As you can clearly see, it's not confined to Delco.
Unbalanced, monopoly-party governments lead to cronyism and waste that comes out of the pockets of the taxpayers.
Delco is out of hand. It's time for a change.
You may want to correct your blog post, as the Daily Times had a correction in today's newspaper noting that the Democrats reorganized Nether in 1996, not 2006. But me thinks you already knew that and were just taking advantage of the paper's mistake.
So does this mean you rescind your comments based on the timing -- it sure looks like Landau has been handing out big contracts to his Democrat lawyer buddies.
Landau's no reformer. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
Delco-
Is said correction in the Online edition where I can link to it?
You can "methinks" until smoke comes out your ears, but "meknows" that I'm not from Nether and relied completely on the date presented in the Times.
I noticed that you didn't address the statements by Sara Lynn Petrosky that it was an open process in which Dems and Republican judged the candidates. It is also possible that Landau's team won because they understood or had better solutions or a better price.
However, I will look into it and get the parts of the story that you are leaving out as well.
BTW, the reform comes when all three Democrats are elected to Council. And, please don't pretend that Andy Reilly is running the campaign for The Three Stooges because they are supposed to be reformers.
I do not know if Dems ever held a majority of seats before 2006--remember until 2005 Nether had a six member board of commissioners, most times with Rs having a majority or a 3-3 split. During the period in question, I belive it was a 3-3 split or the Rs had a majority, though I am sure one of the Rs posting here will correct me. In any event, suffice it to say, it was two (2) party government anyway, and not the Republican oligarchy we see at the County level.
Anyway, suffice it to say Sara Petrosky's comments go unrebutted, so it doesn't really matter.
The Nether Providence Board did indeed reorganize in January 2006 when the new Democratic majority took over. (Went from 5R:2D to 4D:3R in the 2005 election.) The period discussed in the article, though, was from the previous Democratic majority. In the old six ward setup, 3:3 splits happened often.
Listen, the problem with patronage and no-bid contracts isn't about which lawyers work to represent boards. When it comes to advocacy, you want counsel that's going to work for you without political conflict of interest. So I expect that township and borough solicitors are generally the equivalent of political appointees. But when you get to a party litmus test within the executive administration of a municipality, that's when you have a broken government. You need to have a non-partisan civil service class of employees to ensure fairness in access.
Delco-
EB's got a lot of details. It's looking like it was a three-three split during the period in question and that there was competitive bidding.
I'd still be interested to know more about the work done and what was the going rate. $136,000 over 4 years (98,99,00,01) is $34,000 per year. At lawyer rates, that seems like about 2 hours per week or almost 9 hours a month. I don't think anyone retired on that.
Now, if we take a look at Haverford Township, Leo Serini was getting in the ballpark of $100,000 per YEAR to be a mouthpiece for the majority faction of an 8R:1D board.
The point is Landau's hypocrisy on the issue. He and the other Democrats running complain about professional services being awarded on the County level but do it themselves when they control local towns.
John Innelli is a case in point. He got appointed solicitor in Darby and even Mayor Paula Brown was not consulted before the appointment took place. Where's the openness and transaprency that Innelli is calling for. Hypocrite!
In Landau's case, he complained specificaly about the appointment of a financial firm (professional services, not unlike lawyers). Yet he did the same thing with legal counsel in Nether. Hypocrite!
Similarly, Polidoro, in a letter you posted here commented on solcitors. Yet Democrats do it in every town they control -- Darby ===> Innelli and Nether ===> Landau are cases in point. Hypocrite!
Delco-
As I addressed in an earlier post, John Innelli is not the solicitor for Darby. Ray Santarelli is the solicitor and John Innelli is the "assistant" solicitor (a position specifically recognized and permitted in the Borough Code).
From John:
I'm an assistant solicitor, who has worked on discreet municipal finance issues. My billings to Darby Borough have been at an hourly rate which is less than 1/5 of the hourly rate charged in my private practice. My bills to Darby Borough averaged $3,000/year, which is less than the minimum dollar amount for any contract bid process in the county.
Delco, WHO are you and WHO pays your salary? Let's make sure you aren't sucking at the GOP teat.
DD--
IS Landau's full study available anywhere on line? Would make for interesting reading.
There is a whole slew of examples and more coming in every day.
The campaign has been collecting information and researching the web of Delco GOP patronage.
They doling them out as they can confirm them and put them into press releases. Clearly, the campaign will reveal the information at their own pace and order. Also, clearly, the Delco GOP has reason to be worried.
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