Heron describes the long-running trend in Delco, moving from a completely GOP-dominated area to more balanced representation, saying, "Then something strange started happening. At least here in Delaware County. Democrats started winning elections. ... Now the Democrats have their eyes on the one prize that has eluded them: The Media courthouse."
The trend began from the top down in the 90s with Clinton winning in Delco, starting a long string of strong showings by Democratic Presidential candidates in the area. Of course, Joe Sestak's victory in 2006 set a new high water mark. And of course there are many Democratic local and state representatives with strong followings.
Heron says:
This very well could be a new day in Delco politics. Who would have thought that Democrats would be taken seriously, let alone considered a threat, in a race for county council?It's true that the residents of Delaware County would be better off with 3 Democrats in there to bust up the Tamany Hall den of corruption that have cost the taxpayers of Delaware County millions of dollars in patronage jobs and crony contracts.
Buckle your seat belts, voters. It’s going to be an interesting couple of months.
And we’ll all likely be better off for it.
Put the Dems in and we get a shot a cleaning things up.
Keep that in mind when you pay that big County tax bill and get next to nothing in return!
Heron thinks this will be an interesting race. We hope the DelcoTimes provides good coverage of the election. But what would really be interesting would be if the DelcoTimes would do some investigative reporting on the issues. It's one thing to publish the accusations of corruption and the GOP rebuttals. It would be a much different (and interesting) story if the Times digs into these accusations.
Tips for the Delco Times: start with the County Prison, move to the contracts for various health care facilities, and see about the no-show jobs. And just for kicks and giggles, interview a few county employees who are directed to report for campaign duties.
That very well could be a new day in Delco political reporting!
15 comments:
It's true that the residents of Delaware County would be better off with 3 Democrats in there to bust up the Tamany Hall den of corruption that have cost the taxpayers of Delaware County millions of dollars in patronage jobs and crony contracts.
Still waiting, David, for you or some of your cohorts to explain how these "millions of dollars in patronage jobs and crony cotracts" squares with the fact that we have the lowest-costing County government in the region.
I am also wondering how this squares with David Landau's receipt of no-bid legal work from Nether Providence, John Innelli's no-bid legal work from Chester and Yeadon and Lansdowne, etc.
I can't see where Anne O'Keefe got any no-bid legal work, but then, she's an estates lawyer.
Pat-
Cohorts? When did I get cohorts? I only just posted a request for cohort resumes on Monster.com. Haven't had time to interview anyone yet. :-)
Okay, here are some budgets:
Delco: $560 million
Montco: $460 million
Delco Millage: 4.450
Montco Millage: 2.82
Come on David, lets be honest with your readers about the budgets. What is it really once you subtract all of the mandated state and federal social services spending? Isn't it true that Delco is actually the LOWEST?
And on the millage rates, as I think you know, different counties have different means of assessing property values. So while Montco's value may be closer to actual selling price, I think everyone in Delco knows that their assessed value is nowhere near market value. Hence the difference in millage rates.
David, you're risking losing credibility (or at least sounding more and more like a politician with your shadings of the truth).
Delco-
You've got it backwards (thanks for the opening).
Delco Budget:
300 million in revenue + 260 million in grants
Moncto Budget:
256 million in revenue + 182 million in grants.
Not only that, as of the 2000 census, the population of Delaware county was 550,000 and Montgomery county was 750,000.
So, overall Delco is spending a lot more per capita: $1000 per person vs only $585 for Montco.
Delco is spending 70% more than Montco. That's a lot of waste (or graft).
Even if you ignore the grant money, Delco residents are paying 60% more per capita.
You guys have ZERO credibility on this.
Thanks for playing.
Somehow I doubt that what you are saying is true, David, but when I have time I'll look into it and let you know. Your analysis is just way too facile to be accurate.
Pat-
The numbers are pretty simple. The two counties format things differently, but the summaries are pretty clear.
The population figures are from 2000 census and readily available.
As for my quick summary of the facts and figures, I was a math major and both my parents were math teachers. I can boil it down to the key numbers and ratios.
BTW, Montco does reveal county-wide payroll, employee benefits and total employees. The Delco salary information is spread across multiple sections and I can't find any information regarding the number of employees.
Minor correction.. in part of my argument I grabbed a few Montco numbers from 2006. This changes the Delco percentages from 70% more than Montco to 66% more per capita and the non-Grant percentage moves to 54% more for Delco.
This doesn't change my argument about Delco budget being too high.
Pat-
I checked with John, this was his response:
I have never done any legal work in Chester , Yeadon, or Lansdowne so she simply doesn't know what she's talking about.
The Landau campaign doesn't seem to know what the heck you are talking about either.
At this point, your credibility is pretty shot.
David:
I am not too worried about my credibility being "shot" with the two or three people who read this blog. (In fact, I think I am done with this blog, unless something really interesting comes up, because it's just self-congratulatory puffery by two, and maybe three, Democrats.)
In any event, wasn't John Innelli's Barbara Bohannon-Sheppard's reorganization chairman when she was elected mayor of Chester, and wasn't there some kind of a stink about him and Ray Santarelli getting paid for something in connection with that reorganization?
If I am wrong about Lansdowne and Yeadon, I apologize. But he certainly "assistant solicitor" for Darby Borough, appointed in 2004, was he not? Was that a bid situation?
And he was nominated to serve as solicitor of the William Penn School District in 2005, was he not? I don't think there was any bidding going on there either.
So, wrong towns, same point. John Innelli has happily accepted no-bid legal work from Delco municipalities.
And here is some more information to support that same theme:
From 1998, the year Democrats took control of Nether Council, to 2001, David Landau's law firms of Hoyle, Morris & Kerr and Wolf, Block, Schorr received $136,378.34 in legal work. Other Democratic connected law firms also received Nether taxpayers funds, including $90,000 in work to Montgomery McCracken, the law firm of Bruce Bikin, the County Democratic Party's Deputy Chair for Finance. And another $90,000 in legal fees went to the Frank Daly's law firm.
In addition, Landau's law firm of Wolf Block receives millions of dollars in no-bid municipal and governmental bond work, including no bid contracts from PHEAA.
Not only that, but when Democrats took control of Nether, the current solicitor and township engineers were promptly fired and replaced with Landau's political allies.
If Landau and Innelli wants to combat patronage and no-bid contracts, they need to start by taking a long hard look in the mirror.
Pat-
While only a few people post on this blog, many more read it (including reporters at several area newspapers). As for your credibility, I guess it is hard to shoot something that no longer exists.
A quick debunk on your claim about John and Darby, 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.
I'd venture a guess that William Penn is a similar situation.
As for Bruce Bikin, he became the Chair for Finance in June of 2007 (and that was only as a consolation price/party unity) after his loss to Cliff Wilson for party chairman. The 3-4 year period to which you are referring was long before Bikin's recent appointment (though your description implies that Bikin might have been Finance Chair at the time).
I'll get some more details on your other remarks as soon as I can. In particular, what kind of work was involved. I guess when any non-GOP connected contract is awarded in Delco, it must shock you.
I am amused by how you seemed to ignore the other topics on this blog about how the current GOP council spends $560 million and how they voted unanimously 2012 times since 2003. Kind of reminds me how the five commissioners in the Moran/Twardy faction in Haverford used to vote.
David, if you really think you're all that influential and that reporters (anyone except Gil?) read this blog, blah, blah, blah . . . you go have fun with it. I've got other things to do. Clearly, you need a place to swagger, and this is as good a place as any.
But remember, you still haven't come up with one verifiable detail to support your claim of "millions of dollars in patronage jobs and crony contracts," nor have you come up with one verifiable instance of someone coerced into registering Republican to get some County service.
It's still just rumor and innuendo. All you do here is perpetuate the same old stories that people like you have been feeding on for decades.
It's interesting to read old newspaper articles, from the Inquirer and the Daily Times, back as far as 1990, when the Democrats were predicting a change in the County because of Clinton, because the Democratic tide was rising, etc., etc. The stories sound just like you, today.
Pat-
Gil and Phil on Delco Times (maybe just blogger courtesy).
I even got an email from a Daily News reporter.
Swaggering is fun when you are the right side of a debate.
Pat, look at all the trouble you have in Haverford prying open the books, that the STATE had to confiscate the records.
Do you honestly think that Delco needs to spend $100 million more than Montco, even though our population is 200,000 less? Proportionally, we should be spending $340 million. That's a $220 million difference from what we are actually spending.
There is an analysis underway of the patronage jobs, party affiliation and GOP contributions. The preliminary results back up what I am saying, but I'll wait for the full report to be released. I expect it will receive a lot of attention.
I've run into enough people with these stories to find them credible.
Pat, since the 1990's there has been a tremendous change. We've gone from 30% of the vote to the mid 40's and some big wins. In 2006, only 1/3 of the Delaware County registration was for REP.
BTW, if there is ANY question about the judgment of the current GOP council and the GOP candidates, THEY ALL CAMPAIGNED FOR BUSH/CHENEY. The don't represent the majority of voters.
Pat-
Just when I thought your reputation for misstatement couldn't get any lower...
Looks like something else you are wrong about regarding Ray Santarelli and John Innelli.
From Ray Santarelli:
Could you please correct Pat's blatant false statements concerning me. I was in no way involved with Barbara Bohannon Sheppard. I believe she was the Mayor of Chester in the early 1990s--at that time I was not even an attorney and did not live in Delco. I am the appointed Solicitor in Darby , John Innelli is the "assistant" solicitor (a position specifically recognized and permitted in the Borough Code)--I think the Republicans called him the "co-solicitor" which is a mis-characterization of his role. As a member of the bar, Pat is, in my mind, charged with a higher duty to investigate facts. The facts that Pat intentionally misrepresents are easily verifiable through public records, and Pat's shoddy research skills and/or laziness is no excuse for her blatantly false representations. If Pat wishes to waste her time and try to inject me (a non-candidate) into her campaign rhetoric, she should at least get her facts straight.
As to her claim of requiring bidding, did I miss an advertisement for replacing the Haverford Solicitor when Judge Sereni left?
Well said, Ray.
Pat, you burned you left the Dems to become a Republican. You burned your bridges within a segment of the Republican party. You've made blatantly off-the-mark statements here, in an increasingly desperate attempt to salvage Andy's campaign, your career and some dignity.
David how do the budget numbers match up with Chester and Bucks Counties. Oh, you conveniently left them out. why could that be? Maybe because they prove my point that Delco's budget, once the federal pass throughs are taken out is lower than Bucks and Chester?
Delco-
Chester is the Wealthiest County in the state. Relative to incomes we are paying more than we can relatively afford.
Bucks has larger population than Delco, so even with similar budget, we are still spending more per person.
But, you are trying to sweep the HUGE amount of State/Federal money that Delco spends under the rug. Where is that money going? What patrons are benefiting from jobs and contracts?
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