GOP Attack Dogs: Circling the Wagons

Today's Delco Times has three GOP attack dogs writing opinion pieces against David Landau. They must really be worried. [Spoiler Alert: Answer to Gil's Courthouse Patronage Connection]

In the first piece [of crap], David Gallo Sr, of Springfield goes after Landau for supposed lies regarding Fair Acres. Gallo writes: "In truth, some 43 percent of the residents at Fair Acres are Democrats while only 52 percent are Republicans. This ratio is far more democratic than the actual ratio in the county."

Well, in truth Gallo fails to note that he is on the both the Springfield Library Board and the Environmental Committee. Two committees, 14 people (15 if you count Gallo for each position) and only one registered Democrat. In Springfield, only 68% are registered Republican, but Gallo and other GOP lackeys seemed to have done much better than 68%. Far less democratic and Democratic. Does Gallo owe his position to McGarrigle? Are shill pieces in the Delco Times WITHOUT mention of conflict of interest part of the job requirement?

In piece number 2 [#2 says it all], Michael Culp (also of Springfield) jumps on the McGarrigle bandwagon and goes after David Landau and Rocco Polidoro. Rocco has fought an uphill battle against GOP corruption in Springfield for years. Rocco is a legitimate concerned citizen. His biggest target has been the man behind the curtain, Charlie Sexton. I wonder if MR. Culp has any connection to Charlie.

Hmm, turns out Mr. Culp has a county job on the Prison Board.

And last, and certain not the least in the shilling department, is Gil Spencer and his blatant attack on Landau. He takes a quote "..proven tax delinquents like Tom McGarrigle .." and gives McGarrigle a shoulder shrug and a pass. Gil's summary "He didn’t cheat on his taxes. Business got bad. He fell behind. He caught up. He paid what he owed." misstates the difference between cheating a being delinquent. McGarrigle chose not to pay his taxes on time. He got caught. He was forced to pay the back taxes and penalties. Spencer also mis-characterizes the facts surrounding how McGarrigle's tax problems were revealed (as was discussed in earlier posting).

During the Editorial board interviews, Spencer catches McGarrigle unable to justify a frequently repeated false accusation about Landau. When McGarrigle backs off the accusation (for the duration of the meeting), Spencer is easily impressed. Spencer has no problem repeating another false accusation regarding Landau, incorrectly claiming that Landau's firm got no-bid work which was in fact bid, awarded and won.

Here's the funny part: Gil attempts full disclosure..

(In the interest of full disclosure, this columnist’s son, Jake Spencer, 23, works five hours a week at Fair Acres, as a pin setter for the Friday night bowling league and as a once-a-week lunch aide. Last week, he took home $51 and change. Readers and the Landau campaign can make of that what they wish.)

What I make is what Gil leaves out:

What Gil fails to mention is the $57,680 Courthouse job held by his ex-wife, Patricia A Cofiell, and mother of his 22 year old son, Fredrick. What is Ms. Cofiell's job you ask? Communications Coordinator for Public Relations. Not-coincidentally, this appears to be Gil's job for the GOP machine as well. For someone like Gil, who has scoffed at Landau's claims of cronyism and patronage at the courthouse, the employment of his son's mother by the same system he denies and supports bears upon the fullness of Gil's disclosure. Gil is full of something alright.

Video of the Debate

Video is from Delco Times.


Notes: just slide the bar while playing the video, to jump around.
Around 30% to 40% of the way through is a lively discussion on the budget and the lack of openness.

Just before half-way point, watch and compare Innelli vs McGarrigle on who can manage the $560 million budget.

Watch McGarrigle read from script and even turn page, all with his head down, on the Revitalization question (about 2/3 the way through)

It's almost impossible to hear on the tape, but 75% of the way through the tape, Andy Lewis is following up on a question about economic decline in Delaware County. He starts by saying: "By any objective measurement ... Delaware County has been well managed." This is where the audience murmured its objection to the veracity of that statement. Just be glad we don't have "smell-o-vision", because Andy was shoveling some serious BS.

Loook What Hatched!

From today's Delco Times. Election: Clifton Heights council president is off ballot

Council President Jim Salmon, a Republican, announced Monday he is removing himself as a candidate in the upcoming November election citing a conflict with the Hatch Act.

The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from participating in partisan campaign activities. Salmon is a performance assessment representative for the U.S. Department of Defense, and has worked for the government for 30 years in various positions.

Salmon denies any wrongdoing (who ever admits to wrong doing these days?), but still he removed himself and cited the Hatch Act. I'd call that "Hatched".

When the fox is in charge of the hen house, the condition and count of all the eggs are in question.

"See Spot Run" and "The Eyes Have It"

Tonight's County Council debate at Riddle Village was a study in contrasts.

The Republican candidates were EXTREMELY scripted. Andy Lewis and especially Tom McGarrigle barely looked up from their talking point notes from which they read verbatim. The Democrats ALL looked the camera and the voters in the audience in the eye and spoke from their knowledge and their philosophy of government.

Ann O'Keefe took a soft spoken approach appealing to voters making a thoughtful choice. David Landau kept up his attack on the cronyism at the courthouse (with the latest stat that 250 out of 255 employees in 12 key department are all Republican). John Innelli was on fire and challenged the GOP fiercely on their made-up numbers.

If you watch the tape, you will notice that McGarrigle rarely glanced up from his notes and was just reading, and with questionable comprehension. Several times I felt that if his time hadn't been cut off, we would have heard: "See Dick and Jane play with the ball. Run Dick. Run Jane. See Spot. Run, Spot. Run." Tom McGarrigle was BY FAR the weakest candidate there.

Andy Lewis's main response to most questions was "current council is doing a great job", or "DA Green is doing a great job". In an amazing bit of irony, Andy talked about having a bi-partisan record in Haverford and claimed how he is for hiring based upon qualifications. However, he failed to mention that township employment in leadership/administrative/key jobs is 100% Republican. Pat Biswanger was nowhere to be seen. There was some speculation that she was under the table, either curled up by Andy's feet or feeding him talking points.

Christine Fizzano-Cannon provided the comedy for the evening with her microphone problems. While she came off as smart/capable (by comparison to Andy and Tom, that is), she was a mass of contradictions. On the one hand, she claims she is for open government, televising council meetings, making meetings more accessible, etc., but on the other hand she had nothing but praise for the current county council which does NONE of those things.

The issue of Open Government generated one of the most lively exchanges. Landau talked about making it easy to get campaign finance records and other information from the courthouse. Fizzano-Cannon claimed that part of the GOP "platform" was open government and, as "proof" the words "open government" could be found on their website.

Suddenly, John Innelli fired back using one the 30-sec "rebuttal cards" to point out how the county budget had a 100 million dollar line item for Federal money with NO DETAILS or breakdown. Fizzano-Cannon threw down with her rebuttal card and claimed the information was readily available at the courthouse.

Well, David Landau was having NONE of that BS. He tossed in his rebuttal card and passionately explained that the Dems had been making requests to the courthouse for SIX months and not only couldn't get the information, but were told it was not on computers, or in different places, or not available, etc. He then pointed out that they made a similar request to Bucks county and got a 700 page answer in 48-hours. John chimed in with the PA number state law that requires the County to keep track of the information that Delaware County claims not to have.

Another highlight was during the debate about a County Health Department. Landau not only advocated for a county health department, but explained why it could occur WITHOUT a tax increase as the State would be picking up half the cost and much of the remain funds were already available. Tom McGarrigle claimed that we couldn't rely on the State, in case the State changed its mind and cut off funding in the future. (Maybe he thought the State wouldn't have the funds if everyone else was as delinquent on paying taxes as he's been.)

John Innelli was quick and decisive on the rebuttal. He pointed out two different State Acts that REQUIRED the state to pay $6 and $1.5 per resident toward health care and environmental health issues. That's $4 million right there that the State has to make available.

On the issue of being able to handle a $560 million budget, Tom McGarrigle talked about his rinky-dink business dealings. The issue was made for John, who mentioned that he has TWO degrees in economics and deals regularly in his law practice with large figures in government fraud and waste cases. John pointed out that he not only knows how to balance the books, but knows from experience how to identify books that appear balanced, but really aren't. While Innelli came off as the most educated candidate, McGarrigle came off as the least. It appears that McGarrigle doesn't have more than a high school education (no mention of college in his thin campaign resume). Managing $560 million should go to the guy with the bigger brain.

In short, the Republicans were ALL about the status quo and how one-party government can be a good thing. The Democrats were about change and cleaning up the one-party side-effects like closed government, waste and stagnation.

The Delco Times also covered the debate. While they didn't declare a winner, they did pick up on some of the same things I saw:

Republicans stuck with their game plan of praising the past efforts of council and committing to continue those efforts in areas like crime prevention, economic redevelopment and open space preservation.

Democrats, meanwhile, pointed to a failure of leadership in health care, population growth, and revitalizing older communities, saying a diverse political spectrum could go a long way to reversing those trends.

• When questioned on handling a large, countywide budget, Democrat John Innelli was able to list his extensive experience in the area of finance, including two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in economics, a degree from the Wharton Business School in finance, and work-related experience as an attorney handling finance matters.
  
• Landau and Innelli tag-teamed a question on Democrats’ desire for a county health department in light of the unfolding wildfire disaster in California and a recent MRSA outbreak at county schools, beating back calls of a tax increase by citing numerous funding sources from the state and by “cutting the fat” of a bloated county government.
  

When I find out the televising schedule for the debate, I'll post it here.

It Looks Like Another Rotten GOP Egg Is about to Hatch!

The Hatch Act of 1939 was originally known as An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.

For the Delco GOP, "Pernicious", "Political" and "Pervasive" are old friends, and "Prevent" is an orphan.

"Prevent" is available for Adoption with David Landau, Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli as its new guardians. There's some paperwork that still has to be filled out on Tuesday November 6th by about 100,000 voters.

In the meantime:

On Wednesday, David Landau, Candidate for Delaware
County Council will join the Democratic candidates of Upper Darby and
Clifton Heights to call for the investigation of government employees in
violation of the Federal Hatch Act.

The Clifton Heights Democratic Party has asked for Jim Salmon, Republican
Clifton Heights Borough Council Member, to step down citing the Federal
Hatch Act as the grounds for his resignation. Further inquiries by the
David Landau campaign have uncovered several high-level County employees
currently in violation.

Wednesday's press conference will call for an immediate investigation
into all county employees currently violating the Hatch Act.


WHERE: Upper Darby Township Building, 100 Garrett Road, Upper Darby, PA

WHEN: Wednesday October 24, 2007 at 1:00 PM

[Are any of the candidates planning to build or expand the prison? It could get mighty crowded after 30 years of monopoly rule.]

The Raging Debate

The Delaware County Council Candidates are having a debate Tuesday Oct 23.
(Hey, that's today!!)

at the Riddle Village Retirement Center, 1048 West Baltimore Pike, Media.
(Hey, that's right across from the Granite Run Mall!)

7:30pm Don't be late for the fireworks or ring-side seats.

I hear the GOP candidates are bringing their timepieces for some refurbishing.
(Oh... they're going to get their clocks cleaned!)

The press will be covering the event.
(Press. Pull. Push. Shove. Blog. I'll be there uncovering it. (I'm not just pixels.))

Will we be able to see Pete Peterson and Andy Reilly's lips moving when the GOP candidates speak?
(I suggest requiring them to drink a glass of water while candidates are speaking.)

If you like this posting, wait to see my posting AFTER the debate.

Putting Another GOP Lie to Rest

David Landau, Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli have made their case (very effectively) against the patronage at the Court House. In response, the Delco GOP has tried to twist the work David Landau did for Nether Providence as patronage. While I have related the basic facts as I understood them, Sara Petrosky, (a Nether Providence commissioner from 1994 to 2006) tells the full story and sets the record straight in a Delco Times letter to the editor.

The courthouse political machine repeatedly attacks David Landau for his role in the Nether Providence Township. As usual they have the facts wrong.

I served as a Nether Providence Township commissioner from 1994 until 2006 and was president of the board in 1996 when the Democrats took over.

Under my direction, the board requested proposals for various professional services such as solicitors and engineers. We interviewed candidates, both Republican and Democrat, and had a competitive process for choosing the candidates.

David was not part of the hiring process and neither he nor his firm was selected for these jobs. The board strongly believed that good government involves having a competitive process to hire the best-qualified person with the most favorable rate package. We did that.

The township board later hired David to defend the township against a Republican developer who tried to block the preservation of open space. That was also the result of a competitive process.

David spent countless hours, many of them without pay, to help us achieve our goal. The insurance carrier covered the fees, other than the deductible. Through David’s work, the township won the case at trial and on appeal, and now there are two parcels of open space and a Field of Dreams in Nether Providence.

Money Magazine recently named our community the ninth best in the United States, partly due to this parkland. We would not have received that honor without David’s help.

For decades, David has played a positive role in our community. As a lawyer hired by the township to work on this issue of open space, he delivered positive results. He recognized the need to be efficient and cost-effective. I can think of no one who can better serve our county.

The whole time the Democratic Candidates, particularly Landau, have pointed out the rampant and wide-spread cronyism, patronage and nepotism, the ONLY thing the Delco GOP candidates handlers could come up with is David's work on this one job in Nether Providence that preserved open space.

It was bad enough that Delco GOP's only argument against charges of corruption was that Dems were doing it too at a much smaller scale. Of course, it turns out, that the Dems were awarding contracts in a open bipartisan manner (exactly like the Dems have been advocating) and not engaging in patronage on any scale.

The Delco GOP had one bullet in the chamber and it was a blank. The rest of chambers are empty, like their ideas and their message.

Look Who's Calling Someone an Amateur Hack

Gil "The Shill" Spencer defense of GOP corruption, cronyism and misdeeds has not only extended itself to tax delinquents like Tom McGarrigle, but also to going after Democratic campaign staffers.

First, Spencer twists the revelations (from his own paper) about McGarrigle's past failures to pay taxes into an attack on Democrats. Spencer: Democrats desperate attempt is laughable. While Spencer accepts McGarrigle's weak explanation with praise, Spencer accuses the Democrats of accusing McGarrigle of corruption when the ACTUAL complaint from Democrats is that McGarrigle was fiscally irresponsible in managing his own businesses.

Clearly, Spencer thinks McGarrigle's eventual repayment with penalties absolves him of the original willful decision to avoid taxes. In particular, over $15,000 was in school taxes. Did McGarrigle think it was okay to put his business over Springfield's kids. McGarrigle "claims" it was to keep paying his employees, but I don't hear anything about McGarrigle taking a pay cut himself or getting a business loan to cover the $15,000. What is not clear about this story is whether McGarrigle volunteered to pay his taxes or just got caught red-handed.

Spencer then decides to follow the wishes of Pete Peterson and go after Landau staffer: George Matysik. It seems that the GOP is so desperate, they have to send their attack dog after campaign staffers.

When called about the story before it ran, Landau campaign spokesman George Matysik indicated to the Daily Times he had not seen the tax documents in question. But he did offer this:
“We’ll have to take some time to review the documents, but considering Mr. McGarrigle’s platform of fiscal responsibility, this does not bode well.”

It appears however, when Mr. Matysik suggested to us he had not seen the documents, he was not telling the truth.

For it was Mr. Matysik himself who sought out and asked for the public records. He signed for copies of them Oct. 1
The documents then made their way to a third party, who provided them to the Daily Times.
Now using a “cut-out” to provide negative information about opponents to the press is an old political trick.[Yeah: Spencer you should know as you are the biggest "cut-out" in Delaware County using your column as an extension of the Delco GOP.]

The simple truth of the matter is that Matysik signed out this and many other documents from the court house. The McGarrigle tax documents, like many others, were sent off to appropriate tax/legal experts (not Matysik) to examine. When questioned about the story, Matysik had not reviewed the documents himself and said so, clearly. He also asked the further questions be directly addressed to Landau himself. This seems to have mystified Spencer, who is used to GOP candidates that don't/can't speak for themselves and need their puppet-masters to speak for them.

Matysik has a whole wall lined with information requests he had to extract like pulled teeth from the GOP run Delco courthouse. He has actually gone through and counted the GOP staffers in key departments and documented his findings. It's called research, Gil. But, you of all people have the audacity to call him "amateur hack"? Get real. There's only one "hack" around here Gil, and a "professional" hack at that. Just look in the mirror.

Gil, ends with: "In the meantime, if the Landau campaign needs to be led by his nose to pay dirt let me suggest...."

Gil, how about YOU "investigate" and "let me suggest": tell us what friends or family members of yours work at the GOP courthouse. Are you beholden to the Delco GOP for any reason that the your readers ought to know about to evaluate your biases? Are you going after George because his investigations of courthouse employees might reveal connections too close to home?

BTW, does Peterson write your columns for you or just send you an outline?

Bush or Dilbert Style Government?

I'm starting to wonder if Dilbert's Boss is a Delco Republican.

Click to see full image:

Hey McGarrigle: Failing to Pay Taxes is Not the Same as "Cutting Taxes"

In Today's Delco Times, McGarrigle's Taxing Problems are revealed.

Republican Delaware County Council candidate Thomas McGarrigle once owed thousands of dollars in school taxes and other liens, making his opposition question his stance on fiscal responsibility.
...

For the tax years 1990 and 1991, McGarrigle owed the Southeast Delco School District a total of $15,198, according to county Common Pleas Court records. He also owed $3,203 in sales taxes between September 2000 and June 2001 for a Springfield property; liens of $571 and $412 for sewer rent in 1995 and 1996, respectively, at that property; and $831 for sewer maintenance on a Sharon Hill property.

McGarrigle said the Sharon Hill property was an apartment house he had sold to the county Housing Authority and did not believe he still owned it at the time of the service.

The other sewer liens he attributed to a possible problem with payments through his mortgage company, of which he was not aware. McGarrigle said he is also still wrestling with red tape at the Department of Revenue to clear up the 2000 and 2001 taxes on his record.


So, let's see if I got this right...

McGarrigle wants to control a $560 million dollar County Budget, but he can't even keep track of the taxes and ownership of his own Apartment house?

But, what's worse is that McGarrigle defended his knowing decision not to pay taxes on his gas station in the early 1990's as his best business judgment!
"He added standing in line at the county Tax Claim Bureau with others who were struggling had helped him resolve to get involved in politics." I guess he figured out that cashing in on the the GOP political machine was the way to go.

The article points out that he eventually paid off his taxes and penalties, though he's still "wrestling with red tape at the Department of Revenue to clear up the 2000 and 2001 taxes on his record."

But for a guy that thinks taxes are "optional" when times get tough for himself, his talking point that he never voted for a tax increase doesn't inspire confidence that he can be trusted to make ANY responsible tax decisions.

He forgets that taxes pay for things. Taxes pay to help out people struggling and worse off than he was. Taxes pay for child health care. And, how about all the State revenue that comes into Delco. From where does McGarrigle think it comes? Even the Tooth Fairy expects you to pitch in with a tooth.

From some of the amounts, it seems like he went a while without paying (sort of like having his own private business loan from the state, at the expense of the other business owners that did pay their taxes on time). So, for the honest businessmen out there struggling to make ends meet and able to plan a budget that includes required taxes, everyone of you has demonstrated better business sense.

Does anyone think that a guy that avoided paying his taxes on time will go after fraud and corruption in County government?

We can do better. By voting for David Landau, Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli. you can make it better.

So Much GOP Dishonesty and Corruption. So Little Time.

For those of you wondering... Yes, I'm still here. It's been a busy week for me with helping candidates in Delco and Montgomery County, Haverford Township Day, and recovering from a a cold.

A quick recap:
1) Democratic candidates are kicking ass all over the region as voters have wised up the GOP tactics, poor administration, cronyism, etc. Even Republicans are complaining that the current GOP politicians don't represent them and are more interested in playing GOP politics that helping the voters.

2) Haverford Township Day: The Dems were out in force. Local progressive, Larry Chrzan, made a great showing over Jimmy McGarrity. There was a ton of people wearing (very stylish) "Chrzan for Change" t-shirts. The ghost-town-like Haverford Republican table seems to have more Chrzan supporters than Republicans. In the afternoon, Candidates Larry Abel and Brian Kennedy were also meeting voters and handing out the Haverford Dem newsletter.
I watched as numerous people pushed aside Republican literature, but took our Democratic newsletter. The only thing the GOP was able to 'move' was FREE, cold bottled water from the GOP Council candidates. The think the kids with the Chrzan t-shirts drank a lot them. I guess the GOP candidates took a break from handing out Kool-aid.

3) Thomas McGarrigle is in HOT water over recent disclosures about his past problems paying is school and state taxes. A story that juicy deserves (and will get) its own blog entry. The story got HOTTER with a HEATED exchange with Rocco Polidoro as well.

4) Nether Providence Republican Committee Chairman, Michael Maddren, started up a "LandauFactCheck" site. The site is a single web page of the same tired GOP distortions about Landau that Pete Peterson, Andy Reilly, Michael Puppio and their minions have been spreading to distract voters about the GOP record. This will get its own blog posting as well.

5) John Innelli: John must have done well on some internal GOP polls this week because Pete Peterson put out a hit piece on John. In it he repeated the distortions about John's work for Darby Township. Peterson tries to act like John was the recipient of some political largess. The REAL facts: John acted as a assistant solicitor, worked at 1/5 his normal fee (so, practically pro-bono work), and the work amounted to a few thousand dollars per year and well below amounts required by Darby for any kind of bidding process. As for Paul Brown being in the loop.. she's in her own loop.

6) Gil "The Shill" Spencer does a standard hatchet piece on Landau. Yawn. Sometime I wonder if Spencer has a set of hatchet pieces pre-written years in advance and then just copies/pastes the name of the Democratic candidate. Spencer also tries to minimize Landau's complaints by comparing the corruption in Philly with Delco:
"But, practically speaking, when you look at say the Democratic machine in Philadelphia and you then you look at the Republican machine in Delaware County, one is not just as bad as the other. One is worse. And we all know which one."
I think the differences are that Philly machine is what the Delco GOP machine has tried to emulate and that Philly has more news organization to investigate and uncover corruption. Clearly, the quality of Republican Editorial comment is worse in Delco. (Yea Us!)
Spencer ends with: To win, Landau needs a better argument, better ideas, or a whole lot more real GOP corruption (not just this "appearance of" stuff) to expose before Election Day. I wonder if Spencer can name his closest friend/relative that works at the GOP controlled courthouse? And what percentage of GOP employment above the 54% registration level would be considered too high?

The Republicans are clearly worried. Considering the record they are running away from, they should be.