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.

It's Unanimous: GOP Council Shares a Single Brain

At a recent press conference with the three Democratic County Council Candidates, David Landau pointed out the following:

"Since 2003, there have been 2,012 votes cast in council. Every single one was voted for unanimously," said Landau. "Every spending bill approved, every ordinance approved. Not once was a dissenting vote cast."

Has anyone ever heard of FIVE politicians that agreed on 2,012 votes in a row? I certainly haven't.

Since scientists haven't perfected brain-cloning, the most likely explanation is that someone else is calling the shots and that all five council members are little more than puppets doing as they are told. What is the point of having a 5 member council when 4 could leave and nothing would be any different?

Unless you've been a coma for the past 30 years, this scenario will not shock you.

In attempting to clarify why Council has voted unanimously in every vote since 2003, County Executive Director and GOP Spokeswoman, Marianne Grace, informed voters "It's not like council members are debating something that would require the partisan give-and-take found at higher and lower levels of government." Grace cited the War in Iraq and rubbish disposal contracts as two issues which were substantive enough to warrant debate.

"Amazingly Partisan" Grace seems to believe that all issues between "rubbish disposal" and the War in Iraq are not really topics for debate by GOP Council members. Well, it seems to me that this kind of thinking is the kind of rubbish we need to remove from County Council

If multiple contractors are competing for work, wouldn't you expect that at least once a member of Council might disagree with the other four? Oh, wait, I forgot. This is Delaware County where no-bid contracts are the rule, not the exception.

This lack of debate and fresh ideas is symptomatic of the stagnation in Delaware County and the aging GOP political machine that has mismanaged it.

And what of the new crop of GOP hopefuls hopeless hapless? Well, council boss Andy Reilly is running their campaigns (translation: attaching the strings for the next generation of puppets).

Ann O'Keefe, John Innelli and David Landau are diverse individuals, but unified by a real desire for truly open government:

• end No-Bid contracts
  
• disallow members or employees of pension boards to accept any gifts from money managers,
  
• call for a swifter process for making county records available,
  
• broadcast all council meetings on television, and
  
• require the text of all proposed ordinances to be made public before the council considers them for final passage.

Instead of paying FIVE GOP Council people for ONE set of weak ideas, voters can finally get their money's worth.

This November, Voters can end this cycle of monolithic incompetence and vote for change (for a change).