School is back in session, and Quakertown borough council has been paying very close attention in class.
Let it never be said that council members don't learn from their mistakes. I'm not referring to the mistakes they made by handing out over $200,000 in illegal no-bid contacts. I mean the mistakes they made by allowing someone to catch them. For months, the town has grudgingly handed over document after document proving council's improper conduct.
But I guess they just got tired of sending themselves to the principal's office, week after week, for everything from paving to landscaping to the municipal pool to Borough Manager Dave Woglom's car, all purchased without any of the steps required by law. Laws which were passed to protect your tax dollars from wasteful spending.
And I guess they got tired of residents learning how council just ignored the necessary resolutions, much like a teenager ignores weekend homework on a Friday night. And how Council President Ray Fulmer, who should have signed all of those resolutions, apparently lost his pencil box.
But now they have learned a new approach. Deny that anything exists. No documents, therefore no proof. You can almost hear them high-fiving each other for this stroke of genius. Frankly, I'm surprised that it took them this long to think of it. Then, again, this is Quakertown borough council.
The Open Records Law requires that they turn over the papers requested, but it does not allow anyone to go through the files to see if they have actually complied. So, when I asked for all of the documents for a $5140 valve repair, their answer: " None".
Explanation of a $5036 "water facility replacement"??? " None".
$5625 worth of stone, topsoil, and "special recreation mulch??? " None".
Fire hydrants for $7998??? $5669 worth of "special computer software for vehicle fleet maintenance"??? $15,860 for an "electronic transformer"???
Second verse same as the first. " None". "None". "None".
And these questionable expenses came from studying only three random months out of the last three years! Who knows how many dozen more "undocumented" contracts are out there? It is simply amazing that this borough can transact tens - perhaps hundreds - of thousands of dollars worth of business with no purchase orders, proposals, bids, scopes of work, contracts, invoices, warranties, manuals, or any type of paperwork. If a publicly-owned company tried to get away with this, it would be in the same reform school as Enron or Worldcom.
But this is Quakertown borough council. Your tax dollars at work.
On November 8, you have a chance to shout like fifth period recess, " Learn this lesson, council. It's report card time, and you have just flunked out ."
Three members are up for re-election. Expel one. Maybe President Fulmer, a former teacher himself, who has done nothing about the pattern of impropriety, even after it became public. To this day he has never offered either an explanation or an apology. Grade: F.
Or perhaps Dan Williams, the councilman "least likely to succeed", who may have had no clue about the contracts (and other issues as well), but did receive a free delivery of crushed stone for his alley from Woglom, at taxpayer expense. No explanations, no apology. This is truly Quakertown borough.
Elect someone who will stand up to these class bullies, and keep them from repeatedly beating us up and stealing our lunch money. Then, in 2007, maybe another honest candidate or two will get the school spirit and take on the local political machine. One bad apple at a time, this mess can be cleaned up.
Next month, teach your leaders a real lesson: Let them know that the biggest mistake they ever made was forgetting that they were elected to represent the people, not rule them.
Playing By The Rules?
Despite the serious subject matter, there was some black comedy at the Richland Board of Supervisors meeting on September 26, where the supes voted unanimously to change the zoning code to allow much-needed parks and recreational facilities, including the new YMCA.
Jane Steeley, a founding member of the Richland Citizens Alliance, spoke six different times. She kept repeating "All we want is for Richland to play by the rules".
What hypocrisy for Steeley, and the RCA, to invoke the idea of rules. That concept hasn't meant much to them in the past. It starts with Supervisor Mike Zowniriw, who wrote a secret letter to a judge, and was sternly rebuked by him. Z also shut off water to his elderly neighbors, and ignored his own agreement to remedy the situation. The Intelligencer wrote on April 14, 2005, "...he has no business being a supervisor."
And don't be surprised if he tries to get around the rules and change his vote on the parks.
The Steeleys live on Station Road, and loudly decry development there, but in 1998 they applied to subdivide their property and change the zoning to commercial. Phil Steeley was physically removed from a polling place by state police in 1997 when he tore down his wife's opponent's signs.
Patrick Murphy was the subject of an editorial in the Intelligencer on November 12, 2003: "When an individual stands up and purposely tries to disrupt a public meeting, that's wrong".
RCA co-chair Susan Cooke asked the supervisors to change the rules and rezone all Rural Agriculture land in Richland to Resource Protection, a move that would have cost about 900 landowners (none RCA) millions of dollars in value.
RCA co-chair Paul F.A. Maderson shut down his Bed & Breakfast last year after the township caught him violating zoning rules.
RCA candidate for supervisor Vic Stevens has been running campaign ads without the legally-required statement of who placed them.
But, remember, this is the RCA. Rules Cannot Apply.