When candidates actually keep their campaign promises, it makes big headlines around here. Unlike two years ago.
David Zaiser is the most recent addition to Quakertown council. He has officially attended two meetings (three if you count the illegal vote fiasco). But he is already delivering on his promise to make borough leaders, and council's agenda and actions, more accessible to the public. "More accessible" is a relative term, since, until now, it has been zero.
You have complaints? Suggestions? Good luck, bunky. Round up a babysitter, shell out for gasoline, and come to a meeting. There are no council emails, addresses, or phone numbers published, as you find in many other municipalities.
What has council done for you lately? What will they be discussing next? A curious citizen seeking the agenda, or minutes, of a council meeting has to go personally to borough manager David Woglom and request a copy. It allows Woglom to keep track of who asks for what. Our own little version of domestic spying. Intimidation with a capital W.
These government-in-secret policies have been in place for decades. But within weeks of taking office, Zaiser has proposed that each council member have an individual email, published on the borough website. Along with the agenda for upcoming meetings. Ditto for minutes of prior meetings. Welcome to 21st Century Government.
Quakertown will no doubt "study" the ideas, as Woglom searches for a way to stay in control of the flow of information. But any council member (or borough manager) who opposes this should be publicly flogged. And once these baby steps are taken, it will be time to adopt a full ethics bill. Stop councilmen from selling to their own borough. Follow bidding laws for contracts. Restore citizens' trust.
The good news across town is the rollout of The Staats Plan in Richland. New supervisor Craig Staats campaigned on controlling development by restricting developers' access to sewer and water, rather than just relying on antiquated, ineffective zoning laws. To do this, Richland needs to revise its 1997 Comprehensive Plan to coordinate with the sewer and water plans.
This sounds so basic, but things have been a mess. Planning Commission members in 1997, including chairwoman Jane Steeley her RCA friends, skewed the Comprehensive Plan to direct development away from their own homes. As a result, there were many areas of Richland that were either zoned for development, or had water service, or available sewer, but not all three. Developers could claim a legal right to build in any of those places, effectively thwarting efforts at control.
Like Zaiser, Staats wasted no time in turning campaign promises into action. Almost the entire Board of Supervisors meeting last week was spent in officially presenting his plan, including open space preservation, park and recreation facilities, and traffic control.
What a contrast from two years ago, when Mike Zowniriw was elected on empty control-development promises. Z's reign has been marred by one disaster after another: improper correspondence to a judge, a failed accusation that his own township staff engaged in spot zoning, and a lawsuit from neighbors who claim he has constantly been harrassing them, including shutting off their water. Richland police records show that cops responded to calls involving the Zowniriws more than twenty times in the past year.
He failed to show up at the township golf outing, the dedication of the new Stu Woods police station, and the annual volunteer/staff appreciation dinner, and didn't participate in Community Day. He sought membership on the Planning Commission after campaigning that supervisors should not be on boards and committees.
He attempted to have his own wife and campaign chairman placed on a township board, and called volunteers at their homes to berate them for not voting as he wanted. At township meetings, he refuses to stand for the opening prayer, and childishly turns to face the wall when he opposes something.
And he has done nothing to deal with development. The man seems to have absolutely no idea how to go about it: While Richland cannot stop landowners from developing their private property according to law, it can require developers to make road improvements to handle additional traffic. The Station Road extension, Old Beth roundabout, and Reagan Drive are solid, professionally-planned improvements that Richland required developers to pay for. Supervisor Zowniriw opposed these projects.
And, in December, Z once again decided that he knew more about traffic management than the engineers and planners. The builder of the proposed 27-home Richland Green only wanted to construct a partial left-turn lane exiting the development. Richland's professionals wanted a full lane. Unbelievably, Zowniriw suggested allowing the partial, and getting an easement for a future additional lane.
Taxpayers would have ended up with the legal costs, and expense of building the full road. The thrilled developer could include the easement area in his calculation of open space, though it might be gone. The worst possible scenario! Thank goodness Z is outvoted. What the residents expected from Zowniriw, they are finally getting from Staats.
While Staats was detailing his plan, point by point, Z was visibly uncomfortable, forced to sit through a well-prepared roadmap for the future of Richland. He twice interrupted, claiming that Staats was making a "political statement". But, in the end, he had no choice. He swallowed hard and voted to accept The Staats Plan, proclaiming to be "100% behind it".
Moments after the Richland meeting ended, Zowniriw showed up at the Quakertown pow-wow, privately approaching a councilman about getting wife Amy the contract to write and maintain the borough website. Just what Qtown needs - the Zowniriws having total access to all of those new borough emails and information.
Even council isn't that foolish. Are they?