Note that the complete, unedited text of Councilman Wilsey's letter follows this column below, and should be read first.
It's deja vu all over again. Councilman Dave Wilsey's Letter To The Editor in last week's Free Press practically parrots one that ran on May 26, 2005. From Ray Fulmer, then president of Quakertown Borough Council. Six months before the voters swept him out of office.
Dave, like Ray, questions my motives for writing, calls me an outsider, and suggests that I should find something else to do with my time. Dave, like Ray, criticizes me for revealing to you what council has done wrong. And Dave, like Ray offers not a single word explaining how I am wrong.
Wilsey's letter gives us a fascinating insight directly into a councilman's mind (no jokes, please). To wit...
"If you were to believe just one tenth of what he (Woldow) writes I would expect that we would see angry citizens demanding answers at council meetings..." This is absolutely classic! If townsfolk aren't storming council chambers to protest, there is little wrong in the borough. So that's why our elected leaders appear so unresponsive, and why so little is done. It's your fault for not coming to their meetings to tell them what's going on in the town they were elected to understand.
Yes, residents could air their dissatisfaction at council meetings, but they have chosen a different approach. In case anyone besides Wilsey has forgotten November, 2005, the results were David Zaiser 736, Don Rosenberger 696, Dan Williams 685...and Ray Fulmer 594. That's how the citizens show their anger, Dave.
"...at least a few people...have suggested publicly that he find a new hobby". It comes as no surprise that Wilsey, like Fulmer, would like me to stop writing. After all, who really wants their illegal, improper, and wasteful actions revealed publicly week after week? Life would be so much simpler for council if things just went back to the way they were before. No one watching. No one pointing out the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars wasted, the free stone delivery to Councilman Williams, the improper no-bid contracts, the skyrocketing electric and water rates, the illegal borough purchases from council members, the shenanigans of the manager and solicitor.
This all is particularly embarrassing to Wilsey, since he is the one who actually called for the illegal secret ballot for council president in January. And he is one of three councilmen caught doing business with their own town. And he staunchly defended manager Dave Woglom, proclaiming last year that there were no more illegal contracts, only to have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth pop up, with more to come.
"Why would he want to anger the very people who also weekly support the many businesses who rent from him"? Dave just doesn't get it; some people actually do care about honest government, even if it means risking personal comfort for the good of the community. I have done so. He surely has not. From his letter, and his actions on council, he doesn't even understand the concept.
"When someone who owns real estate in a neighboring community and lives almost an hour away is delivering a weekly whipping to your council and manager you have to wonder...what the motive is." A superb example of council-think . The world ends at the borough line. There is no intelligent life outside 18951. The truth is, these revelations can only be credibly made by someone who has no ties to Quakertown or council. Anyone who grows up in a small town knows everyone, probably on a first-name basis. Knows generations of their families, works with their friends. The kids go to school together. It would just be asking too much for a home-grown columnist to reveal their wrongdoings to the world.
And speaking of lifelong buddies in a small town, you would expect that Wilsey would have gone all out for his fellow Democratic candidate last year. But when Dave Zaiser ran for council, Wilsey did not make a single personal appearance, knock on a single door, or offer a single public statement on his bro's behalf. Perhaps because Wilsey didn't want to upset the cozy relationship he had curried with the five Republican councilpersons, most of whom are his - yep - lifelong buddies.
And borough employees won't take kindly to statements like "some (employees) were coached by Richard himself on the front steps of your borough hall and assumably (sic ) elsewhere" . What a ridiculous thing to say about his now-former allies, who he claims to "fully support". Public works employee Brian Weaver responded, "Richard Woldow had nothing to do with changing eleven people's votes (for union representation) from last year. Council and Dave Woglom did that all by themselves. Council (including Wilsey) never even came around to see what our problems were. How can they take care of the problems if they don't know about them?"
But if it actually was true, why are the employees so unhappy that they would talk to me rather than to Councilman Dave? The answer is the same as why citizens come to me rather than to council meetings. I care. I listen. I advocate for them. Things that Wilsey, and council, should be doing.
"Richard will suggest that we gave plenty of whippings to our employees. Well, they are really your employees...". Oh, really? If the people actually are the employers, Dave, how do they discipline the manager?
"When a mistake is made it should be acknowledged and corrected, not covered (up) and repeated and not attacked and fueled by someone pretending to be your advocate." A mistake? Try dozens. But the answer here is the simplest of all. If council acknowledges their mistakes, corrects them, and doesn't cover them up or repeat them, there will be no need for "your advocate". But until then...
The complete, unedited, uncorrected letter to the editor as sent by Councilman Dave Wilsey:
Dear Editor,
Richard Woldow's opinion column has uncovered the deepest darkest secret in Quakertown. The name of it is apathy. It is incredible to me that anyone can rant and rave against our borough for so long with so little response from the people.
If you were to believe just one tenth of what he writes I would expect that we would see angry citizens demanding answers at council meetings (they are open to the public). If you do not believe what he writes you would expect that at least a few people would have suggested publicly that he find a new hobby. But there is one of the problems right there.
Not many people are willing to be his next target and they probably rightly guess that he is not above making them it if not just for sport. When someone who owns real estate in a neighboring community and lives almost an hour away is delivering a weekly whipping to your council and manager you have to wonder, if only for a short time, what the motive is. Why would he want to anger the very people who also weekly support the many businesses who rent from him?
Well, what is the explanation? Is anyone asking? Are we going to keep our heads down while we get flogged some more?
Now Richard will suggest that we gave plenty of whippings to our employees. Well, they are really your employees and some were coached by richard himself on the front steps of your borough hall and assumably elsewhere. I wonder, for a short time at least what else he tells them.
They are a great group of people who had a a few ligitimate complaints which could have been handled far better and to the benefit of all parties. Now our labor will cost you more and they will likely get less. I fully support the right to unionize and intend to be generous in my attitude in negotiations, it is just unfortunate that neither our work force or our citizens will be better off.
Your council and manager and solicitor are human, as I assume the reader is, and we make mistakes. I probably make more than most and have made a boatload of them in my lifetime.( Go ahead and dig richard.)
When a mistake is made it should be acknowledged and corrected, not covered and repeated and not attacked and fueled by someone prentending to be your advocate. A few grains of sand never made a beach and an honest mistake corrected promptly has never made a scandal without the addition of ill willed fuel.
As Richard's sophomoric diatribe continues are you going to raise "holy heck" at council meetings or remain as we have been (The Silent Majority)? Is anyone interested? Do you care?!
If so, consider a move out of his silent majority. It surely will continue as he has lots of time, money and venom to spend on his truths, nontruths, exagerations and inuendos.
My family is among the founding fathers of this community and we have been here all along. My mother informs me that we have had our heads down in this town as long as she can remember. I suggest that it is time to raise them and see where we can go. Identify who is with us and who is against us.
Richard Woldow has called me and many others many different names. Some of these names I have not been called since junior high school. "The Lap Dog" was especially enjoyed by my sister-in-law(yes,it is funny and I am an easy target). I refrain from calling people silly names like we did when we were kids.
And no, my shift key is not broken.
Dave Wilsey
Quakertown Borough Councilman