What do David Copperfield and Quakertown Borough Manager David Woglom have in common? They are both illusionists - and very, very good at making things disappear.
Even as council has finally begun the process of interviewing companies to investigate, and evaluate, what Woglom has done over the past many years, he is magically keeping those problems from public view. Abracadabra! Ta-dah! Any word of the investigation has disappeared! And a whole lot more is missing too...
Flash back to April 5, 2006. After years of indifference, council finally agreed to hire professionals to investigate Woglom's illegal contracts, illegal purchases, illegal meetings, and illegal votes. And create a real set of rules for the manager (whoever he/she may be), to hopefully end the embarrassing situations created by Woglom's shenanigans.
Two months went by, and nothing happened. Did one of the Davids - Copperfield or Woglom - wave his magic wand and make an entire investigation disappear? There was reason to worry when a council member commented, "We're not going to find out there's gross mismanagement on the part of the borough manager."
Of course, everyone has his/her own definition of "gross mismanagement". If you can overlook $200,000 worth of illegal contracts, an $800,000 cost overrun on the municipal pool, $1 million wasted on Krupp clean-up, 18 violations of the Sunshine law, soaring electric rates because Woglom didn't understand the contract, $800,000 in overcharges repaid to Bucks County Water and Sewer, a union coming to Qtown because the workers despise Woglom, and lots, lots, lots more, then, hocus-pocus, there is no gross mismanagement. That was easy!
Then there are Woglom's own vanishing tricks. One of his responsibilities is to prepare the written agenda for council's meetings. You know, the agendas that are now available on the borough's Web site, so you can supposedly see what is to be discussed by your elected leaders. But, in March, he omitted the announcement that the contractor who remodeled the train station was suing the borough for more than $50,000. Suing over a contract administered by Woglom.
Then, the April 5 agenda had no mention of a key item: President Dennis Hallman's admission that Woglom had handed out yet another illegal contract (number 11!), part of the Mill Street speed humps, without competitive pricing. On May 5, he left off the appearance of the Operating Engineers union, which had been promised the opportunity to address council about borough workers who are furious with the way Woglom has treated them. The item was added at the last minute only after the union's business agent reamed Woglom a new earhole in a phone conversation.
Finally, on May 24, he apparently "forgot" the executive session, already announced to council members, where they were to begin the interview process to choose the people who will investigate him.
Illusionists use misdirection to focus the audience's attention elsewhere. Like Woglom's three-paragraph memo to "All Employees" dated May 12, 2006. "Effective immediately, no employee shall order or purchase goods and services, or in any way commit the Borough to the spending of money without the prior approval of the employee's Department Head." It concluded with the threat of "disciplinary action, including potential termination of employment" for any violation of this rule.
The concept makes perfect sense. Except when you read the entire memo, you find that there is one person apparently exempt from the required checks and balances - the borough manager! Woglom. No one has to approve his spending. No one is designated to make sure that he is getting the required prices and bids before handing out contracts. Talk about fooling the public. It was Woglom who handed out all of those illegal no-bid contracts, not the department heads. It was Woglom who authorized the illegal purchases of more than $15,000 worth of supplies from businesses owned by, or employing, council members. It was Woglom who illegally bought his own borough car without getting bids.
None of these previous improprieties were the actions of the innocent employees who are now being singled out, and threatened with termination, for violations far, far less egregious than Woglom committed with impunity over and over and over again.
One worker reacted, "We have no problem with the memo Dave sent us as far as spending money. That only affects certain people. We have a problem with all the money he spent with nothing done to him, but now if we do it we might get fired."
And no one seems to know what happened to the "updated procurement procedures" that Woglom told us he put in place in March, 2005, after he was first caught handing out contracts. Presto Change-o! Another Woglom illusion. He apparently was exempt from those rules too, because council took no disciplinary action when he purchased the heat tape for the Mill Street speed humps without proper pricing procedures. But councilman David Zaiser says things will now be different: "I don't know what the prior procedures were. I do know that one of the things I am going to insist on from this evaluation is a written procedure followed to the T".
Meanwhile, borough workers are so upset about their new health insurance (which Woglom forced on them after opting out himself) that they are talking about yet another lawsuit against the town.
The sad fact is, under the current "strong manager/weak council" form of government, the borough manager has wide-ranging powers. Perhaps too wide for one person, which is why only eight of the state's 961 boroughs choose this system. So much is riding on the judgment and ethics of that one person, who is not even elected by the citizens, and not directly answerable to them. Quakertown is a perfect example of the dangers of trusting the wrong man.