I read an article in the newspaper yesterday concerning the outrageous conduct of Lehigh Valley based township supervisors and then the ethics complaints released by the State Ethics Commission. Bottom line: Pennsylvania has a problem and it starts with the Good Ole Boys.
Every part of PA has Good Ole Boys. They slap each other’s backs, make deals with other Good Ole Boys to broaden their scope of power and they drive how politics work at the state and local levels. Candidates are only successful with the Good Ole Boys and often are indebted to their power base. And too often, we are content to allow it to happen.
Philadelphia has Good Ole Boys in each part of the city, some based on old school ethnic groups, others on the union power brokers like Johnny Doc. It’s all spear-headed by the ultimate Good Ole Boy Bob Brady. This Good Ole Boy network breeds a mentality that creates Vince Fumo’s political activity and shuts out community based organizing. We also see it in Montgomery County where the chair of the county GOP actually holds a contract with the county for consulting services. We see the Good Ole Boys in Chester County where the majority commissioners intentionally held budget meetings at a local golf course without notifying the minority commissioner and the press. We see it in Harrisburg where the pay raise finally sent activist over the edge and helped to change the face of state government.
We can continue the list on and on. Chances are you have a network of Good Ole Boys in your neck of the woods (feel free to post the nature of that network in the comments section). But here’s the question I have for you: what have you done to change the Good Ole Boys network? Start by taking a look in the mirror. If you haven’t done anything, you are just as responsible for the smoke in the back room.
Pennsylvania needs to take a close look at its Good Ole Boys Networks. If not, we lose the right to be outraged when the next pay raise type action takes place, or when our local township supervisors misuse our public dollars for personal gain.
Pennsyltucky Boyz Win Ire
Couldn’t agree with you more.
Here’s a little snapshot of the Ole Boyz in Training shoes …fertile ground for more ‘creative’ judicial review to come.
http://campaignwatchdogs.blogspot.com/
This candidate has worked as Williams Township Solicitor for some 12 years -plus. They’ve got it down to a science. Not to mention, all parties wearing the protective cloak and long financial fingers of the local golden boy – developer who grew up in the Township, and has managed to maintain a monopoly on all major development in the Township since the dawn of time – 7 new developments in the township since 1999 alone.
Only now, it’s not looking so squeaky clean, as the Carte Blanche rubber-stamping on these projects has drawn ire from flood mitigation people who are convinced that this unchecked building has contributed to the massive destruction of property and homes downhill in the wake of Ivan and subsequent two floods. The Township’s response? Draw in the wagons; then – best defense is offense:
www.elucidator.com/something rotten in the township of william.
PaTUCKY POLITICKING OUT OF CONTROL
I realize this is a little old, but I just came across your post. DO you have a more recent post devoted to this?
WOW. WHY AREN’t THERE MORE RESPONSES TO THIS ISSUE?
This is a major WILD CARD topic.
The PA Commonwealth has created rich, fertile ground for cronyism, ‘governance’ based on personal agenda, and pattern violations of municipal planning codes with virtually NO accountability. It’s not that cronyism doesn’t happen elsewhere, it’s just that….
The way local PA governance is set up, NO OTHER LEVEL has jurisdiction over them, including: County, State, Feds. And, just to top things off, PA has overturned the one saving grace for fighting abuse of power. Meanwhile, the folks who pay the bills – local residents – are mostly forced into silent submission for fear they’ll be next when something comes up — backlashes are common.
SO, if “BIG gov’t” doesn’t have jurisdiction over what the local municipalities are doing, and the local TAXPAYERS are afraid to speak up for fear of retribution, what’s left?
Is it just me, or is
Local PA politics becoming the Short Bus version of Sopranoes?
HOW is it this has been allowed to continue?
I couldn’t agree more.
I couldn’t agree more. Local governance is pathetic. Cronyism at its worst. And mostly an “old boys network” of chronically stupid and uninformed local yokels.
What is SHOULD be is the strong, basic level of government which allows us all a voice. But, from what I’ve seen, it’s anything but…
Pilt
the pathetic thing is that
the pathetic thing is that the ONLY ones who can call the shots and to whom they’re supposed to be accountable to — local residents! — are afraid to speak up for fear of further retribution.
here’s a classic (hope host doesn’t mind my posting):
www.ipetitions.com/petition/stoplocalabuse
apparently, EVERYbody at the state level has been supporting this resident – and the yokels are thumbing their noses – lookin for new things to pull out of a hat. crist.
Used to live in PA. Loved
Used to live in PA. Loved the cities, couldn’t take the good ol’ boyz in the boonies.
Amazing thing – it’s smack between two major cities, and an hour away from NYC and still feels like it’s about 25 years behind the rest of the ‘union’. (???)
p.s. saw the link – i signed. what a story.
it’s pathetic.
you’d think they’d have some better things to do.
The Three Stooges and the Surly Solicitor
In our neck of the woods Warriors Mark PA we have supervisors that sit in a meeting every month and say nothing while the solicitor dictates how everything is done. It is sort of interesting to watch.
The solicitor’s firm, Goldstein, Heslop, Steele, Clapper and Oswalt, (Oswalt is the surly one) represents one of the developers in the township, who happens to get everything done without incident. It works out very well for him (Bruce Cox), the solicitor’s firm prepares all the documentation for the developer and then recommends to the township that they approve it. It pays to be one of the Good Ole Boys!
Now the rest of us have a different set of rules. We do as were told or else. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t in the ordinance, we live by their intent of the ordinance for that particular day. We are required to pay bills without knowing what there for and we are denied access to public documents because they are in control. When questioned at a public meeting our township secretary advised that she was instructed by the solicitor not to give us the detail to our bills.
Our Solicitor reviews and edits all the township minutes also. Is this to generate extra billing dollars for the firm or the good of the township? I’m not exactly sure. There is a court stenographer at every township meeting wouldn’t it be more prudent to have her transcribe than to pay the solicitor to review and edit minutes?
Then we have a supervisor that breaks every rule in the book, including a failed septic for over 7 years, 2 illegal subdivisions, and an $85,000.00 conservation grant on a portion of the illegal subdivision. The other supervisors and the solicitor refuse to address any of this. We have tried to no avail to find someone in county or state government to address some of this.
The township supervisors have as much power as god, they even sued a member of the community and won for a violation of the township minutes. I didn’t know that minutes were laws, I guess they are here. Two days after the award the district magistrate (Daniel Davis) suddenly resigned, only to find out a few months later that he was under investigation for misconduct in office. But the decision stands, it is beyond the 30 day appeal period.
I could go on forever, but I don’t think it will correct any of the problems. All roads lead to the previous secretary of Agriculture, Sam Hayes, by the way he lives here too. All these boys are his cronies.
Any suggestions? We can’t find an attorney willing to look at this.
Warriors Mark Good Ole' Boys
When’s the next election for supervisors?
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