For those who missed the August 5th program, the NBC10 Live @ Issue program is available online. Both Congressman Joe Sestak and State Representative Bryan Lentz are interviewed.

Bryan Lentz also has posted video of the July 23rd hearing on HB1182 held by the PA House Transportation Committee in Ridley Township. HB1182 is the Lentz’s bill proposing to create a regional airport authority.

Rep. Bryan Lentz, (D, PA-161) annouced on Friday that he’ll introduce legislation to strengthen the Commonwealth’s Sunshine Act. The measure reportedly has the support of the Local Government Committee Chairman Robert Freeman, (D, PA-136).

Sunshine laws (or open meeting laws) enhance the public’s ability to monitor their government by carefully limiting the topics that may be discussed by a government council or board in private meetings. Despite the law, many such bodies do not adhere to the law’s requirements.

Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania law is effectively toothless. According to 65 Pa.C.S.A. § 714:

Any member of any agency who participates in a meeting with the intent and purpose by that member of violating this chapter commits a summary offense and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $100 plus costs of prosecution.

So the penalty is a mere slap on the wrist, and that only if a brave citizen takes legal action, and the officials can be demonstrated to have participated with the intent to subvert the law.

Recent alleged misconduct in Haverford has brought the issue of the Sunshine Act back to the fore. The Governor has indicated that he’s in favor of toughening the law. Lentz, a reform-oriented freshman from Delaware County who sits on the Local Government Committee, is the right person to get the ball rolling.

Because Delaware County has lived under one-party rule for thirty years, this is an issue on which I’m unusually sensitive. In fact, the only time I have marched into a public meeting and griped at my municipal commissioners was when allegations arose that they’d been discussing out-of-bounds topics in executive session.

Daddy Democrat endorses the efforts of any legislators, regardless of party, to strengthen the Sunshine Act. My gratitude goes out, yet again, to Bryan Lentz. Politically, everybody knows I’m a big supporter of his, but so far, he’s done everything to deserve my continued trust.

The committee assignments for the PA House haven’t been posted on their web site yet, but the Delco Times print edition reported yesterday that Bryan Lentz (PA-161) was informed by Appropriations Committee Chair Dwight Evans, that he will have a seat on the coveted committee.

Tom Gannon didn’t have a seat on Appropriations; those who are concerned about a potential loss of influence in Harrisburg by trading in a 28-year incumbent for a freshman representative should be reassured that district interests will make it to the table.

When I last mentioned the FAA flight path issue, it was in connection to a local acoustical engineer’s assertion that the maps distributed by the Delaware County Council and Repubican candidates mischaracterized the available data.

Working on a pro bono basis, said engineer, Carr Everbach, advised the county workers who developed new, corrected maps a month ago. The maps show how much audible sound residents would likely experience should the FAA’s changes move forward. Despite the completion of the maps, and Prof. Everbach’s repeated requests, the maps were not made available until the end of last week–two days after the election. If you would like to see the maps, they are on the County web site. (Start by viewing the map called “Percentage change in noise levels.” Sones, rather than the decibels, are the relevant unit for we ground-dwelling beings.)

Given that Tom Gannon had essentially staked his entire re-election bid on his stance ont he FAA, it’s hard not to be suspicious. After all, his campaign had printed large signs plastered at polling sites and at area businesses that said “Keep Tom Gannon Fighting the FAA.” In order for Gannon’s gambit to work, he needed that data to be overwhelmingly bad. Rep. Gannon continued to claim that the potential noise increase would be upwards of 1000%–even in the final days before the election. Even though the error had been pointed out weeks before. It just doesn’t get people worked up into sufficient lather if you say that there might be 10-90% increases in noise levels. 90% is not 1000%, even though it may be damned loud.

Of course, I can’t prove that the release of the maps was quashed until after the election. But it sure has trouble passing the sniff test, doesn’t it?

I don’t want more planes flying over my head. And I expect my representatives to protect our local interests to the fullest extent possible. But I also don’t like flouting the truth about data. On Friday, I heard of a local resident in an adjacent ward who is putting her house for sale fearing the possibility of planes flying overhead. A full-scale real estate panic would be the worst possible outcome of fudged data.

Everybody knows how the rest of the slate went, but I know that I’m getting a lot of hits from people trying to get results on the Lentz-Gannon race (PA House 161).

Bryan Lentz has won. The margin was slim, a few hundred votes. All day long, people asked me what I thought was going to happen. I said that it would be a few hundred votes either way.

But it went the right way.

That’s it for now. I’m exhausted and have developed a tummy ache. But I’ll rest well knowing that we pulled off the clean sweep in our little neck of the woods.

Update: Pics!

I’ve been at the polling place in Nether Providence Township since 6:15 AM. It’s impossible to know how things are really going, but here’s how it feels on the ground in our little sliver of the Philly burbs:

In the morning, the Republican base was out. They’re always there. This is a majority Republican district by registration, and it’s a community that votes. Hopes of a disgraced and discouraged Republican base staying away from the polls are, to my senses, wishful thinking. This is a fairly affluent, mostly white suburb, still tied to a county GOP machine. Your mileage may vary.

There are plenty of Republicans who will gladly tell you for whom they’re splitting their tickets.

The Democrats who are showing up to the polls are often angry. They don’t like the sleezey way that their candidates were attacked. One lady railed on the local GOP commissioner for more than five minutes about the disgusting ads that our local state rep, Tom Gannon, lobbed at his Democratic opponent, Bryan Lentz (PA-House 161). Others were suspicious and mad about the awkwardness of our polling site. This is probably a reaction to the national mood. Our local judge of elections, though a member of the other party, plays it straight and clean. I don’t think you’d come across a more civil and fair election board anywhere. Both parties work together at our site to make it work right.

Dems are motivated, and Republicans are still coming out, although we don’t know how they’re splitting their tickets.

The one thing I’m sure of: the independents are with us. That’s the group that’s approaching the outside workers and saying, “I’m an independent, but I’m voting straight Democrat this time.” I’d be willing to bet that the registered “NP’s” are voting so overwhlemingly in our favor that if I were a Democratic operative, I’d play the numbers game and turnout independents, period.

If I were a Republican in this neighborhood, I’d be allergic to every NP voter unless I had a voter ID from a previous canvass already in pocket.

By 2:00, our precinct, which has over 900 voters, had already seen 370 walk through the doors. We have an additional 31 absentee ballots returned.

My son came in and helped his mom and dad vote. He made sure we did it just right.

Now we’re at home. Our polls are staffed well and its the slow hour. In an hour, I’m taking some Tylenol and heading back out.

I burst out laughing when I looked out the front window this morning. Our neighbor went a little crazy with some Rendell signs that he recovered from the trash pile at an event site. I knew he wasn’t a Lynn Swann fan, but this was a pretty wild statement.

I congratulated him when I saw him later. The Tom Gannon squad was out doing a lit-drop in our neighborhood. I watched as they skipped his house and ours. I told him those signs were a powerful signal, and joked that the angel of death would pass over his house this night.