The three Democrats running for Delaware County Council held a press conference on the steps of the Media courthouse to advance their list of proposed reforms to county government. In the course of Alex Rose’s reporting of the event in the Delco Times, it sounds to me as if County Director all but admitted that the Delaware County Council routinely and deliberately violates the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.

County Director Marianne Grace later explained everything on the agenda has already been discussed and examined throughout the week leading up to the council meeting.

By the time council votes publicly on the items, everyone understands what they’re voting on and why, so there is no need for council to discuss, she said. Some agenda items are routinely summarized during the meeting for the audience anyway.

The point of the PA Sunshine Act is not only to have public meetings at which official votes are recorded. No, the point of the Act is to allow citizens to witness and respond to the entire decision making process of our elected governments.

65 Pa.C.S.A. § 702. Legislative findings and declaration

(a) Findings. — The General Assembly finds that the right of the public to be present at all meetings of agencies and to witness the deliberation, policy formulation and decisionmaking of agencies is vital to the enhancement and proper functioning of the democratic process and that secrecy in public affairs undermines the faith of the public in government and the public’s effectiveness in fulfilling its role in a democratic society.

[Later…]

65 Pa.C.S.A. § 704. Open meetings

Official action and deliberations by a quorum of the members of an agency shall take place at a meeting open to the public unless closed under section 707 (relating to exceptions to open meetings), 708 (relating to executive sessions) or 712 (relating to General Assembly meetings covered).

Council meetings aren’t televised, and they’re held at 10:00 AM Tuesday mornings, when most of us are at work. If you want to see your one-party Council perform a rigged show of governance, you can spend a half day of your vacation time to fund out what they’re up to. [Meeting Schedule].

I did my roundup of Delco council election news on Wednesday night, only to discover that the Inquirer ran an article the next day about how David Landau’s aggressive campaign for Delaware County Council is pressuring the GOP. A couple key passages stand out.

The only thing missing from the Delco2007.com site seems to be the word Republican.

Unlike Landau and O’Keefe, whose sites prominently identify them as Democrats, the three Republicans do not use their party affiliation. They are described as “independent and experienced.”

Strange for endorsed candidates who control all five council seats and every row office to conceal their party affiliation.

Like my piece did, the Inky picked up on the attempt to increase Landau’s negatives by tagging him as an “ACLU lawyer”:

“He is an ACLU lawyer,” McGarrigle said in an interview. “Lawyers like that tend to care more about criminals and cop killers than residents of Delaware County.”

When asked, McGarrigle could not cite anything specific in Landau’s background to support the accusation.

Sensing the barbarians at the gate, the GOP ticket announced today that they’re setting a combined goal of 10,000 door knocks.

Most of the serious jousting in municipal elections happens after all the kiddies have returned to school, but the Delco County Council race has been unusually hot this Summer. In case you’ve missed anything, here a a bunch of links to help you catch up.

Above Average Jane posted an interview with David Landau. Jane’s long-format interviews with notable PA candidates are among the best original, informational contributions from any area blogger. Her interview with David was her first (and hopefully not her last) for the 2007 elections.

David’s Democratic running mate, Ann O’Keefe launched her new campaign site.

Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-07) held a roundtable along with all three Democratic County Council candidates to support their push for a new county health department. Both the Delco Times and the Evening Bulletin covered.

Up in Montgomery County, the Republican candidates for County Council are trying to distance themselves from the national Republican party by calling for the dismissal of Alberto Gonzales. (Hilariously, though, their press release called him “Roberto.”) In the meantime, their Delco counterparts are trying to say that the 2007 election is a local election; they claim the disarray of Republicans nationally will not be a factor in local races. (Keep telling yourselves that, Andrew Reilly!)

David Landau’s making the case that County Council is pandering to the wealthier Western sections of Delco, at the expense of the inner ring communities like Lansdowne and Yeadon. Landau held a press conference with Lansdowne Mayor Jayne Young, who agrees with him.

The Delco GOP is claiming that they’re the environmental party. (No, seriously!)

Landau met with local union members at Steelworkers local 10-1 in Linwood. Take special note later in the article at how the Republicans laughably try to label Landau as an ACLU lawyer. They’ve used the tag repeatedly in recent public statements. It’s true that David worked for the ACLU decades ago. The problem for them is that the ACLU has strong credibility among David’s core Democratic supporters, who are sick of encroachments on civil liberties by the Bush administration. The association will simply not damage him at all among independents and any non-dittohead Republicans, either. Those machine guys have been drinking the one-party water for too long, that they’re still stuck on 1988 talking points. (And by the way, isn’t that nationalizing the debate?)

David Landau’s campaign office held it’s grand opening. Joe Sestak and State Rep. Greg Vitali (PA-166), were in attendence at the celebration in Clifton Heights.

Here concludes our roundup. And that’s just covering the news in the last 10 days, here in the dog days of August.

The David Landau for County Council campaign is setting up its HQ in Clifton Heights, right in the heart of the County. The campaign staff have planned a grand opening celebration for August 12th. The Republican Party has held all the seats on County Council for over 30 years, but that streak will end in 2007. David will talk about the path to Democratic victory in November.

When: Sunday, August 12th, 3-6 PM.
Where: 400 N. Springfield Rd, Clifton Heights. [Google map]

Refreshments will be served.

When Springfield businessman and ex-Republican Rocco Polidoro narrowly finished fourth in the primary–off the November ballot for Delaware County Council–it was unclear what his next step would be. It was nice to read his letter to the editor in today’s Delco Times. In it, he very thoroughly reviewed what’s at stake for Delco voters in the November municipal election. I’m pulling a few highlights here, but the full text is worth reading.

First, the strangeness of our local government’s party imbalance:

For the last 32 years, there hasn’t been a Democrat elected to county council. All five council members are Republicans and all five are lawyers. There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania and other than a very small county in the northern part, we are the only county government in the state that does not have two-party representation.

One of the great GOP myths is that they’re the part of small government. The Delco machine is a little county’s government writ large, as it’s built on patronage. Says Polidoro:

Delco employs 1,000 more employees than Bucks. And remember, Bucks has more than 50,000 more residents.

Compared to Montgomery County, Delco has 200,000 fewer residents, but yet spends $103 million more than Montco. Even though Montco is 40 percent larger in population, Delco employs 400 more employees.

Both Montco and Bucks include their prison employees in their total numbers, whereas Delco does not. And if you were to factor the prison employees back into these calculations, it would show that Delco is employing even more than our two neighboring counties.

Polidoro concludes by asking voters to consider supporting the three Democratic candidates for Delaware County Council: David Landau (Nether Providence), Anne O’Keefe (Haverford) , and John Innelli (Rose Valley). I want to express my personal appreciation to Mr. Polidoro for his continuing efforts on behalf of the whole ticket, and for the worthwhile cause of machine-busting in Delco.

Ornery Delco Times pundit Gil Spencer has never missed an opportunity to tweak freshman Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-7). In his most recent column, he performed a useful journalistic service while dishing out his usual critique of all things Sestak.

Gil got the goods on who Sestak’s opponent might be in 2008. Delco GOP candidates don’t run in primaries. They obtain blessings from machine power brokers like Upper Darby’s John McNichol. According to Spencer, two men are currently courting the approval of the war boarders–attorney Steve Elliott and wealthy real estate developer Tim Pulte. McNichol pulled no punches in explaining to the Times columnist how his party sizes up its potential candidates:

It was Pulte, Upper Darby GOP leader John McNichol mentioned first.

“He’s an attractive candidate, but his family is a little reluctant.”

Which is to say, he’s “interested,” but his wife is less so.

While not dismissive of Elliott, who is a state department lawyer with excellent national security credentials, McNichol looks at all the money Pulte could bring into the race with him.

“The family has a ton of money,” McNichol says, and the candidate would have his own “personal fortune” from which to draw.

“He’s never been in the political arena,” McNichol said of Pulte, but …

“He knew a lot about Sestak. He’s done his research and if he became the candidate, he’d get in there with both feet.”

McNichol was less enthusiastic about Elliott, but only because of his lack of dough.

“He’s well spoken and knows the issues,” said McNichol. “He’s a credible looking candidate.” But, he said, “We’re a ways from making any decisions.” That won’t happen until after Labor Day.

Sestak already has over $1M cash-on-hand saved up for 2008. He can also count on the DCCC defending him like Fort Knox if his race gets even remotely close. The GOP has no choice but to consider fundraising prowess in choosing a candidate to back.

News came out this week of a noteworthy fence mending in the long quarrel between factions of Democratic Party in Delaware County. The long tenure of Chairman Cliff Wilson has been controversial. Wilson has many loyal supporters in municipalities throughout Delco. But the list of grievances among his detractors is long. The anger against him from municipal committees in some sections of the County has been seething and festering for years. The disagreements over party leadership came to a head a year ago, when Radnor Chairman Bruce Bikin challenged Wilson for the chairmanship. A close and disputed vote of the County Committee resulted in a razor-thin 163-161 margin for Wilson. Due to some questionable shenanigans during the voting, those results had been lingering in an appeals process with the state committee for over a year.

I’ve been a frequent critic of Wilson’s leadership tactics. I have been accused of doing nothing to promote healing of intra-party tension. I accept that criticism, but maintain that the ultimate burden for bringing about peace has to start at the top. To be clear, I don’t have a bone to pick with Wilson on a personal level. I don’t know him well, and he’s always been at least cordial with me. But I have witnessed plenty of ways in which I have felt that what he was trying to create machine-style politics in Delco, built on the Philadelphia model. My great passion in politics is for busting machines. Machines are corrosive to democracy. They reduce power from debates about governance and policy into favor-currying courtships of a few power brokers.

I will witness and participate in breaking up the stranglehold of the Delco Republicans’ 100-year dominance. The real problem in Delco isn’t Wilson, it’s the Catania-Sexton-McNichol model of political control. But I’m not out busting my hump so that Delco can play “Here’s your new boss, same as your old boss.”

My preference is for a dynamic network of non-monolithic local committees, with a county committee that is capable of providing logistical and financial support for campaigns at all levels. I want good, progressive leaders in government. Parties are just a means to that end.

I have concluded that the party that I want to be a member of will not be entirely possible until after Wilson’s tenure has concluded. Even so, I’ve always been willing to convert my swords to plowshares for the sake of good candidates. Always.

Back to our story. The Delco Times reported this week that Wilson and Bikin sat down to forge a long-overdue compromise. (Full story here.) It’s a small, but important first step. Finally, Wilson has let somebody from outside of his inner circle of supporters have a seat at the table. This may not mean an end to the disagreement, but at least now there’s a civil and appropriate avenue for necessary debates to take place.

Blessed are the peacemakers.