Posted by: wcdem2 | January 10, 2010

Text of Mayor Comitta’s Inaugural Address

(at Borough Hall, noon, 1/4/10)

Happy New Year, Borough of West Chester! We can be happy and proud today. West Chester is the envy of towns all across America! We are a county seat; we host one of the nation’s premier state universities; our school district is tops and our citizens are caring and capable. Our diverse communities are closely interconnected. Our challenges affect us all. And our successes benefit us all.

As your Mayor, I will focus on three key initiatives to support my campaign pledge of a West Chester that is “Safe, clean and green”:

My first priority will be safety and economics:

The goal is to keep West Chester a safe place. People love to live, work, learn and visit West Chester because they feel comfortable and safe.

The Mayor’s primary role is to oversee the administration of the West Chester Police Department. Read More…

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Posted in Borough

Posted by: wcdem2 | November 9, 2009

More logic and less denunciation

letter by chair of West Chester Dem Committee, Daily Local News, Monday, November 9, 2009

It must be comforting to have a “for us or against us” world view. We see it every day in columns and letters.

Cal Thomas, in “Communism’s enablers and the excusers” (Daily Local, Nov. 6), is his usual intransigent self, charging that “enablers in academia, religion and journalism” prolonged the existence of the Soviet Union and that some unspecified “media” are somehow encouraging “the Chinese brand of communism.”

I’m betting that most U.S. “leftists” (by which I think he means “non-Republicans”) and “media” (whatever he includes there) give a lot of attention to China’s oppression of Tibetans and human rights organizations, and to how U.S. political and business leaders have allowed China to suck out more and more U.S. jobs and dollars ever since Richard Nixon opened up relations with his 1972 visit.

The problem with thinkers like Thomas is that they take one or two incidents and run with them to the far extremes. History is not that simple. If someone points out that Cubans have universal health care and (as Thomas quotes from a 2006 AP story) “top-notch doctors,” why does that writer have to be a Castro admirer? If someone points out that lack of health insurance is a problem in our country, is that person a “leftist” — or, someone pointing out a problem that needs a solution?

Speaking of health care, John de Carville’s letter “Even Estrich sees through the folly” (also Nov. 6) shows the same trajectory as Thomas’ column. First, Estrich is certainly not, as he claims, a “leftist,” but basically a centrist anti-Obama Democrat (also the first woman manager of a presidential campaign and a regular commentator on Fox News).

Secondly, the “handout party” (by which he seems to mean Democrats) did not create the U.S. post office (that was Benjamin Franklin) or Amtrak (that was again Nixon — making him a notorious Communist sympathizer, I guess). And the health bills under consideration in Washington have no resemblance to de Carville’s “taking over one-sixth of the economy.”

So you see the progression: Susan Estrich criticizes flu vaccine distribution + a few historical notes, some erroneous + a total exaggeration of bills before Congress = denunciation of “hope and change.”

Fortunately, the Daily Local editorials are usually better reading, like “Low voter turnout indicates it’s time for some changes” (Nov. 6), asking whether county row offices should become professional appointed positions rather than elected with a large dose of partisan political patronage. That’s not a “for us or against us” screed, but a logical, well-documented call for, in that writer’s words, “a true conversation.”

Nathaniel Smith
West Chester

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Posted in National

Posted by: wcdem2 | November 5, 2009

Tom Paxson prevails in contested 5th Ward race

Daily Local News, November 5, 2009

By DAN KRISTIE

WEST CHESTER — Only one Borough Council race was contested in Tuesday’s election.

Democrat Tom Paxson, a salesman for a pipe company, and Independent Dave LaLeike, a freelance artist, were running for the Fifth Ward seat that is being vacated by Councilwoman Carolyn Comitta.

Paxson won, with 157 votes, or 58 percent. LaLeike, who did not appear on the ballot, ran a write-in campaign. Voters submitted 114 write-in ballots, and unofficial returns indicate that 113 of them were for LaLeike.

Despite the two candidates’ efforts, only 15 percent of the voters in the Fifth Ward came to the polls. The rest of West Chester’s municipal races were uncontested, and turnout across the borough was similarly low. …

keep reading at Daily Local News

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Posted in Borough

Posted by: wcdem2 | November 5, 2009

11/3/09 election congratulations, results & analysis

WC Dem committee and activists,

Thank you all for all your efforts leading up to yesterday!

Our WC Dem team won every municipal or precinct race in the Borough. Congratulations to our many Dem or Dem-supported winners! Barring any unexpected overturn in the official results, they are (and this is a lot of public-spirited people), multi-precinct first:

MAYOR WEST CHESTER BOROUGH CAROLYN COMITTA
MAGISTERIAL DISTRICT JUDGE DISTRICT 15-1-04 9 = wards 1, 2, 4 GWENN S. KNAPP
CONSTABLE WEST CHESTER 2 E & W WRITE-IN (meaning CHRIS HAAS)

0810 WEST CHESTER 1
MEMBER OF COUNCIL HOLLY BROWN
CONSTABLE ANTHONY J. POLITO (D/R)
INSPECTOR OF ELECTIONS EILEEN C. BURTON

0820 WEST CHESTER 2-EAST
JUDGE OF ELECTIONS DARRYL MCLAIN
INSPECTOR OF ELECTIONS SHIRLEY D. PORTER

0825 WEST CHESTER 2-WEST
JUDGE OF ELECTIONS ROBERT W. HANIWALT
INSPECTOR OF ELECTIONS ANTHONY K. BOYER

0835 WEST CHESTER 3
MEMBER OF COUNCIL CHARLES A. CHRISTY
JUDGE OF ELECTIONS DAWN P. L’HEUREUX
INSPECTOR OF ELECTIONS SALLY A. CHRISTY

0842 WEST CHESTER 4
CONSTABLE WEST CHESTER 4 WRITE-IN (meaning CHRIS REAGOSO)
JUDGE OF ELECTIONS NANETTE S. O’DONNELL

0846 WEST CHESTER 5
MEMBER OF COUNCIL THOMAS P. PAXSON
JUDGE OF ELECTIONS MARY JANE ROGAN
INSPECTOR OF ELECTIONS JOHN GRUNER

0850 WEST CHESTER 6
JUDGE OF ELECTIONS ESTER RIEHL
INSPECTOR OF ELECTIONS KAREN FITTS

0860 WEST CHESTER 7
MEMBER OF COUNCIL JOHN MANION
JUDGE OF ELECTIONS GREGORY BONES
INSPECTOR OF ELECTIONS MARK RIMPLE

(not sure yet about write-ins for constable in wards 3, 5, and 6)

These good results aren’t surprising, since the only real competition was in ward 5 from Independent Dave Laleike for Borough Council.

The Dem countywide, judge, and school board candidates also won in the Borough, except that Judge Paula Ott, running as a R whom many of us know as a neighbor in ward 5, finished in the top 4 for Superior Court and also in the state, so congratulations also to Paula! Here are those numbers, from http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ElectionsInformation.aspx?FunctionID=13&ElectionID=33&OfficeID=9

COLVILLE, ROBERT J. (DEM)_______713,019___11.5%
MCCARTHY, KEVIN FRANCIS (DEM)__702,212___11.3%
LAZARUS, ANNE E. (DEM) _________714,531___11.5%
SARMINA, TERESA (DEM) _________678,515___10.9%
OLSON, JUDY (REP) ______________937,617___15.1%
MUNDY, SALLIE (REP) ____________855,008___13.7%
SMITH, TEMP (REP) ______________710,111___11.4%
OTT, PAULA (REP) _______________792,525___12.7%
ROGERS, MARAKAY J. (LIB) _______125,725____2.0%

Outside of West Chester results were unfortunate. Sad to say, it doesn’t seem to matter what the talented and hard-working Dem candidates do or say, the vote is about the same. And there were almost twice as many straight R votes as straight D in the County. (For us, 2E gets the prize, with 15 times as many straight D as straight R votes!)

See results by precinct at http://dsf.chesco.org/election/cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=608191 and overall for larger-than-municipal offices at http://dsf.chesco.org/election/lib/election/results/cumf.htm

For County row offices, D’s only:

TREASURER: BARBARA KIPP STONE (DEM)........26,004...38.27%
CONTROLLER: JIM REILLY (DEM)...............27,635...39.78%
CLERK OF COURTS: MIKE MCGANN (DEM).........26,429...38.34%
CORONER: MEGAN LYNOTT (DEM)................26,968...38.96%
JURY COMMISSIONER: MARTHA S. SMITH (DEM)...27,286...39.74%

They all lost by around 15,000, except that Martha wins because there are 2 jury commissioners.

For SCHOOL DIRECTOR WEST CHESTER, D’s only

SUSAN SPELLMAN TIERNAN (DEM)...6,522...11.57%
SUSAN J. CARTY (DEM)...........6,329...11.23%
LISA R. SAMUEL (DEM)...........6,007...10.66%
DEBORAH L. LICZWEK (DEM).......5,902...10.47%

They all lost by about 1500. That is particularly painful for us and inimical to the public interest.

To me at least, the moral is clear: if voters were really looking at individuals, there would be bigger differences among them. In some cases, the least qualified R’s even seem to have done slightly better than those with more background!

Maybe it’s the case that results were unfortunate in West Chester as well, in the sense that our turnout was mostly pretty low. The percentages are hard to interpret, because we know that in this election probably few students voted, and there is a lot of turnout in registrations here. We all know many people that moved away long ago and are still on the list to vote here. Turnouts are higher in most other municipalities because their residents are more long-term. Anyhow, here are our unofficial figures:

1___23.61%
2E__12.25%
2W___8.76%
3____9.01%
4____8.29%
5___14.73%
6___15.54%
7___20.11%

So, congratulations as usual to wards 1 and 7 for the turnout prize!

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Posted in Borough

Posted by: wcdem2 | October 29, 2009

Republican Candidate for WCASD

Sean Carpenter, Republican Candidate for WCASD, and Friends

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Posted in School Districts

Posted by: wcdem2 | October 28, 2009

Jim Jones on the WCASD race

Jim Jones is a Democratic member of Borough Council in West Chester.

On My Mind (10/19/09; original here)

For people who remember when the Republican Party was all- powerful in our area, watching the race for West Chester Area School Board has become painful. WCJIM’s sympathies are well-known, but he’s also fond of a viable multi-party system, and seeing insurgents destroy the party they are trying to capture is not pretty.

It’s too soon for the Chester County Democratic Party to claim all the prizes in this fall’s election, but the trend is certainly in their favor and the four Republicans running for school board are doing their part to bring it about. It started back on May 3 when John Wingerter, the only Republican with meaningful credentials for the job — he was an administrator in the Marple- Newtown District before going to work at a charter school — suggested that creationism is “scientific” and asserted that it should be taught to West Chester students (although he stopped short of calling for a change to the curriculum).

It got worse when photos surfaced of Sean Carpenter at the weekly rally at High and Market Streets in West Chester, holding signs that made light of torture. Now their latest faux pas has gotten them negative newspaper coverage, and totally teed off a number of people who were looking for ways to support them. Read More…

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Posted in Borough, School Districts

Posted by: wcdem2 | October 2, 2009

School Board Battleground

by WCJim [Posted August 14, 2009 ]

[Jim Jones represents ward 6 on West Chester Borough Council and is a regular blogger about West Chester events and issues. His post below, from August, remains very relevant in showing what can happen when voters do not pay enough attention to school board elections]

If you’ve read a local newspaper in the past two months, you know that something bad has happened in the Owen J. Roberts School District. And if you saw yesterday’s article on PhillyNews.com, you know that the Phoenixville school district is in a similar situation. The problem: school boards playing politics with district management. Since June of last year, the Phoenixville Area School District (PASD) has hired and lost six (6) superintendents. And according to PhillyNews.com, the district has also lost “an assistant superintendent, a business manager, a high school principal, an athletic director, a human-resources director, a special-education supervisor, and a technology director. Most recently, the basketball coach and an outreach supervisor were fired.” The author declined to assign blame, but suggested that it stemmed from a plan for a new elementary school that had to be scrapped. Not surprisingly, tension resulted from the lawsuits that followed. [Kristin E. Holmes, "Job turnover alarms some in Phoenixville district" at PhillyNews.com (Aug. 12, 2009)]

The rate of turnover is lower in the Owen J. Roberts School District, but the level of public concern is much higher. It erupted in July after a five-person majority of the nine-member school board fired a popular superintendent, Myra Forrest, without cause or warning. Read More…

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Posted in School Districts

Posted by: wcdem2 | September 30, 2009

If you like Pitts and Schroder…

…then you’ll love the R candidates for WCASD school board.  On the other hand, if you don’t, you won’t.

US Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA 16) is one of the most orthodox conservatives in Congress.  Check out his long-standing relationship to the fundamentalist power group “The Family” here.

PA Rep. Curt Schroder (R-155) has been posing as a moderate, until he began to show his true nature by hanging out with the Sheepdog/TEA Party group.  Check out his speech to them here.

Both Pitts and Schroder have endorsed the 4 R’s for WCASD school board.

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Posted in School Districts

Posted by: Admin Lane | September 10, 2009

Intrigue… On My Mind

Jim JonesFrom wcjim.com, with permission.

(WCJim is Jim Jones, Borough of West Chester Democratic Member of Council, Ward 6)

On My Mind (September 6)
WCJIM has been to school for a lot of years, likes to nose around in local politics and history, and often appears to know what he’s talking about. But once in a while, something happens to remind him (and everyone else) that he’s not the heaviest hammer in the tool box. Usually someone makes a comment that is not intended to be profound, but it will collide with other bits of gossip and detail culled from the public record to trigger an “ah-ha” moment. And when it does, that’s what reminds WCJIM that “I should have figured that out a long time ago.”

This week’s “ah-ha moment” comes as a result of a question raised during a conversation that took place at last week’s Swingin’ Summer Thursday. For those who missed it, the event was extremely well attended thanks to excellent weather, the return of the WCU population, and the fact that it was the last one scheduled for this year. As WCJIM made his way through the crowd, he briefly became part of a conversation in which someone observed that with no Republicans running for Borough office this year, the winners are likely to register the lowest vote totals recorded in a long time. In other words, turnout will probably be very low.

A few feet further on, WCJIM saw a booth promoting school board candidates Carty, Tiernan, Liczwek, and Samuel — all running as Democrats. A short distance beyond them was a booth touting Republican candidates for row offices like coroner, but making no mention of their candidates for school board. Since the school board election is a “local election” for Borough residents, the contrast seemed striking. Why would Democrats try to publicize a local race in West Chester while Republicans downplay it?

Cue the “ah-ha.” With West Chester voting solidly Democratic for the past decade, a big turnout in West Chester bodes poorly for the Republican school board candidates. That probably explains a comment made earlier in the year by someone who was interested in running for Borough office as a Republican, but who decided not to do so when the party told him it wasn’t “the right time.” Republican strategists can read the election results as well as anyone else, and the totals for State Representative Barbara McIlvaine Smith’s last election show that not only did the Borough deliver a huge majority for Smith, they were joined by precincts in East Bradford, West Goshen and (yikes!) even East Goshen. Since all of them will be voting for school board candidates this fall, it appears that the Republican strategy is to suppress turnout in Democratic strongholds like “Berkeley on the Brandywine” (as one Republican candidate has called the Borough) and pump it up in their strongholds. Expect the Republican school board candidates to hold sleepovers at Hershey’s Mill (in East Goshen), but don’t count on seeing them in the Borough before November.

Part of this makes sense — when your hand is weak, you play your cards in the order that wins the most tricks. But there is something revolting about a political machine that values winning ahead of engaging the public. There are reasons why the Republican Party is in deep trouble in Chester County. Borough voting patterns are not the cause; they are a symptom.

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Posted in Borough, County, School Districts

Posted by: wcdem2 | September 7, 2009

WCASD discussion on WCHE, 7/27/09

As school boards loom large in November’s elections, here are a few notes from a bipartisan discussion on “Talk About West Chester” (Monday, 3-4 p.m., WCHE, 1520 AM) between hosts Jim Jones (Dem member of Borough Council) and Paul Fitzpatrick (former Dem member and president of Borough Council) and guests Jim Smith (chair of WCASD, registered R) and Jim Davison (member of WCASD, registered R):

JD explained that the net raise to teachers is less than people think, because the Board went to “negative incentives” by freezing steps to advancement, which means some more highly paid teachers may depart; and the lowest-paid don’t move up in salary until they earn the grad credits.

JS said senior citizens paid for his education long ago, and he is willing to pay for others’ education now through his taxes. WCASD is known for quality education and for good scores among a diverse student body. We need to maintain a competitive salary schedule; and the board just added MA and doctoral degree as factors in the schedule.

JS later mentioned that the tax increase is only about $40-50 per average house, after the $147 state rebate. JJ: good schools keep up house prices. JD agreed and cited the good rating for WG schools in a recent Money article [which ranked West Goshen #11 in the country's "best 100 places to live," including school test scores well above the average for the 100 best places to live].

PF: people want to be in a strong community, as represented by schools, even if they don’t have kids. JD: word is out that WCASD is good on special needs. JJ, because of his web site, gets requests for info from people thinking of moving here, and 9 times out of 10 they say schools are the most important factor.

On the OJR situation, where a group of 5 out of 9 board members suddenly fired the superintendent without prior discussion with the other 4 members, JD said a board should adopt credos on how to behave when they disagree. Here in 1998 the board got into a mess, briefly; a poor board can damage the district. JS: OJR has had odd, screwball stuff, it’s a shame.

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Posted in School Districts

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