After the very disrespectful treatment by Supervisor Komelasky and outgoing Supervisor Deon when I used the Citizens Comment period at the Novenber 2011 Board of Supervisors meeting to address some of the issues, I was motivated to write and post the following.
Somehow the GOP continues to blame the people who were the victims for speaking out and trying to get the right things done. The Dec 14th BOS meeting was another example.
The GOP lost the election but continued to act as though they were simply being retired after years of good service.
The election started with an all GOP run township. The GOP committee has more people than the Democrats. Four elected GOP office holders wrote glowing endorsements for the Vince Deon. The GOP voters turned out in higher numbers and percentages than the Democrats. On paper the Democrats could not win.
But they did. Here is some analysis that shows why:–
The Democrats used three successful tactics to win the Nov. 8th Municipal election for Supervisor.
1. They organized a bullet vote.
2. They fought against the tasteless GOP website by taking the issues to the public.
3. Their campaign signs were not better,but they were more expensive.
The Democrats also were helped by the GOP’s major miscalculations about:
1. The GIANT project Sure, the BOS told us they could not comment publically, (there’s nothing in the law or in the rules that says Supervisors cannot comment on whatever they want to comment) but they were seen as not doing anything at all. Vince spoke up at the Oct BOS meeting but the damage had been done.
2. The Toll/Leehurst project. A really bad set of political decisions.
3. The West End Sewer Project. Too many official republican Supervisor lies came to light
4. The West End Water Project. Ditto.
5. The “Venomous” (The Courier called it that), website used by the GOP which attacked even private citizens
6. The Infamous “Pay To Play” email from Vince. (The Courier called it that), More than any other issue, Deon owned Pay To Play. Damage control was insufficient to overcome it.
Here are some of the major GOP mis-calculations and actions by the three GOP supervisors and the leaders at the Water and Sewer Authority. Every one of these issues worked to the benefit of the Democrats.
Over the past three years the GOP leadership made the following major mis-calculations:
1. The Board of Supervisors has a tax monopoly. The Republicans also had complete control over fees, licenses and permits which has been used to extract higher than necessary amounts of money from the people of the township
2. The Deon Pay-To-Play Fundraising e-mail was the worst thing that faced the GOP this election and it proved impossible to overcome.
3. The lying and secrecy about the West End Sewer Project which blew up in their faces when the 537 sewer plan they had denied existed was discovered
4. The lying about the record and other lies that were exposed.
5. The denials of those lies
6. Hiding the Water and Sewer records for 10 years about the existence of the 537 plan to install public sewers in the West End
7. The $10,000.00 tapping fee for West End residents, $2,500 for others and $0.00 for Leehurst Farm/Toll Brothers.
8. The $1.8 Million sewer installation for Toll/Leehurst being charged to the people, not Toll.
9. The helplessness of the people to keep their $1.8 Million as the water authority demanded it.
10. The helplessness of the people to resist the increases in Water and Sewer charges
11. The lack of oversight of the Water and Sewer board.
12. The inability of the State Public Utilities commission to control the spending and the charges of the Water and Sewer Authority because of a loophole
13. The draconian Free Speech Restrictions at Supervisor Meetings which prevented citizens from speaking about agenda items before the board voted.
14. The Draconian Free Speech Restrictions that forced citizens to wait one month after a vote to express their concerns about any agenda item.
15. For four years the Republican Supervisors relentlessly heckling elected Democrat supervisor Frank Rothermel at the Board of Supervisor meetings.
16. The constant heckling of many citizens who attempt to voice their concerns at the public meetings
17. Blaming others for the GOP election defeat
18. The manipulation of the Video recording and playback of the Supervisor Meetings
19. The aggravation of the West End Residents by the contractors and police during the sewer construction
20. The failure to address the poisoned water in the wells
21. The failure to lead the way in installing public Sewers in the West End
22. The failure to lead the way to install public water in the West End
23. The overspending of the 2010 and 2011 budgets
24. The spending of the Fire Truck money but not buying the Fire Truck
25. The waste of tax money with overpayments to contractors, engineers and attorneys compared to the loser rates paid to those firms by other townships
26. The high fees charged by the Water and Sewer Authority
27. The large increase in and the high fees charged to residents for permits, licenses and inspections
28. The mis-allocation of township resources by spending too much on personnel
29. The failure to keep the roads in good condition;- potholes and washouts left unrepaired for long periods
30.The failure to properly respond to residents at supervisor meetings
31. The sneering sarcasm directed against residents who sought help at the supervisor meetings.
32. The condemnation of the citizens by the GOP supervisors at supervisor meetings
33.The references to the citizens who sought redress for government failures as “cockroaches”
34. The disgraceful public stunningly vulgar and foul language of a supervisor
35.The appearance of self-proclaimed “Kamikaze” Jerry Bass who tried to condemn, every chance he could, the people who were trying to get some justice from the township and the Water Authority at the public meetings.
36.The destruction and theft of Bill O’Neill’s and Dr. Rose’s Political signs
37. Komelasky’s foiled attempts to get GOP candidates kicked off the ballot.
38.Although the Republican Committee had more people who placed party loyalty above doing the right thing, some, perhaps many committee people refused to support the leadership by not being pro-active in support of Deon.
39.Some Republican committee people worked behind the scenes against Deon in support of the Democrat because of their attitude towards Deon, Komelasky and Silver.
40. In addition the Democrats had the better candidate.
41. Kimberly Rose visited a lot of homes and made a lot of favorable imnpressions.
42. Deon, sensibly, refused to debate Rose.
43. The Democrat tactics worked because Northampton voters are ticket splitters.
All of the other GOP candidates won all of the other contests. Republican Karen Jim who was down ballot from Dr. Rose won over Democrat Paul Kelly Lange Jr. which validates that the vote for Dr. Rose was a successful bullet vote that went against the Republican’s. She was the only bright spot for the Bucks Deomcrats.
Going foreword, the GOP has the problem of the endorsement letter signed by four ranking elected Republicans that shows they did not realize the feelings of the voters. In addition the Republican Leadership continues to blame others for their lack of mis-reading the feelings of the voters and they have shifted from campaign mode to revenge mode. That will work against the Northampton Republican party and the Bucks County GOP.
In the near term the 3 Northampton Democrat Supervisors don’t have to do much more than smile and make nice remarks. The Republicans approved the 2012 budget so the three Democrats only need to manage the expenses. Their immediate focus most likely will be to correct some of the many injustices that were heaped on the citizens, Democrat Republican and Independent.
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