So the other day, David Byerman Chester County CEO was fired, let go, made redundant… so Byerman is now airing shall we say selective dirty laundry? Really? Why?
There was this bombshell article in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday that I didn’t actually read until this morning when my phone started blowing up about it.
https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/chester-county-ceo-david-byerman-20260305.html
David Byerman found it “surprising and disappointing” he was removed over the infraction.
by Brooke Schultz
Published March 5, 2026, 6:16 p.m. ET
OK, you have to subscribe to read the article unless it shows up on the AP somehow or MSN or one of those other alternatives that some articles hit.
But allow me to give a summary.
So it sounds like Byerman contacted the Inquirer after the last article came out. (https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/chester-county-ceo-david-byerman-20260302.html or see Daily Local https://www.dailylocal.com/2026/03/03/david-byerman-out-as-chief-executive-officer-of-chester-county/)
Before I get into this, I’m going to set the stage and say this guy is a complete 100% political operative and bare knuckles political brawler in my humble opinion. But I’m also going to ask is selective disclosure of certain information pertaining to termination of employment the whole story? I mean that is executive session and human resources stuff so what is the end game?
Anyway, apparently the Nevada native allowed website access I guess some kind of gambling or sports betting or however you want to categorize fantasy sports leagues?
So he told the Inquirer he made an “administrative decision” (that’s a direct quote from the article from him) to allow…wait for it…online betting etc sites to be accessed by employees? Huh?
Say what? Dude, it’s Pennsylvania not Nevada. Was legalizing brothels next? To me that means he allowed changes to whatever the Internet and web permissions are countywide to allow websites that often aren’t necessarily particularly secure?
I mean, think about it —-every time you watch a crime procedural or you pick up a paper every now and again you hear about how people gain access for hacks and even to talk below the radar of law-enforcement and it’s like gaming platforms, etc. so this isn’t like a video game platform or whatever, but it’s still a big deal, yes?
It is also a really big deal perhaps that the county wouldn’t have picked this up ASAP because it sounds like it went on for a while? As CEO, he was a paid employee of the county which meant he worked under the commissioners, etc. and I hate to say it but where was county commissioner leadership?
I came out of the financial services industry, and the thing about that is regarding the Internet and stuff they didn’t allow certain things, because things are supposed to be seriously regulated so there’s no wiggle room for impropriety and poor behavior, correct? So it would be similarly expected one would hope in government? Especially since if you think about it, at its most simplistic, government sets regulations for financial institutions right?
Exactly how would this Byerman think that allowing websites like that are OK? I mean websites like that are things that should only be viewable in county offices perhaps by like the district attorney’s office because they have to investigate cases etc. and can we all agree on that?
But this guy kind of said it was no big deal and he admitted to visiting these websites to update some fantasy league or whatever during office hours? Does he have any covered bridges or anything he wants to sell us while he’s at it?
So technically, that means potentially if you were in the courthouse using their Wi-Fi when you had jury duty, you could access online gambling or whatever? Does no one remember the judge that kind of lost his job for this kind of stuff?
From 2021:
WEST CHESTER — A former Chester County judge charged with using campaign contributions to gamble has pleaded guilty to theft and election code violations.
Former Magisterial District Judge Michael Cabry III had been charged by authorities with using money from his campaign finance account to feed a six-figure gambling habit at various casinos in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
And the thing I also can’t get past is he allowed employees to access some of these websites and aren’t also a lot of county employees responsible for shall we say sensitive or personal information of residents as well?
Gambling in any form is considered an addiction for some, so that’s like having a bar cart being wheeled through the halls of the county offices at 4 PM on Fridays isn’t it?
Also to be considered, which I thought of this morning before I got distracted from writing this post, is in the article no matter how innocuous a reference it is he admitted to personally using one of these websites while at work right?
So in his role as CEO of Chester County he handled budget stuff correct? Other money things? It doesn’t matter how innocuous what he did or says he did might have been. It’s the appearance isn’t it? And he’s a grown-up so shouldn’t he have known better?
Now to be crystal freaking clear, I’m not implying anyone stole anything, but given the nature of this new Inquirer article and the comments by this man, will they now have to do a forensic auditing of sorts in the county for his tenure?
Also, in the article there’s the kissy face back-and-forth from a county response to his response and they wish him well blah blah blah, and he says he has this profound appreciation or something for the commissioners, etc.? To that I say really? People with “profound appreciation” don’t try to throw shade at their former employer to try to make themselves look better, do they?
And then I have to ask is this article a precursor to a shoe yet to drop?
Obviously, Byerman is politically experienced, yes? A political operative? So let’s go to another thing in this article and it was something I bought up in one of my posts. It was about him being head of the Democrats of Chester County in the late 90s. (1997 or so?)
In the Inquirer article this morning he says he disclosed that fact to the commissioners during the process I guess of hiring him and/or interviewing him? I have to ask timing is everything so when specifically during the process did he disclose that information and to whom precisely?
I have some thoughts about that. I think Commissioner Moskowitz knew exactly who she who he was, and why I have that opinion is like she’s been involved in Democrat politics out here for a donkey’s age correct? Josh and Maxwell and Eric Roe would’ve been like a guess about 10 or 11 when he was in Chester County given their age?
Byerman put Chester County in his rear view like for a couple of decades plus before he returned. So what made him want to return? I mean he had had this job with the state of Kentucky most recently before this correct? I think that’s what was in the article so why wasn’t his contract renewed there because that’s what my research indicated? Did he get a political knifing from a more Republican state or something as a Democrat? And what about his jobs in Nevada? How was he received in his home state when they were all done?
He ends the article with he wanted taxpayers to know how hard he worked for everyone or something, but did he? I mean, for example Karen Barsoum is still employed and if he is the CEO and he watched all those problems in voter services why does she still have a job as of today?
But I also have to wonder if this is the whole story? After all, isn’t it kind of unusual for someone who will now be entering the job market to kind of fall on his sword in a way and say along the lines that he was a bad boy, but I’m not sure it was justified to make him lose that job?
Also, he wasn’t here very long this position so how could he have had so many performance reviews? Because isn’t that what the article implies?
So now, as I’m starting to wrap up this article late this afternoon an article came out from the Daily Local.
Here is an excerpt from that article because it’s also very interesting just like the Inquirer article:
WEST CHESTER — Life is full of surprises.
In the 1990s David Byerman was the chairman of the Chester County Democratic Committee.
And on Monday, as reported by Daily Local News, he was unexpectedly let go from the county government’s top position….On November 20, 2024, during a public commissioners’ meeting at 313 W. Market St. in West Chester, commissioners voted 2-1 to hire Byerman, with Roe, a Republican, casting the only “no” vote per the HR agenda adoption….Byerman said a CEO should be judged on that person’s ability to sell the county as a great place to work, and to build a great team.
He spoke to the the Daily Local News on the record from Philadelphia on Thursday….
Byerman said he had to kind of feel his way in the dark to figure out what the parameters were.
He said there was no manual on what decisions he could make versus what needed to be brought back to the commissions.
“This was a situation where I was told on Monday that the commissioners felt like I had overstepped my bounds and had made this decision on behalf of the commissioners and that was inappropriate,” he recalled.
Yeah, is this his PR fixer tour or something?
I just don’t necessarily believe that the whole gambling fantasy website stuff being allowed is the only thing and none of us will probably ever know because it’s quite literally an HR issue. Let’s face it we wouldn’t have known any of this unless he chose to disclose it so I’m circling back as to why?
Politics is a funny creature, isn’t it?
