Tag Archives: tredyffrin township

lettergate in tredyffrin continues…

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Like many local municipalities, Tredyffrin has an official Facebook page.  I have no idea who is responsible for its content.

I posed a polite but rather simple question to the page, because I figure as a non-taxpayer and non-resident, it might be the most expedient way to get a response.  Well, I got one.  I thought nothing further could shock me about Tredyffrin Township, but well, it’s lettergate in full flower now I suppose.

I am posting the response.  Really I had to suppress the urge to ask how Tredyffrin feels about the First Amendment.  But should I bother given the response? Is it self-evident?

I asked:

Is the letter attacking a private citizen and local media outlets currently posted on your site an official government sanctioned release?  Also, you might want to read this editorial on the topic in Tredyffrin Patch. http://te.patch.com/articles/tredyffrin-website-used-for-political-attack

They responded:

 

What happens the next time residents are on the other side of an issue from an elected official?  I will note *again*, I have no idea who responds for Tredyffrin “officially” on their Facebook page as they do not identify themselves or their position within the Township.

I am just shocked.  Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I am.  How is any of this not an abuse of power and/or an abuse of a taxpayer-funded official government website?  So am I to understand that they are publicly flogging a resident for blogging and asking questions?  Is the Township website in Tredyffrin just a political bully pulpit?  Do they care or even have a clue as to how this makes the entire township look? To residents? To people considering moving into the township? To businesses?

This lettergate is certainly shaping up to be a First Amendment conundrum among other things like a public relations nightmare.

I am now going to let my friend Pattye Benson speak for herself.  Unbeknownst to me until a few moments ago, she wrote about exactly what I am writing about.  I am cross-poting her most recent post.  I will admit I am a bit surprised by Township Manager Mimi Gleason’s response. But she is retiring, right? I wouldn’t want this to follow me out the door, would you? That whole thing is confusing since Ray Hoffman wrote an article August 30th that is titled “Mimi Gleason to remain Tredyffrin manager for now” isn’t it?

Should I make a Note to Self?  Along the lines of don’t ask anymore questions about Tredyffrin, it is not safe?  Wonder what esteemed folks like Paul Alan Levy would think?  I will tell you what, this baptism by fire into all things Tredyffrin makes posting recipes even more appealing.  Recipes don’t attack.

1st Amendment Rights in Tredyffrin Township

“The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information.”          ~ William Orville Douglas, US Supreme Court Justice

According to John DiBuonaventuro’s letter to the citizens, Community Matters posts are an “ongoing effort to discredit our government and its efforts to serve the citizens by creating and fostering an environment of conspiracy among its limited readership.”  I received many emails and phone calls in regards to the inappropriateness of the letter but more importantly, the inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars to post the letter on township letterhead on the township website.  The letter contains a personal attack on me, Community Matters and on those citizens who date to have an opinion.  For some reason, DiBuonaventuro also feels compelled to mention my failed election in 2009 as a Board of Supervisors candidate … I guess that was contained in the letter, as a ‘just because’, he could … and he did.

I was hopeful that Michelle Kichline as the chair of the Board of Supervisors, the township solicitor Vince Donohue or the township manger Mimi Gleason would recognize the inappropriateness of DiBuronaventuro’s letter on our public website and that the letter would be removed quickly before any further damage was done to me or the other citizens of Tredyffrin Township.

I sent the following email this morning to Mimi Gleason, our township manager:

Mimi,

Who is responsible for Mr. DiBuonaventuro’s letter on the township website?  Was placing the letter on the website sanctioned by you, the township manager?

I await your response.

Pattye Benson

I was extremely surprised by her immediate response below.  Ms. Gleason states that she OK’d the letter on the website with approval from the chair of the Board of Supervisors, Michelle Kichline and township solicitor Vince Donohue.  Folks, as a short-timer whose last day as township manager is Monday, September 17, 2012, Gleason has decided to make her true feelings known about me, Community Matters and for all those who dare to express an opinion.  As sad as I was about the DiBuonaventuro letter, I wanted to believe in our government and the people we elected to serve.  Bob Byrne, editor of TE Patch received a similar response from Gleason to his inquiry about the township website and DiBuonaventuro’s letter.

If the Board of Supervisors had been more forthcoming about the situation when the story first broke in the Main Line Media News, the outcome of the situation would have been very different.  If the public had received any assurance from the Board of Supervisors that they were reviewing the internal investigation report of the Police Department, or if the public had known that the District Attorney’s office had reviewed the report, if, if, if, … no one said anything, there was no communication or explanation.  Were it not that I went from the District Attorney, to the District Judge and then to the Police Chief, we would still have questions and no answers.  The summary information I provided on Community Matters was not secret, the residents could have had, and should have had it.

So what is the bottom line?   Gleason’s email says to me that to hold our government and its elected officials accountable by the citizenry is not acceptable in Tredyffrin Township.    You read her response and be the judge.

Pattye,

I think it is interesting that you seek information from me now, but not before starting a storyline full of inaccuracies and innuendos that had the potential to harm people’s reputations.  Correcting falsehoods well after the fact does not undo the damage from your original posts.  You feed cynicism and assumptions of impropriety when there is absolutely no basis for it.

You have done the same thing with the assisted living facility.  So much of what you have written on that topic is factually incorrect.  Why don’t you make an effort to get accurate information before you write articles and leave impressions with your readers?   You have to know that your so-called legal expert has no expertise, and therefore I can only conclude that you share his agenda to make the Township and the Board of Supervisors look bad, without any regard for the truth or ethics.  That has been a disappointing conclusion to arrive at.

In answer to your question, it is unusual to post a statement from an individual Supervisor, but given the inaccurate and derogatory statements and innuendo publicly made about John DiBuonaventuro, I decided to approve the posting of the letter on the Township website.  In this case, he was the subject of baseless public speculation simply because he is a Tredyffrin Supervisor.  The circumstances justified the use of the website to publicly defend him, carrying with it the implicit endorsement of the Township to the accuracy of his statements.  The Chairman of the Board of Supervisors and the Township Solicitor agreed that it was appropriate for the letter to go on the website.

Mimi

tredyffrin has blogging *issues*

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UPDATE 9:31 a.m.  At 8:22 a.m. on 9/7/12  the letter posted on Tredyffrin’s official government website was taken down.  At 9:24 a.m. the letter is back up.

So unfortunately for all concerned who tried to do good, it is somewhat disturbing to think a local government website paid for with Tredyffrin taxpayer monies is being used somehow like a private website for personal gain?

The uncomfortable question must be asked: are people to assume that this is now officially an official letter?  Sanctioned by Tredyffrin Government and every elected and  appointed official and township employee? What happens the next time a resident questions something?  Another letter from another supervisor on official letterhead? Or something worse?
 
This municipality has  part of Valley Forge in their borders, correct?   Are the freedoms our founding fathers so long ago that they are forgotten and ironically this whole scenario is in essence a modern version of  what the people who founded the United States fought to escape in Europe in the first place?
I am hardly the only one questioning this.  Please see the article written by Tredyffrin Patch Editor Bob Byrne (and I quote):

The Vice Chairman of the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors is on the warpath and he’s launched a savage political attack on the media and a private citizen on Tredyffrin Township’s official, taxpayer funded, website.

In a page-and-a-half screed that reads like a vicious political campaign hit piece, Republican Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman John “JD” DiBuonaventuro offers his explanation of his romantic involvement with a township Zoning Hearing Board member who is at the center of a “drunk and disorderly conduct” criminal case….The letter then turns blatantly political as DiBuonaventuro launches an attack on Main Line Media News which ran the original story (Patch linked to the story on the MLM website) and goes after Community Matters Blogger Pattye Benson, who also posts many of of her blogs here on TE Patch.

 

(Prior part of post continues below)
************************************************************************************

I had no idea until a little while ago that the letter that this Tredyffrin  Supervisor John DiBuonaventuro wrote was on the Tredyffrin official government website.

Truthfully, I am somewhat scandalized by that.  Because in addition to everything else, for someone who did not like this entire topic, they just blew the topic larger than life in a more tawdry manner than any blog post and attacked a resident in Tredyffrin who happens yes, to blog on her blog at Community Matters, but who also happens to give hours and hours of herself to the residents with items involving historic preservation and fun things like the Paoli Blues Festival.  This woman doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk.

Her name is Pattye Benson, and she is a magnificent human being.  I am sticking up for her here because I know her and she has integrity and personal values.  She is kind and pleasant and will always lend a helping hand.  She is also a rather thoughtful blogger and I know for a fact she mulled over posting the latest Tredyffrin tackiness for a while because she just did not know what to think.  Now apparently in Tredyffrin over this issue, you are damned if you don’t and damned if you do anyway?

She wrote another post this evening called Community Matters Closes the Chapter on Police Investigation but Tredyffrin Supervisor Opens a New Chapter . Read it.

She ends her post thusly:

I hope that all who read the above narrative, come away with a positive feeling about these four individuals (Tom Hogan, Michelle Kichline, Tom Tartaglio and Tony Giaimo) and the parts of our local government that they represent – I believe that these individuals respect the citizens of Tredyffrin and are trying to do ‘what’s right’ by us.

Unfortunately, as I was completing this exhaustive summary, I was told of an open letter to the citizens, penned by BOS supervisor John DiBuonaventuro.  Apparently, DiBuonaventuro does not support Main Line Media News, Community Matters or the civil rights of citizens to express their opinions on this topic.  Below is the last paragraph of DiBuonaventuro’s letter, click here for the full text. The tag line for Community Matters is “Your Voice Matters, Join the Conversation” and I stand behind it … we, as the community do matter and your voice does count!

Pattye has style.  Now the whole world knows that a sitting elected official did date a current appointed official in Tredyffrin.  This is by this elected official’s own hand, and very Ed Rendell of him.  Me thinketh the supervisor doth protesteth too much???

However his attack on a private citizen named Pattye Benson that was in a sense condoned (supported? I mean what adjective does one use?)  by ALL in Tredyffrin Township because this was published on seemingly  letterhead   on the official Tredyffrin Township Website is a sad state of affairs.  It sends a message to the citizenry that you are o.k. as long as you do not question your government, let alone criticize anything. Does it also imply the First Amendment doesn’t matter when it comes to politics?  It is also very revisionist history because people concerned about this issue, who have commented on this issue, who have reported on this issue did not ever create this issue.

So congratulations, Tredyffrin Township, you have created a pickle of a new mess, indeed.

And while we are talking about this, someone whom I guess must be a supporter of this Supervisor DiBuonaventuro wrote a comment.  I imagine he also wrote Pattye’s blog, but I have not checked yet.  Here is this guy and what he had to say:

Brian Holton Bholton5@aol.com 108.2.10.144

Wow indeed. JDB is right on the money. These blogs are a haven for cowards, namely the anonymous posters and you bloggers who allow the postings without any verification.The National Enquirer has higher standards than chester county ramblings or community matters.

I am sorry that this dear man feels this way about two female bloggers.  We’re just regular gals.  And my goodness he is all in a lather.  Truly he can kiss my grits on this one.   I am entitled to my perspective and allowed his opinion to post. I am not hiding who I am, and I am also a writer. If he or anyone else does not like this blog then don’t read it.  He takes a jab at anonymous bloggers, and Pattye and I aren’t so anonymous.  But some do blog anonymously for any number of reasons.

A pen name, nom de plume, is as old a tradition as the United States itself. Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine and John Adams all wrote with pen names.  And in their time, they were heroes.

Ironically, I wrote an editorial in 2009 about blogging for Main Line Media News. Here is part of what I said then:

So let’s talk about being a blogger, or “citizen journalist.” Sometimes we write about what we had for dinner, and sometimes we write about who that politician had dinner with. Sometimes we are just giggling over political shenanigans and a political-blog lampoon is born.

Do politicians like blogs and bloggers? Heck no. Ending up on a blog is like being caught outside in your underwear. Politicians are all about the image, and when the emperor has no clothes, the image can get tarnished, can’t it? I think blogging is a way for the common man to level the playing field. I like to think bloggers can make a difference. After all, look at what blogging has done for the billboard issue in Haverford. Look at eminent domain in Ardmore.

Politicians, despite protestations to the contrary, know that blogs can be good for them. Sometimes they will release a statement or will even create a blog during an election cycle. Simply put: they like it when they can control the output; they don’t like it when they can’t….Why is blogging on the Main Line such a big deal? Is being a blogger like having chronic halitosis? Or do people who complain about blogs complain about them because they have not figured a way to use them to their own advantage yet?

OK, I will admit I have a lot of opinions and am as politically inconvenient as the next local blogger. But so what? …I am amused by the festering Petri dish that is Main Line politics and other local issues….Bloggers blog under catchy “handles,” as well as under their own names with or without a fun handle. People love to make a big hairy deal out of blogger anonymity. But pen names are definitely as American a tradition as apple pie.

Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison were among our founding fathers who wrote under aliases. If alive today I bet they would embrace blogging as a communicative medium….To wind this up I think blogging is here to stay, and people should just get used to it. Blogging is another way for people to have a voice in what matters to them.  Much like this editorial page, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

At the end of the day, am I really surprised this guy Brian above left a nasty comment? Nope. Is it the first nasty comment I have received as a regular writer or a blogger? Nope and it won’t be the last.

Truthfully, dear readers and blog followers when I wrote my original post on this sorry arsed topic I had truthfully no idea it would mushroom into “As The Tredyffrin Turns.”  Didn’t know this woman.  Did not know this Supervisor.  Did not know any of it.  I merely read an article I found profoundly disturbing on the Main Line Media News website written by a reporter.

And now, here we are.  And isn’t it sad.

really, tredyffrin?

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Is this letter at bottom of post  a threat?

Here are the mainstream media reports that made people talk :

Tredyffrin zoning hearing board member not guilty after police are a no-show at her trial

Published: Sunday, August 26, 2012

Charges in Chesco dropped when officer fails to appear

Philadelphia Inquirer August 30, 2012

By Richard Ilgenfritz rilgenfritz@mainlinemedianews.com

Here are the posts which were probably the impetus of this letter below:

Police Department Provides Press Release re Clerical Error of Police Officers

another devon disaster to report

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Bad week to say you are from Devon.  Hookers near the horse show in that Marriott, Waterloo and Chapter 11, and now a major as in M-A-J-O-R drug bust.

Poor Devon, always in the shadow of Strafford, always a little odd, and now a hot bed of bad publicity:

Main Line Suburban Life > News

Tredyffrin man suspect in $2.5-million drug bust

Published: Friday, July 20, 2012

The Chester County District Attorney’s Office announced   Friday the arrests of James Lippert of Tredyffrin and David Eisenstadt of Philadelphia for allegedly possessing over $2.5 million worth of marijuana.

According to a press release from the DA’s Office, federal and local law enforcement agencies raided homes in Philadelphia and Tredyffrin Township. The arrests and raids were coordinated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), the Chester County DA’s Office,the Tredyffrin Township Police Department, and the Philadelphia PoliceDepartment.

District Attorney Tom Hogan stated, “When federal and local law enforcement work as a team, drug dealers do not stand a chance. These two drug dealers thought they were smart to be running drugs and money between Philadelphia and Chester County. Now we have their drugs and money, and they have been arrested andlocked up.”

Defendant James Lippert, 49,  lived on the 100 block of Colket Lane, Devon.

Defendant David Eisenstadt, 50, lived on the 4000 block of Chester Ave., Philadelphia.

tredyffrin updates

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My pal Pattye Benson writes a very fine blog called Community Matters.

She has two updates I am going to cross-post as they are very relevent if you are a resident in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County.

(Incidentally, Pattye also runs Great Valley House!)

Here they are:

“A Job is Not a Life” … Mimi Gleason Resigns as Tredyffrin’s Township Manager

Posted on July 17th, 2012   5:00 PM  by Pattye Benson

For those of us who attended last night’s Board of Supervisors meeting, it went very late, until 11:30 PM.  Now I have to wonder if the 4-hour marathon meeting had any bearing on this morning’s decision by our township manager.

 

Mimi Gleason has been Tredyffrin’s Township Manager for the last 7 years.  Prior to becoming township manager in 2005, Mimi served under Joe Janasik as assistant Township Manager for 3 years.  There was no indication at last night’s meeting of Mimi’s impending announcement this morning; and the news has taken many of us by surprise.

 

Rather than speculating on the reason behind Mimi’s decision to resign, I spoke at length with her this afternoon.  She assured me that the decision to leave was completely her own rather than anyone pushing her in that direction.  Mimi told the township supervisors and her staff this morning of her decision to resign; her last day will be September 17.

 

 

I asked Mimi why she was resigning – was it another job?  No, she is not leaving Tredyffrin for another job. In fact, her explanation for the resignation was actually quite simple … “A job is not a life”.    She went on to explain that she is uncertain about what she wants to do, but knows that she wants to do something different and to work less

 

Incidentally, I totally get the whole  a-job-is-not-a-life.  Post breast cancer I decided my then job was no longer for me.  I had changed, had to acknowledge said change and move on. My doctors had wanted me to reduce my stress levels for my health and recovery, but seriously?  Making the decision to do all this was very stressful in and of itself. I know nothing of Tredyffrin’s township manager other than she really is a woman in a man’s world (how many female municipal managers do you meet?), and you know she could not have made the decision lightly.

The next article is one quite timely, and it is something being felt in various forms in many other municipalities:

 

Tredyffrin Township:  What Price Economic Growth?

Posted on July 16th, 2012   7:56 AM  by Pattye Benson

What price economic growth …

  • What is the price tag for economic development in Tredyffrin Township?
  • Is it OK to green light a land development project even when it doesn’t meet current zoning regulations?
  • Is it right for a developer and his attorney to create a zoning ordinance amendment to Tredyffrin Zoning Code to suit their needs for a particular project?
  • As a community, do we want zoning amendment changes in Tredyffrin Township without restrictions, requirements or conditional uses?
  • If you are a developer considering a project in Tredyffrin but cannot find suitable zoning, that may not be an obstacle to your plans. All you need to do is write a new ordinance, call it economic development and then watch as the plan moves forward.

be glad you live a little off the main line…

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…I know I am.  

Sure, every area has issues.  No local government is perfect, and yes, there is always something to complain  about, but seriously?  I moved out of a township that prided itself on being “first class”, yet it in essence required an act of Congress to accomplish something as basic as filling a pothole.

Yes, Lower Merion Township.  The Magic Kingdom as it is known (sarcastically) in some circles, isn’t what she used to be.  You have a political majority that believes they know better than everyone, and as a resident you feel as if you work to support the township.

Where do a lot of these negative feelings stem from?  A lot of them have to do with all the crazy infill development plans and the fact that it has been over 30 years since Lower Merion had a completed Comprehensive Plan update.  Some land planner told me once that as per the Municipalities Planning Code in PA municipalities are supposed to do this every couple of years.

When I used to wake up in Lower Merion, although a high rent district, the cacophony of sound that assaulted my senses on a daily basis was quite urban.  Construction and other noises often way too early.   Here when I wake up, I hear birds.  You have NO idea how marvelous a sound that is unless you have experienced the other.

Development plans in Lower Merion, suit the developers, not the residents.  For example, the development begun in my old neighborhood by a wannabe developer, architect Tom Hall, and then turned over to Cornell builders was shoe-horning in thirteen townhouses in barely over an acre.  But the houses are “green” and you can spit at The Haverford School, which was perhaps the most uncaring neighbor in my neighborhood.   You have no idea what it is like to live with an institution as a neighbor in close quarters.  We existed to be their overflow parking lot and speed thru cell phone mommy/nanny zone.  The nicest thing about that school are some of my friends’ sons.

In Ardmore, the neighboring town, mostly in Lower Merion, for years not so long ago, small business owners had to fight eminent domain for private gain.  Ardmore residents and business owners are still suffering because although no one can spend money like Lower Merion Township, they still can’t get the Ardmore Redevelopment Plan off the ground.  Of course, many feel, that those on township staff who put forth the infamous plans A & B that contained eminent domain for private gain for years should have just been removed from their jobs.  But they stayed and the six million dollars  that a couple of commissioners went to Washington DC many years ago to get has basically been frittered away, and while places like Malvern and Wayne have a new train station, all Lower Merion has are plans.

Read here about Ardmore’s and other Lower Merion development woes in this week’s Main Line Media News.

Also in Lower Merion, there is crazy zoning being planned for around City Avenue.  So if you think it’s fun now when you get caught in traffic around there, just wait.

Lower Merion loves infill development plans.  The more congested the better.  When I was a child growing up there, like I do now here in Chester County, then I also heard birds and nature as my waking sounds.  It is so much less stressful to hear birds versus construction.

Radnor is not so problematic since they got a new Township Manager and some new commissioners.  Of course, their current president, Bill Spingler is more like old school Delco politics and we’ll leave it at that….hopefully he won’t be president too long.  But Radnor’s new manager,  Bob Zienkowski, as opposed to the old one who made headlines and got relieved of his duties (Dave Bashore), is an accessible advocate for his residents.  It makes a huge difference.  Which is why I am hopeful that Radnor residents will be heard fairly as Villanova attempts to supersize the university (read about Villanova’s expansion plans here ).  It won’t be easy since one commissioner has had to recuse herself, and given Bill Spingler’s cozy personal relationship with the attorney on this project, should this in fact be the commissioner who recuses? After all sometimes isn’t it hard to feel secure around a career politician like Spingler, who offered once upon a time to write a reccomendation letter for the manager the township fired (Dave Bashore)?

One thing that bears watching in Radnor are residents taking up their proverbial pitch forks against storm water issues in North Wayne. (Check out this YouTube from a recent meeting.) What cracks me up here is the woman with dark hair and pony tail.  She wants to sue, sue, sue and all the storm water issues stem from AT&T in Wayne and so on.  While the storm water issues are indeed large and increasingly problematic, truthfully they don’t even realize how people have been working for years on this.  She isn’t breaking new ground so to speak.

In February of 2009, a situation created by the railroad in North Wayne bugged me enough that I wrote an editorial for Main Line Media News about it. The end result was, a Septa engineer high on the food chain contacted me, and without even having to deal with Radnor’s old regime, they actually built some storm water management into the station makeover in Wayne.

It’s not perfect, but better than it used to be.

And this woman who did the presentation at the Radnor commissioners’ meeting (Channel 30 on FiOs FYI)  and a neighbor who says she lives next to a field and the Gulph Creek (wonder if she’s the one who built an addition to a carriage house where the outside door in the rear basically looks like if you open it the creek can just come on in?) who are in this meeting tape, well I get why they are upset, as I have seen first hand the flooding in North Wayne, but as they rant and rail against Radnor, they also need to consider a neighboring municipality.

Ahhh, there is some Chester County of it all in this post, isn’t there?

I am talking about Tredyffrin.  Tredyffrin is upstream on the Gulph Creek from this flood zone in Radnor.   Now Tredyffrin is also in the paper this week talking about some focus group and needing storm water solutions. Fabulous!  However, while the article talks about the need to make sure the storm water stuff is tough enough when it comes to Joe Duckworth’s plans for the Richter tract, nowhere have I seen Tredyffrin talk about the trickle down effect of their prior poor planning in neighboring municipalities.  I am talking in part about Church of the Savior in Tredyffrin.    A lot of issues occur UPstream.  Just check out this document I found from 2000 about storm water.

I guess from the Church of the Savior’s perspective and Tredyffrin’s it is holier to flood your neighbors?  Now granted, I find Church of the Savior to be in the category of religiously creepy, so some could say I have a bias, but Tredyffrin to me always seems a little kooky on the development front and in some other areas.  And if they can’t see it from the township building windows in Tredyffrin, more the better.  Just look at how long it took Tredyffrin to deal with things like off campus student housing.  After all, they couldn’t see historic Mt. Pleasant from the Township Building, could they?

I guess what I am saying is, I have seen and lived what poor development and land planning causes communities (along with the politcs of political favoritism and one party rule run amok), so maybe once in a while, I might point them out.  After all, would you rather listen to birds or bulldozers? Wouldn’t you rather hear about politicians and officials that care about their communities and not just during election cycles?

If you are a person interested in issues Tredyffrin, please check out my pal Pattye Benson’s blog Community Matters.  She also happens to be innkeeper at The Great Valley House of Valley Forge.  She wrote about the recent stormwater meeting that includes discussion of the latest New Urbanism Disneyland Joe Duckworth might do.  If you are interested in the Richter Tract plans put Richter in the search box on her blog. A post she wrote on conflict of interest is well worth your time in addition to other posts.

Above all else, take an interest in where you live.  It’s a good thing.