Part 3 of 3: F.O.P. endorses Allen Reeves

 

 I am going to make an obvious statement. At some point in the future, whether it be 3 days from now or three years from now or 30 years from now, Ralph Orr will not be mayor. When that time comes, jackets will still be given out, Bingos will still occur, people will get help during emergencies, and families in need will still get assistance. In short, the world will go on.

 

How am I so sure this is true? Because all of these things were done when the last mayor was in office and the mayor before that was in office. The face of who is doing the work changed, but the act itself has not. So, to base a vote on things that literally every single person with the title of Mayor has done just does not seem like a good idea to me.

I do consider that in the past 10 years, tens of thousands of dollars in state grants for children’s activities has been available through State Representative Thaddeus Kirkland’s office. All that had to happen to get the money was for the mayor to write up a proposal and ask for it. How many times has Orr asked for that money? Zero. Not only has Orr refused to ask Kirkland for grants, he actually reduced the amount of grant money coming into the borough. Supporters like to talk about Orr’s work with the W.I.N. Committee. W.I.N. Working in Neighborhoods. It was a committee that started well before Orr was mayor. Guess where the money came from? Among other places, Thaddeus Kirkland’s grants. When Orr became mayor, he stopped attending meetings, which resulted in the grant money going away.

 

More than the community projects listed above, the Mayor has one primary responsibility. The police force. When it comes to the police force, don’t be fooled for one second as to why it has been short staffed for so long. Ralph Orr made a calculated decision to use part-time officers instead of hiring full-time, union member officers for one simple reason. It is far easier to “boss around” and control the part-time officers. The part-timers are “at will” employees, meaning that they could be fired for looking at a tree the wrong way. Because Orr lacks the ability to build a consensus or to be able to handle anyone disagreeing with him, he had to have officers whom he could easily control. Had he hired full-time union officers, he would have had to work with them, and the union, instead of talking at them.

Heck, even in the meeting in December when Bill Stewart motioned to hire two new police officers, Orr practically fell out of his chair screaming that he was in charge of the police force. Orr shouted, “No, we don’t want that,” in the hopes to sway members of Council to agree with John Pappas and Danielle Thompson who voted against hiring a full-time staff.

Don’t take our word for it, though. Go to Borough Hall and ask to listen to the audio recording of the meeting. It is public record.

After Orr reads this post, he is going to say things like,“Let me turn around so you can pull the knife out of my back” or “You see? I am not a bad guy” as he talks about jackets, turkeys, presents, and Bingos. He is going to victimize himself and try to deflect attention away from the police issues. He is going to blame Council (“I don’t do the hiring. Council does”) in the hopes that you will forget that it has only been within the last 6 months that a real divide amongst the councilors has occurred. For the past 9 ½ years, he had the support of at least four members of council, so he could have gotten passed any decision he wanted to pass. He had the votes. All he had to do was ask. He chose to go with part time officers, eliminate the bike patrol, and pay “chiefs on leave” for the vast majority of his time. He can’t explain why he has done this, so he will deflect away from these decisions.

 

Since the “great divide” 6 months ago, Bill Stewart, Karen Reeves, Despo Tatasciore, and Dave Paterson have pushed to find and hire 3 new full time police officers with 1 more on the way. Orr had nothing to do with it. Again, don’t take our word for it. Go to Borough Hall and review the tapes from December and January. Reeves and Stewart are easily heard arguing with Orr, Pappas, and Thompson.

Why did the bike patrol go away? Orr will tell you because there was no funding. You mean to tell me that a few thousand didn’t exist to pay a few people during the summer months for a few hours? There has been a surplus at the end of each calendar year for at least the past 5 years. And I am not talking a few dollars. I am talking $50,000+ in surplus. One year, we bought a new highway truck at the end of the year and still had $58,000 in surplus. The bike patrol wasn’t too expensive. In reality, Orr did not like that the FOP insisted that full-time officers be given preference over the part-timer officers for those extra shifts. So, rather than deal with the union’s request, Orr took an “I’ll show them” approach and nixed the entire program

Who better to run a police force than a retired police officer? Does Allen have flaws? Sure he does. What human doesn’t? Even though Ralph Orr has been mayor for 10 years and Allen Reeves has never been elected, the moment Reeves takes office should he win, he will still have 13 ½ years more experience in policing. If anyone can set the right tone and direction for our police force, it is Allen Reeves.  Reeves is endorsed by the F.O.P. Lodge 27.  That's a pretty impressive endorsement for a challenger to recieve when running against an incumbant. 

Important information about Voting Rights: You can vote for anyone you wish to vote for on Tuesday

There has been some miscommunication about voter’s rights.  While we certainly hope you will vote for the candidates we like, we also respect everyone’s right to vote for whomever they think is the best choice.  You can vote for anyone regardless of which ticket they are on. You are not required to vote for just the “Orr ticket” or the “RRPOE ticket.”

As far as the local elections go, Republicans have 3 decisions to make on Tuesday. Here are your options:

Choice 1:  Mayor (vote for 1)

 

Ralph Orr or Allen Reeves

 

Whomever you select for mayor does not affect your choices for Council.

 

 

 

Choice 2:  4 year Council seat (pick ANY 4-I listed them in alphabetical order)

 

Dave Bennett

Kelly Butkus

Bob Donahue

Beth Gross

Dale Kerns

Karen Reeves

William Stewart

Debrah Tompkins

 

NOTE: You can pick ANY 4. Obviously, each team wants you to pick their running mates, but you do not have to do that. You select any 4 you wish to vote for.

 

 

 

Choice 3:  2 year Council seat (pick 1)

 

Christine Cocker or Despo Tatasciore

 

 

We hope this clarifies the confusion.

 

Lastly, and most importantly, NO ONE CAN SEE YOUR VOTE. PEOPLE CAN ONLY SEE IF YOU VOTED IN THE ELECTION BUT NO ONE CAN SEE WHO YOU ACTUALLY SELECTED. THE ONLY WAY SOMEONE WILL KNOW WHO YOU VOTED FOR IS IF YOU TELL THEM.

 

Anyone telling you that they can see who you actually cast a vote for is lying.

 

If you don’t believe us, or you have questions about the above information, please call the Delaware County Election Board at 610-891-4673

You can also view your right’s at this website by clicking on Pennsylvania at the AFL-CIO website

 

You can also see more about voters' rights from the American Civil Liberties Union.

You will not need ID unless you are voting at your polling place for the first time.

Part 2 of 3: The original report card, complete with accurate nonbiased information

It is a lot harder to evaluate the other “endorsed by Orr” candidates because they have no experience leading a town or an open website highlighting their skills.



These people might be nice people and good neighbors, but that does not mean that they will make good members of Council. I have nothing to evaluate their ability to lead on because they have not done it, other than for a few months on recreation for a couple, and have not made a point of creating an open website to talk about their skills with voters. Because of this, while I may have been inclined to vote for some of these people, I can only evaluate them based on two things I see and believe.



First, I firmly believe that you can judge a person by the company they keep. These 4 people have had the ability to speak out and distance themselves from Kerns’ and Orr’s lies. They have not demonstrated that courage, at least in a public way.



Second, and this is more important to me, let’s assume the Orr team wins. Who is going to “lead” them come January? Orr from the corner? Look at how he has led the police department as a prime example of how that is a problem. Understaffed, loss of officers, and reduced services (until election time, then all kinds of promises are made). Kerns with his lies? The borough will be seeing red with the debt we will incur to defend his ignorance. Dave Paterson? No-Orr isolates him now. That is not going to change after a new election cycle if Orr’s team wins. Which leaves us with Danielle Thompson. For those of you who can (remember that her posts are on a private page), go back and read the closed Republican Facebook page. Thompson spends her time talking about people, many of whom are not council members, people in a position to make a change, or candidates rather than presenting a counterargument to the blog’s posts. Obviously, Thompson has a forum. She could post her counterargument and evidence for that position. Instead, she posts angry rants with false accusations, all for the children to read because she and the other administrators of the site thought it a wise decision to exclude voters from the page but include young kids on it.  What would be the point in having a closed off to voter political page but adding kids to it?




When I look at how the RRPOE candidates have handled themselves throughout this election, they have stayed “above the fray” and left the mean spirited personal attacks out of the campaign. While some of their supporters who are unconnected to the campaign may have put out their own opinions of Orr’s ticket, the candidates have stuck to the issues at hand in an attempt to show how they will lead the entire town. To be an elected official, one needs to be able to lead the entire town, not just the part that agrees with you. On the other side, the “endorsed by Orr” candidates, rather than put out a final piece of literature talking about themselves, chose instead to negatively attack their opponents with door hangers. The candidates themselves, with some of their supporters, hung them on door.



To summarize. Saying that a person is nice or a good neighbor does not qualify them to run a town. It is entirely possible that in two years, after seeing all of the great things these people may do on the recreation board, we may write that they are quality candidates deserving of our support. Now is not that time, though. People change, as has our position on some members of the sitting Council. It is healthy to have disagreeing opinions and the "endorsed by Orr" ticket has shown no evidence that they will be able to handle the disagreements that certainly occur when a town is being led.