Comments at Haverford Township Commisioners Meeting, Dec 14, 2009
Haverford Township Commissioner Meeting Remarks by Larry Chrzan, Dec 14, 2009
Written version, shortened for delivery in the Citizen’s forum.
Visit www.LarryChrzan.com/VoterInfo to view copies of these reports.
A couple weeks ago I resigned my position as a Library Board Trustee. I thank the community for allowing me to serve for the past 6 ½ years. As this is a critical time for library funding, I reluctantly needed to disassociate myself from the library as I today bring public attention to one of the decision makers on that funding.
At the first budget meeting in November, 7th Ward Commissioner Jim McGarrity brought up the notion that the Township administrators review their own salaries in light of the Township’s financial situation. Then there was some discussion about some possible savings on Commissioners’ expenses. At that point McGarrity turned red and got unusually quiet. I had checked his expense reports in 2007 when I ran against him for 7th Ward Commissioner and all those reports were close to the maximum $400 per month. So I again did a review of all Commissioner expense reports for the last few years.
The Township code authorizes reimbursement of expenses “actually incurred in the performance of duties”.
There are two commissioners who have submitted no expense reimbursement requests in the last two years. While there is certainly nothing wrong in being reimbursed for legitimate expenses, Commissioners Weschler and Holmes have in effect made a contribution to the township by not requesting reimbursement. Others submit only minor expense reimbursements. Thank you to those Commisioners for your contributions to the Township.
On the other hand, Commissioner McGarrity continues to submit requests for reimbursement that are almost always close to the maximum $400 per month.
Each month McGarrity submits 2 phone bills - a residential land line and a cell phone. Only one other commissioner does this. But McGarrity is the only Commissioner who submits a bill for a phone line that he not only uses for Commissioner business, but is the same phone number that he puts on campaign literature. The taxpayers should not be paying for McGarrity’s campaign activities.
For travel expenses, McGarrity regularly submits mileage reimbursement requests of about $80 per month. Almost every mileage submission is exactly 200, 210 or 220 miles. It’s hard to believe that McGarrity drives 200 miles on Township business every month when his home is about a mile from the Township building. And it’s impossible that each month’s mileage is exactly a round number like that. The Township Manager has noted on McGarrity’s reports that no support or mileage logs have ever been provided for these large mileage submissions.
Next is postage. McGarrity has submitted a total of $882.60 in postage in 33 months. That’s about 2100 letters - over 2 letters a day every day for 33 months - hard to believe that McGarrity writes this many letters. I’ve lived in the 7th ward for 10 years and have never received a letter in the mail from McGarrity. Were these stamps used for campaign letters? (Note: newsletter mailings are paid for and mailed by the Township, not part of this expense.)
Finally, McGarrity makes contributions to various fundraising and charitable activities, then submits those for reimbursement. Over the past 3 years McGarrity’s contributions total $935, funded by our taxpayer dollars. While many of these are submitted without documentation, some of the larger documented contributions went to the Grange, Msgr. Bonner Football, Veterans groups, American Legion, and various medical charities. In addition, we taxpayers paid for a banner to hang at the little league field with McGarrity’s name on it. No other commissioner submits such contributions for reimbursement.
I’ve posted copies of McGarrity’s expense reports on my personal website at LarryChrzan.com, or you can request your own review of the records.
I ask the Township Auditor to investigate these expenses. I call on this Board of Commissioners to tighten up the rules and processes for their own expenses. And I will contact the Delaware County District Attorney’s office to ask them to investigate. Taxpayers, please contact your commissioner - especially if you live in the 7th ward - to ask for an investigation.
We can’t afford to have our hard-earned money spent like this in these difficult economic times…or at any time.
Thank you.
- Larry Chrzan
Written version, shortened for delivery in the Citizen’s forum.
Visit www.LarryChrzan.com/VoterInfo to view copies of these reports.
A couple weeks ago I resigned my position as a Library Board Trustee. I thank the community for allowing me to serve for the past 6 ½ years. As this is a critical time for library funding, I reluctantly needed to disassociate myself from the library as I today bring public attention to one of the decision makers on that funding.
At the first budget meeting in November, 7th Ward Commissioner Jim McGarrity brought up the notion that the Township administrators review their own salaries in light of the Township’s financial situation. Then there was some discussion about some possible savings on Commissioners’ expenses. At that point McGarrity turned red and got unusually quiet. I had checked his expense reports in 2007 when I ran against him for 7th Ward Commissioner and all those reports were close to the maximum $400 per month. So I again did a review of all Commissioner expense reports for the last few years.
The Township code authorizes reimbursement of expenses “actually incurred in the performance of duties”.
There are two commissioners who have submitted no expense reimbursement requests in the last two years. While there is certainly nothing wrong in being reimbursed for legitimate expenses, Commissioners Weschler and Holmes have in effect made a contribution to the township by not requesting reimbursement. Others submit only minor expense reimbursements. Thank you to those Commisioners for your contributions to the Township.
On the other hand, Commissioner McGarrity continues to submit requests for reimbursement that are almost always close to the maximum $400 per month.
Each month McGarrity submits 2 phone bills - a residential land line and a cell phone. Only one other commissioner does this. But McGarrity is the only Commissioner who submits a bill for a phone line that he not only uses for Commissioner business, but is the same phone number that he puts on campaign literature. The taxpayers should not be paying for McGarrity’s campaign activities.
For travel expenses, McGarrity regularly submits mileage reimbursement requests of about $80 per month. Almost every mileage submission is exactly 200, 210 or 220 miles. It’s hard to believe that McGarrity drives 200 miles on Township business every month when his home is about a mile from the Township building. And it’s impossible that each month’s mileage is exactly a round number like that. The Township Manager has noted on McGarrity’s reports that no support or mileage logs have ever been provided for these large mileage submissions.
Next is postage. McGarrity has submitted a total of $882.60 in postage in 33 months. That’s about 2100 letters - over 2 letters a day every day for 33 months - hard to believe that McGarrity writes this many letters. I’ve lived in the 7th ward for 10 years and have never received a letter in the mail from McGarrity. Were these stamps used for campaign letters? (Note: newsletter mailings are paid for and mailed by the Township, not part of this expense.)
Finally, McGarrity makes contributions to various fundraising and charitable activities, then submits those for reimbursement. Over the past 3 years McGarrity’s contributions total $935, funded by our taxpayer dollars. While many of these are submitted without documentation, some of the larger documented contributions went to the Grange, Msgr. Bonner Football, Veterans groups, American Legion, and various medical charities. In addition, we taxpayers paid for a banner to hang at the little league field with McGarrity’s name on it. No other commissioner submits such contributions for reimbursement.
I’ve posted copies of McGarrity’s expense reports on my personal website at LarryChrzan.com, or you can request your own review of the records.
I ask the Township Auditor to investigate these expenses. I call on this Board of Commissioners to tighten up the rules and processes for their own expenses. And I will contact the Delaware County District Attorney’s office to ask them to investigate. Taxpayers, please contact your commissioner - especially if you live in the 7th ward - to ask for an investigation.
We can’t afford to have our hard-earned money spent like this in these difficult economic times…or at any time.
Thank you.
- Larry Chrzan
Labels: Haverford Township, Jim McGarrity, Larry Chrzan
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