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Comments on McGarrity ExpenseGate Issue

I had signed up to speak at the Haverford Township commissioners meeting in Feb, but unfortunately I was not able to go to the meeting. Below are the comments I had ready for that meeting. The short story is that nothing has been done to look into the Jim McGarrity ExpenseGate issue. I recently obtained McGarrity's expense reports for Sept to Dec 2009, which are now on my Voter Info page.

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Remarks on McGarrity ExpenseGate
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A few years ago there was a redistricting dispute over a gerrymandered plan that was backed by then commissioners Moran, Twardy, McDonald, Kelly and current commissioner D’Emilio. The reapportionment was obviously rigged for political gain – the map’s infamous hockey stick demonstrated that to even the casual observer. The case went all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, (at great expense to us taxpayers,) and the so-called Moran-Twardy plan was deemed to be legal. And the supporters of that Moran-Twardy Plan touted its legality in the face of the obvious injustice.

That redistricting battle was orchestrated by the so-called reformers – Pat Biswanger, Jeff Heilmann, Andy Lewis, and Jim McGarrity, all of whom parlayed that activity and the later grand jury investigation into the Haverford State Hospital misdeeds into better political positions. And among the charges that later came out of that investigation was a charge against Moran for submitting alleged fraudulent expenses. I sat in the courtroom when that charge, I believe it was termed “theft by deception”, was heard and reviewed.

Now fast forward a few years, and we now have the McGarrity ExpenseGate controversy. And those former reformers, joined by our current Board of Commissioners President Weschler, are now circling the Republican Party wagons to defend McGarrity for the large expense amounts that he has submitted, including reimbursement for a phone line he used for campaigning, and about 200 miles per month supposedly on township business submitted without documentation.

From the Delco Times article:
Wechsler maintained that it was “very premature and irresponsible” for Chrzan to publicly make allegations about McGarrity since there’s been no determination he committed any crime.
Regarding his colleague’s car expenses, Wechsler said he’s seen McGarrity drive the entire 7th Ward, checking roads and street lights.
Additionally, “I think we need to revisit the issue and re-evaluate the expense program, which goes back 20 years,” Wechsler said, when prior boards “were told they were entitled to $400 per month in expense money.”
“(McGarrity) hasn’t done anything outside the guidelines of the system he’s operated under. It’s time now we fix the system, rather than accuse someone who’s operated under it for years of committing illegalities.”

In the news story, Commissioner Jeff Heilmann said he did not believe McGarrity knowingly did anything wrong. Heilman also wrote on the Save Ardmore Coalition blog, “This was wrong, but not criminal. It is an election law violation with a fine and a slap on the wrist.”

It sounds like the Moran-Twardy Plan defense – Let’s all say that maybe it’s not illegal by the letter of the law.

But the real question is: Are McGarrity’s expenses right or wrong? Not do you think it was legal or do you think it’s the system’s fault. Is it right or wrong? And what is this Board of Commissioners going to do about it? What is the DA going to do about it? What is the Township Auditor going to do about it?

And it’s not the campaign or election law that we should be concerned about. I’ve already brought numerous campaign law issues regarding McGarrity to the Delco Election board. In fact, McGarrity refused to have a 7th ward debate with me in 2007, saying, “You've had me so busy trying to answer all your questions on my financial statements, I haven't had much time.” I didn’t feel it necessary to raise those issues publicly – no taxpayer money was involved. The McGarrity ExpenseGate question is whether this is a misuse of public funds to request reimbursement for these expenses. That’s what Moran was charged with for submitting alleged non-legitimate expenses – theft by deception, a criminal charge.

Specifically to Commissioner Heilmann, you said you think it’s wrong, so why are your defending McGarrity instead of looking out for the taxpayers?

And Commissioner Weschler, do you think it’s okay for McGarrity to drive around the 7th ward to check roads and street lights and then charge it to the township? Don’t we have a Public Works department that gets paid to do that? Is that a commissioner’s job and should the taxpayers subsidize that?

I would remind Commissioner Weschler and the other members of the Board that you can’t blame an outdated system or what prior boards were told by people that are long gone. YOU are the system now. YOU are in charge of updating the system and the ordinance that currently says $50 is the monthly expense limit. YOU are the stewards of our taxpayers’ money. We elected you to make sure that our tax money is well spent. In fact, Mr. McGarrity has been on the board for 18 years, why hasn’t he tried to fix the system?

It was two months ago that I raised this issue and brought the FACTS, not “premature and irresponsible” allegations, to this board. I brought in the facts, I said I think it’s wrong, and I’ve asked for it to be looked into. That’s a legitimate taxpayer request. Many people have called me, emailed me or come up to me on the street to thank me and encourage me for speaking up for the taxpayers. And if you check the comments by readers on the Delco Times website or the Haverford Blog, you’ll see that many taxpayers are upset that their money is being used like this.

Two months ago I asked the Township Auditor to look into this and have been told that he’ll get to it. I asked the Delaware County District Attorney’s office to look into this and been told the matter is “under review”, but no further action has been taken. And two months ago I asked this Board to fix the broken system and revise the ordinance regarding Commissioner expenses, which still sets a $50 per month limit. To the best of my knowledge, nothing has be done except removing the Contributions line from the Commissioner expense report.

So, instead of attacking the messenger for speculative political reasons and trying to limit the political bad press, I ask this Board of Commissioners to call on the Township Auditor to look into this matter. Call on the District Attorney to investigate it. And stop using the same faulty reasoning that Moran and Twardy used to defend their gerrymandered legal plan. Apply the rules of right and wrong to protect the taxpayers, as these commissioners swore to do, rather than worrying about the politics.

Returning to this McGarrity ExpenseGate issue, I’ll answer that question I posed - is it right or wrong - just as I was quoted in the paper. “I think it’s wrong that our taxpayer money is spent this way.”

Now, let's fix this system!

- Larry Chrzan

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

Haverford Township 2008 Budget

The 2008 Haverford Township budget was passed on December 10, 2008 at the regular monthly meeting. Here is a copy of the budget that was approved (which was version 2.)

There were only a few printed copies available at that meeting. The documents below are scanned in to PDF format from the paper copy that I picked up at the meeting.

Cover and summary page (2 pages total)
Fund 1 (General Fund) Revenues (4 pages total)
Fund 2 (Sewer Fund) Revenues and Expenses (3 pages total)
Fund 1 (General Fund) Expenses (24 pages total)

Available from the Haverford Township website is the slide presentation that was given at the meeting. It's on this page: http://www.haverfordtownship.com/budget, or download directly from http://www.haverfordtownship.com/files/HavTwpBudget-2008.ppt.

The day after - No regrets, many supporters

Of course I’m disappointed that I didn’t win this election. But I have absolutely no regrets. I ran a hard hitting campaign, we got the message out and raised enough money to do everything we wanted to do and then some. I’m proud of the campaign that was devised and well executed by a great team with many volunteers and contributors. Dozens and dozens of people helped on this campaign and that by itself is encouraging and inspiring.

It was clear going into this campaign that going up against a 16 year incumbent with a 28% registration advantage would be difficult.

I proposed drastic changes in what a commissioner should do and not do, how our Township would be run and what our Township might become. This message of progress and reform did not win the day in yesterday’s election. Unofficial approximate vote count was 889 to 1269 with a turnout of about 58% of the registered voters.

I’m only sorry that I won’t have the opportunity to serve the community in this capacity.

The choices were clear. In the end, the voters said they wanted more of the same instead of change.

Many thanks to my volunteers, contributors, supporters, and those who voted for me!

McGarrity tries to rebut the facts I've presented

Jim McGarrity has recently sent out a letter attempting to characterize the facts I've documented and presented as false allegations.


First, this letter proves one of my allegations, that he uses the same phone number for his campaign and for commissioner business. Here's the top of the latest letter:

And here's the top of a recent 7th Ward newsletter, paid for by the Township:

Obviously, the campaign phone number and the commissioner line are the same phone number. On my website's Voter Info page I have posted McGarrity's Commissioner expense reports from February to July 2007 showing phone bills ranging from $167.33 to $193.47 per month. These bills are outrageous!


Debate
His letter states that I said he would not debate me. I had challenged McGarrity to a 7th Ward-only debate, and 11 days later he declined to participate. Yes, he did decline to debate me in an in-depth session in the 7th Ward. He participated in the LWV candidates forum where there were 10 candidates and 2 hours.


Cronyism
McGarrity disputes the cronyism regarding the Recycling Coordinator and Highway Inspector jobs. I stand by my comments that both of these employees are friends of McGarrity, that one at least of them has been a paid campaign worker for him, and that McGarrity was involved in both of these personnel decisions.

On the Highway Inspector job, there is a pending federal discrimination lawsuit that the Township is now defending itself against at great expense because of this hiring. This is a fact.

The Recycling Coordinator was an unbudgeted position. It was not in the 2006 budget passed in December 2006, and the job was created in January 2007. This is a fact.


Farmers Market
McGarrity denies that he is against the Oakmont Farmers Market (started by my wife Janet) and says that he "is working with School Board Director Joe Martin, to investigate the possibility of using the rear of Oakmont School for next year." This is not true. And he has not spoken with any of the Farmers Market organizers about any of this. So he isn't "working" on anything here. Previously McGarrity stated that the farmers market should get a storefront. And his comments at various Commissioners meetings have been very antagonistic. He has repeatedly demonstrated that he just doesn't understand the whole thing.

What McGarrity is trying to do is save his political skin and undo the anti-Farmers Market comments he has previously made because he sees that the Farmers Market is so popular.

He appears to be trying to coopt the popularity of the market and control the same farmers market that he has been hostile to. Anyone who has heard him at the Commissioners meetings know this is a complete flip-flop.


Campaign Finance Ethics
Finally, McGarrity fails to adequately address a major issue that I have documented, that he has taken significant contributions from people who do business with the Township. (I have posted the proof on the Voter Info page of my website.) His letter says, "I am not beholding [sic] to ANYONE." The facts are that people who have contributed to McGarrity's campaign have gotten business and contracts with the Township.

As I continue to say, I am the ONLY candidate the does not take contributions from people who do business with the Township, and I never will. The residents of the 7th Ward have heard this message loud and clear, and it's up to them to decide.

Haverford LWV debate, Wed Oct 24, 2007 - Recap and Comments

I watched a replay of the debate recently. It was kind of weird watching myself on TV like that.

I wanted to make sure I had captured some of the things that Jim McGarrity said correctly before commenting.

McGarrity stated at the debate that he had created additional parking at the library. He's also been quoted in the paper in a candidate's statement saying the same thing. I'd really like to know where that extra parking is! Last time I check there were still 17 parking places there.

On the issue of the pension fund, the Dem team worked very well together to explain the situation and describe the steps in figuring out the problem and coming up with a solution. I had the first comment and described the situation with the huge deficit last year with the resulting 4% tax increase, and the anticipated deficit this year. We all commented on the various aspects of the fudiciary oversight duties that had been neglected.

Mr. McGarrity laid the blame squarely on 8th Ward Commissioner Tom Broido. He said, "We put Tom Broido in charge of that, and Broido happens to be a Democrat. ... And if there's a problem I guess we have to talk to Mr. Broido about the problem, because he hasn't talked to us about it." Larry Abel rebutted this McGarrity later, saying, "Broido uncovered the problem and reported it to the Board of Commissioners. ... I don't know what Mr. McGarrity is talking about when he says the commissioners don't know about it.

Also, Mr. McGarrity took a shot at our State Representative in an off-topic response. The question was on the taking of the health benefits, and the commissioner salary of $3000 per year. Most people said they did not need and would not take the benefit. McGarrity said he would take it as he has been doing. McGarrity said, "There's 9 of us here, $3000 a piece, that's $27,000. That's only 1/3 of what Vitali makes. I think if we eliminate Vitali and his salary, that will save the Township a lot of money."

There are so many things wrong with this comment, I'll just let it stand as it is and say I completely disagree.