The Indirect Contributions and Business with the Township

In previous posts I've documented the direct contributions to Jim McGarrity's campaign and those contributors who got Township business.

With the INdirect contributions, it's a little harder to track. You cannot draw a straight line between the contributor and the business. But the connection is there. And I suggest that the influence is just as strong. And the amounts are bigger too.

A few months ago at a commissioner meeting, Pat Larkin from Brokerage Professionals in Media PA said that he was proud to have the Township's insurance business for the last 27 years. I wondered - how does he have such a lock on this business?

Pennsylvania's Campaign Finance Reporting website has rich search functions so that you can look up contributors, committees, etc. (I believe PA Rep. Greg Vitali was the driving force in the establishment of this web resource.)

I checked out contributions from Larkin. I transcribed the contributions from both Pat Larkin and his wife Susan Larkin, who is also listed as being from Brokerage Professionals. (CLICK HERE to download the report in PDF format.)

From 2004 to the latest report in June 2007, the Larkins contributed over $43,000 to various Republican committees and candidates, mostly in Delaware County.

These include the "Delaware Co Rep Finance Com" and the "Upper Darby Rep Campaign Com". Now the Upper Darby Republican Committee, headed up by John McNichol, gave money to Jim McGarrity. I can't track down any contributions from the Delco Republican Committee to "Friends of Andy Reilly" or "Friends of Andy Lewis", who also gave money to McGarrity, because I don't have their reports. They are not required to file them with the state since they are county-level candidates.

So Larkin gives money to the UD Repubs, and they give money to McGarrity.

I suggest that the indirect contribution can carry just as much influence as the direct contribution.

By the way, I spoke about this at the commissioner's meeting on Oct 9, 2007 too and handed out the contribution list from Brokerage Professionals.

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The Township's finances are dramatically affected by the pension fund for the police and non-uniformed employees. Last year, the fund deficit was almost a half million dollars, which led to a tax increase of about 4% all by itself. So without even considering wage/salary increases or the rising costs of goods and services, there was a 4% tax increase just to fund this deficit.

Haverford Township has an interesting situation in that we use two different investment firms to manage the funds, then we hire a consultant to oversee them. This consultant is John Spagnola from PFM Advisors. If I understand things correctly, Spagnola/PFM is paid about $30,000 per year to watch these funds.

Spagnola contributes thousands to a political action committe (PAC) called Pennsylvanians for Higher Standards in Govt. This PAC then contributes to the Delco Republicans among others. (They have not filed a finance report since 2005, so it's hard to tell what they are doing now.)

Again, an indirect contributor gets business with Haverford Township.

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What's the solution?

First, I take no money from any outside PACs for my campaign. As I see it, it's the only way to be impartial in making these decisions and getting the best deal for the taxpayers.

Second, there seems to be no reason to use another consultant to oversee the fund managers. So why not save the $30,000?

Third, we need to get the best deal for the taxpayers on the important contracts for professional services and make sure we are not paying inflated rates for services because the provider is a contributor. $43,000 is a lot of overhead and that has to come from somewhere!