For years, Election Day has been a holiday for employees of Bucks County government.
The reason isn't so they can vote. It's so the Republican-controlled county can put its machine to work electing or re-electing more Republicans.
That's the charge by the Democratic candidates for Bucks County commissioner.
Diane Marseglia and Det Ansinn joined the four other Democratic candidates for county row offices Tuesday in front of the Bucks County Courthouse. They pledged to get county employees back to work on Election Day as a means of stopping what they called the political corruption that years of Republican-controlled county government has wrought.
Along with the rest of the 2011 Democratic slate, Marseglia and Ansinn signed a pledge to:
- Refrain from any political activity in all official duties.
- Prohibit political activity from the workplace.
- Require that all employees who come forward with concerns of improper behavior by others are protected from negative consequences for reporting such behavior.
- Prohibit the use of county property for political use.
Their condemnations come nearly a week after Candace Quinn, a former administrator in the county's Registrar of Wills office, pled guilty to political corruption-related charges, including theft.
In March, longstanding Registrar of Wills Barbara Reilly and three of her employees were arrested after a lengthy corruption probe, charged with forcing county employees to perform political work and compensating them with illegal time off.
Later Tuesday, a campaign spokesman for Republican commissioners Charles Martin and Robert Loughery said neither the party nor the commissioners were backing Reilly.
"The Barbara Reilly issue is something that bothers everybody," said Skip Goodnoe. "But there are 2,600 people in the courthouse, and only four of them are accused of this. And it was a Republican Controller and Republican District Attorney who prosecuted them.
"Aside from that, what’s the Democrats campaign? Nothing."
Besides Ansinn and Marseglia, the 2011 Democratic slate includes Donna Caracappa, for Registrar of Wills, Mary Whitesell, for Clerk of Courts, Tom Kearns, for County Treasurer, and Umar Farooq, for Coroner.
Marseglia was first elected to the Bucks County Commissioners board in 2007. She lives in Middletown. Ansinn, who lives in Doylestown, is president of Doylestown Borough Council.
Martin was first appointed to the board in 1995, and has served ever since. He lives in Upper Southampton. Loughery was appointed in February to fill the term of Jim Cawley, who became Lieutenant Governor. He lives in Bedminster.
In the November election, the three top vote-getters will win seats on the board.
Thank you for posting the link to that story - the formatting didn't work, though, so here should be the correct link: http://articles.philly.com/2001-08-16/news/25299014_1_witch-hunt-township-supervisors-increases-for-township-employees
It's important for people to understand that Skip Goonoe does not have the high ground regarding impropriety. I comment Ms. Marseglia for her brave efforts. The old guard will always resist change.
What about the $75 an hour job she gave to Paula Kearns so she could "teach" Donna Caracappa how to perform the job of Financial Director she was hired to do. Yes Paula Kearns is the wife of Tom Kearns who was the tax collector and now county treasurer candidate. Let us not forget how Marseglia switched the Insurance carrier after she recieved tens of thousands of campaign contributions. She also cut the coverage and resulted in litigation after the death of Chris Jones, she is anything but commendable and is bad for Bucks County.
Are you saying that Paula Kearns is not married to Tom Kearns? And are you sayig that Paula Kearns has never had a consulting job with Middletown Township to train Donna Caracappa? If so you are more than welcome to look up the public meeting minutes and disprove me, but I think you will quickly find that I am correct and not "baseless" and am in fact on firm ground. Also, Election day is a paid holiday for county employees. to call for it to no longer be so would VIOLATE the Collective Bargaining Agreement for the county's Union employees. In order for it not to be a violation of the CBA it would have to be negotiated which will require a benefit or monetary compensation equal too or possibly more expensive than the current holiday pay. Now "Jael", if you would like to disprove those facts I would be more than interested to read it. However you will not and will only "claim" them to be untrue without providing any documentation to disprove my facts. Also posting in a hidden identity is a pathetic and cowardly thing to do.
http://bucksvictory.com/about 1. I NEVER said specifically that Donna Caracappa was NOT Middletown Township's Finance Director 2. SO WHAT if Tom Keanrs and Paula are married?? I NEVER said specifically that they were NOT As usual, you put "words in my mouth" As for the issue of Election day being a "paid Holiday", they are referring to what the former register of wills and others in the courthouse were doing, before this was exposed. .
Again you make baseless attacs with NO facts to back them up. While I appreciate that you say I ask "Some" legitimate questions, you fail to realize that ALL my questions are legitimate. I don't care how people in this township ""feel" about me. I know I am getting the truth out, and it bothers you as well as the township officials. How are my facts "pathetic"?? I have repeatedly asked for you and others to prove me wrong, but you FAIL to do so. you have not produced one single piece of evidence to prove me wrong, when I have produced my facts based on the following: 1. The SAFER Grant (Which I have a copy of) Would you like it?? 2. Evidence accompying the SAFER Grant proving it was filled out fraudulently. Want that as well? 3. A copy of the township's budget, and an article from the Bucks County Courier Times (12/19/2010), article showing this to be true. Anything else?????
You are a hack. You stated that my comment was "baseless attacks, based on false information" which was false. I pointed out it was false. Just Like Rob Loughery has not pocketed $5.75 million in taxpayer monies. Just like Diane Marseglia has voted to raise taxes every year she was able to vote in her entire political career. The only reason she can say she hasn't done it in the last 4 years is because she was not able to because of the counties financial managment that never offered a tax increase. She wants to eliminate a holiday and did not negotiate this. This Violates the CBA as I pointed out. Try and play semantics with words and phrases some more, everyone knows the games that you Dem operatives play.
Clearly the republican controller & republican DA did a terrific job in proscecuting the criminals in office & this is just a democrat ploy to try to convince voters that an entire party is corrupt.