To the Times:

David Landau, Ann O’Keefe and John Innelli, Democratic candidates for county council, are making corruption and lack of transparency major themes of their campaigns.

David has put it succinctly: “I am running to end the culture of corruption which wastes millions of our tax dollars every year. Thirty years of one-party rule has led to a system of patronage, no-show jobs, and no-bid contracts reserved for insiders. This activity results in a loss of faith in county government and corrodes the very fabric of our system. As a member of county council, I will demand an end to this wasteful patronage system and a renewed focus on the important issues facing our communities today.”

And from Ann: “I will demand that ‘best business practice’ be the standard for all government contracts. As an example, I recently requested that county council receive constituent input before entering into a final agreement with the Drexel University School of Public Health for a study of Delaware County’s current health-delivery system. Rather than spend $150,000 on questions to which we already know the answers, I want to make sure that the parameters for this study are such that our tax dollars are being spent for a thorough public review of our county health system.”

The Republican candidates are posing as conservatives dedicated to smaller government. They trumpet the fact that we have not had a county tax increase in three years, while ignoring the fact that we have a budget and payroll which are grossly in excess of those of the surrounding counties.

In fact our county budget has risen over 75 percent in the last 25 years, adjusted for inflation. Most of our taxes are going on county jobs — patronage jobs which help further entrench the Republican oligarchy. And you pay for it. It is little wonder that they want a “positive campaign.”

Thirty-two years of Bush-style lack of accountability have embedded a system of patronage, corruption, nepotism and cronyism. Where are the checks and balances when millions are spent on no-bid contracts? Are we getting the lowest and most responsible contract in each case? Allowing this to continue will further entrench the system of big government and waste.

There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania. With the exception of a very small county in the north, we are the only one that does not have two-party representation. The population figures, the number of employees and the budgets of Delaware and of bipartisan Bucks and Montgomery counties are all posted online. The numbers speak for themselves.

This year, Delaware County Council will spend about $560 million of your federal, state and county taxes. Bucks and Montgomery counties each spend about $100 million less even though they have tens of thousands more residents.

In addition to their part-time positions on county council, the five current Republican members hold more than 20 solicitorships with township administrations and school boards across the county. This is a clear conflict of interest; we are paying for those positions.

How does this relate to our local situation? Cronyism is pervasive in Chadds Ford. Eighty percent of the local Republican Party funds raised this year ($12,500 total) have come from outside the township – with current county council members prominent among the donors.

The members of our local Republican Party are enablers for the county Republican power structure; they are, thereby, also enablers of the entrenched Bush-style lack of accountability.

We need to bring democracy, accountability and transparency to our townships and to the Delaware County governments in November. I urge you to consider your local township Democratic candidates and David Landau, Ann O’Keefe, and John Innelli for county council.

M. LANA SHEER

Chadds Ford