Lewis, who grew up in Schwenksville, Montgomery County, then went on to college, and earned a master’s degree in business with a focus on accounting from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
At the age of 28 he was hired by Delaware County Council as the county’s first lobbyist in Washington, D.C. His firm, Lewis, Eckert, Robb and Co. later came under fire because it was based in Plymouth Meeting, not Washington.
A 1990 audit by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development discovered the firm was being paid with federal money, and ruled the firm’s no-bid contract was awarded against federal guidelines. The audit called the $66,000 the firm earned between 1985 and 1989 "a waste of program funds."
The county later acknowledged misspending the money it paid the firm.
Lewis said he is seeking the county council seat because it appeals to his nature as a businessman and a manager. He said he will fight against the FAA proposal to redirect flights over Delaware County, and will fight to preserve open space.
Lewis said he will also fight against tax increases, and will work toward the economic development of Delaware County. Lewis said the job is about running a business efficiently, and that is what he has done as a business consultant or 25 years.
"At the end of the day, you’re really managing a medium sized business," Lewis said. "You have to keep taxes low, and squeeze more efficiency out of the system."
Lewis, 50, is married and has three daughters. He moved to Haverford about 12 years ago.
Several years before he moved into Delaware County, Lewis came under fire for his role in a plan to build an incinerator of hazardous waste in Union County. Drew Lewis, the chief executive officer of Union Pacific Railroad at the time, hired a company founded by his son to build the incinerator.
Community activists opposing the plan later dubbed Lewis and his business partners "the Allenwood 11." Lewis’s business partners included former state commerce secretaries James Pickard and Donald Mazziotti, and Nicholas DeBenedictis, the chief executive officer of Aqua America and former state Department of Environmental Resources secretary under ex-Gov. Dick Thornburgh.
The incinerator, which was being built near the site of the Allenwood Prison, was scrapped after public outcry shed light on the project and the millions of dollars its developers expected to earn.
Lewis was elected to the Haverford Board of Commissioners in 2003. He recently provided information to the state Attorney General’s office about alleged malfeasance on the part of his fellow commissioners, George Twardy and Fred Moran. The information resulted in the arrest of Moran on felony bribery charges three weeks ago.