SCREWED OVER:BENSALEM TOWNSHIP STYLE!

I watched the township’s council meeting last night and was completely disgusted! After getting this bit of info from some very concerned citizens, I see I’m not the only one! Check this latest bit of info I received as I came in the door this afternoon, and see for yourself, just how disgusted and fed up people are over last night.

We got together today as members of the emergency services and taxpayers to discuss what we witnessed last evening from our elected officials….shocking is not the word.
We will start with the Director of Public Safety who appears to want to use tragedy and ignorance to create a sense of never ending dread and fear among the population of our township. He used this to justify his ever inflated budget to justify supervisory positions for political favorites. This is the only police department in the area where more than half the sworn officers DO NOT work in the community! They remain in the police station in “special assignments”.
Despite the new incident report system put in by the Director of Public Safety to increase numbers to justify an oversized police department, the calls for service for the Bensalem Police Department have not risen significantly for more than 30 years! Furthermore, the number of police officers assigned to the patrol division is the same as it was in 1976! We have more supervisors and more special units and personnel assigned outside the township than we ever did! Why? To draw in money for the police department while doing nothing to reduce crime in Bensalem! Two members of the police department are assigned to the DEA office in Philadelphia. Besides bringing money into the township for working investigations in Philadelphia, they do nothing for the people in Bensalem. There are all kinds of people with take home vehicles that hold rank doing jobs within the police department that could be done by civilian personnel at a much reduced rate. At the same time, these officers could be assigned to the streets and neighborhoods to protect our community.
We watched Councilman Kisselback speak about how little of our tax money goes towards the township. He forgets that home and business owners have to pay school taxes too! He was one of those on council many years ago that promoted the casino by telling us we would be getting a school tax reduction because half the casino money would be going to the school district. When the casino bill passed, they decided to keep all the money themselves.
They did try to buy votes, which apparently worked by giving each homeowner $300.00 to fix up there properties. A few years ago, they took back $200.00. So, if you are a Bensalem homeowner who pays (as Councilman Kisselback said) approximately $800.00 in local taxes, that would be a 25% increase in your local taxes!
Instead of building up our reserve fund and increasing its value which would produce greater interest on the investments, they have been continually drawing it down to cover an enormous budget! Suddenly, they needed an assistant in the road department to assist the Public Works Director who is often absent to run his business. Lucky for us tax payers a member of the Mayor’s staff had a relative with no experience in the public works field who needed a government job. It turns out, the Public Works Director had a relative who needed a government job too. His relative is now an assistant in License and Inspection.
The Mayor who in a previous press release said he didn’t need a township vehicle, has had 6 new vehicles costing more than $40,000.00 each! How much traveling does the Mayor of Bensalem do? We mean for Bensalem.
The facts are simple, everything they have promised us regarding budgeting has been proven false.
1. We needed to spend $5,000,000.00 to upgrade a state intersection at Galloway and Mechanicsville. Council said we would be reimbursed by the state. The state was contacted, and that never happened.
2. Half the casino money would go to the school district to keep school taxes down. That never happened.
3. They built a $5,300,000.00 fire training center that the firefighters can’t simulate fires in when County and State officials told them it did not meet standards. The Director of Public Safety had the nerve to tell the media it is the most state of the art training facility in the state! It is, if state of the art in wasting taxpayer money is what he was trying to achieve. There is a County emergency services training facility less than 5 minutes outside the township that provides certified state of the art training including actual class A and B fires at no cost to the township. When asked about who is covering the liability insurance for uncertified personnel teaching at the township training center, the Public Safety Director said don’t worry about it. He has no charge parking at the Federal Court building so go ahead and sue!
4. Our crime rate is higher than Middletown, Hulmeville, Penndel, Langhorne and Langhorne Manor combined! So, please tell us Public Safety Director how throwing good money after bad will reduce our crime rate? Other than you continually scaring the public, what steps are you taking to improve our community. We are not including the DNA testing that you set up for the township with your new “special friend”.
5. Members of the Mayor’s staff have told several of us that it is common for the Mayor to move money around from budget item to budget item. When asked why, we were told to cover expenses. When several of the councilmen (all white males we might add) were asked about why they permit this (as they were intended to be the over sight body of our government) they told us, this was turned over to the Mayor by the Council years ago! So, what is their job then? Who is going back to see what was in the budget that was never purchased and paid for? Why would it be in the budget if it was not needed? It makes no sense to have line items in the budget which the people can review to make sure our tax dollars are being properly used, only to find out they can move money around and buy what they want?! It makes no sense!
6. The Mayor and the Public Safety Director ordered the fire chiefs and presidents of the 6 volunteer fire companies to attend a meeting at the township building. They refused to tell them what the meeting was about. When they got there, the Mayor and the Public Safety Director told them they were taking money away from each fire company to pay for the paid fire company, even though, the SAFER grant submitted by the township specifically stated that they would not reduce funding for the volunteer fire companies to pay for the paid fire company. They also created the paid fire company as a separate organization, directly contradicting what they had written in the grant application. They also went out and bought two pieces of fire apparatus worth more than $500,000.00 which we didn’t need if they had followed through with the plan they submitted to the Federal Government. Instead, they created yet more government jobs for politically connected friends. Many of these paid fire personnel are employed in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act which the Mayor and the Director of Public Safety were made aware of. They laughed because they know the leaders of the fire companies are too afraid to raise the issue after seeing what they did to the Union Fire Company. It is interesting to note, that the very (and unproven) safety issues the Director of Public Safety alleged were being made by the volunteer fire company occur daily by the Monday through Friday paid Fire Company.
7. What about the $11,000,000.00 we get each year from the casino in addition to the property taxes the casino pays? Where is all that money going? At the time the township received the first casino funds the township budget was approximately $40,000,000.00. That $11,000,000.00 was an approximately a 27.5% increase to the township! Where did the money go?
Why would we as taxpayers entrust the Mayor and a Council (that has admitted they do not know what he is spending our money on) 1% of our wages when they already mismanage the money they have been entrusted with?
When will the sheeple of this township wake up to what is happening? What happens when the reserve fund runs out? How much worse would the hole they are digging be without the money from the casino? Not to mention that the casino is  and tired of the township and the emergency services crying to them for more money!
Read the quotes in the paper from the sickMayor, Public Safety Director and Council members about the casino and the effect on the township before the law was passed. Read what the (yes, despite it being more than a decade and a half many of them are still in office) elected officials and their appointees said about the impact and the benefits to our community. Now look at the reality! Does anyone still think they know what they are doing?!!! After last night’s dog and pony show no one could actually still believe them?!!!
A sense of never ending dread and fear is now occurring among the population of our township. He used this to justify their actions last night. What will they use next??

Well let’s sum this up. We have a Mayor, who gets up in front of everyone, and proceeds to berate, blather, pontificate and sound off on everyone being there over this new tax he wants to implement, and expects us to accept it? He then boasts about this town being among the “100 best places to live” when that is a JOKE. Excuse me Mr. Mayor, but what about having an intersection in this town that is considered one of if not the WORST intersections in America!! This town is also known for PARX Casino, which is an addictive eyesore, a mayor and council that spends $$$ like a drunk sailor, and a police department public safety director that does the same thing, plus we have upper echelon police officials, as well as fire officials, who have committed questionable if not illegal acts, and they are not held accountable for it! If they are, they are given very light sentences, and are STILL allowed to keep their jobs, or if they are ‘asked to leave”, they get to keep their pensions!! As for the ‘exclusion’ of those working in Philly, I don’t buy it!
Even worse, is how Fred ‘Sherriff Lobo’ Harran, went on and LIED about how the BTPD is prepared for serious and sever catastrophic events like what happened in San Bernardino, when this police force has NO genuine, valid emergency management plan! He goes on and on, about protecting property and life, and serving the public trust, when they FAIL to do so, by discriminating against minorities, abusing the badges/positions they are given, and more so! Even more disgusting, is how Lobo brings out and replays sensitive graphic police radio calls and pictures of graphic crime scenes that are still considered active evidence in different cases. If not illegal and unethical, the act of showing and paying them is very distasteful and TACKY!!
In short all this is, is another attempt to grab out hard earned money from our pockets, which has succeeded. All I can say for the sheeple who allowed this to take place, is you ask for it and you got it! Most of all: I can say to his majesty, and those cowards who voted this EIT into existence, is that we WILL remember this come next year, and we will make sure that you don’t get away with it. In short…..
WE’RE VOTING YOU OUT!!