As a group of concerned emergency services
personnel, we met today for our regular breakfast. Several of the members of our group brought
along a letter they recently received from Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo. We have one
thought after reading it….DOES HE THINK WE ARE ALL AS STUPID AS HIS CRONIES?
His first paragraph talks about our
trust in him as our leader. He has lied to the six volunteer fire companies regarding
cuts to our funding. He told us that
would never happen. Four years ago he
came to the fire companies and requested our support for his election. He
claimed he would not be seeking an additional term after that one. He gave us his word. Here he is running
again. He has benefited greatly personally from his position as
Mayor. Try digging through the phantom
corporations to see how much he has gained in real estate holdings since he
became Mayor. Start with the area of the
Texas Roadhouse and go from there.
His family and connected friends have
benefited greatly from his position as Mayor. Has anyone else had a family
member on probation for a felony, arrested for another felony while on
probation and NEVER serve time in jail?
Oh, did we forget to mention that in addition to committing another
felony while on probation, he violated that probation on several occasions and
STILL did not serve a day in jail? How about all the school district employees
that were arrested for decades of stealing from the school district? Two people who were not close associates of
the Mayor received jail time. The rest,
ARD and probation! Are you kidding? Not to mention a certain elected official who
was arrested for DUI, given a breath test which he failed and then NEVER
charged. Maybe your definition of trust is different from ours.
The next paragraph is hysterical if it was
not so sad. He begins with “I have
always believed that teams win!” His
definition of teamwork must be completely different from
the rest of the world. EVERYTIME there
is a major issue that we attempted to address with the council members, their
response was; “They don’t tell us anything”.
When we asked them who “they” were, the council members would respond;
“the Mayor and his administration”.
Seriously, that is team work? They don’t know what is going on and are too
afraid to ask.
Here are a few examples
of areas we approached the all-male, all white council on and received the
“they don’t tell us anything” response:
·
The
paid fire department that was formed in violation of
township ordinance number 6.
·
The
paid fire department members who are also volunteer
firefighters in our township which is a violation
of the Fair Labor Standards Act (CFR 29 553.100 through 553.106)
·
The
refusal to allow the fire service and the
community to see the SAFER grant application. Even
Council members claim they are not permitted to see it.
·
The failure to build a fire training center that was capable of live
fire training. This was brought to their attention BEFORE
they spent over 5.3 million dollars on the training center. This despite the Mayors claims in his letter
is NOT a STATE OF THE ART training facility.
It is known throughout the State of Pennsylvania as the “Great White
Elephant”. Because of the money we spent
and the lack of its capabilities. We also told the Mayor that they were
building a real state of the art training center in Bristol that would cost us
nothing. He
refused to listen.
·
The
Mayor and council gave us their word that no funds would be taken from the volunteer fire
companies to support the paid fire department.
·
The
paid fire department has failed to live up to
the requirements of arriving on scene within five
minutes AND be capable of initiating fire suppression. No action has
been taken by any council members to investigate
this ongoing problem.
·
The
paid fire department leaving the township to fight
fires in other townships which is the exact opposite
of their intended purpose. That purpose is to provide fire suppression
personnel to the community when volunteers are not available during the day. If
what little volunteer staff we have leaves the township to fight a fire through
mutual aid, it is extremely important for the paid staff to remain in Bensalem
to protect the citizens paying for their service.
·
The
creation of a fireboard to control funds allocated to the six volunteer fire
companies. When asked about the makeup
of the board the Mayor refused to discuss it and
the council members told us they were not told anything. When it was learned that half the board members had a direct connection to the
Nottingham Fire Company we contacted the Mayor and the Council. They said they would change that. We have heard nothing
since we approached them. That was over six months ago! It is important to explain the connection to
the Nottingham Fire Company as four of the
people that would serve on the board in various positions (Police, fire service
and medical service are members of the Nottingham Fire Company and all but one
are paid township employees). This same
fire company is also consistently in financial
trouble.
·
An
elected official of the Nottingham Fire Company was caught
stealing funds from their Easter Flower sales.
Instead of shutting down the fire company as they did with the Union
Fire Company, nothing was done and the person
was permitted to serve out his term in office.
·
The
shutdown of the Union Fire Company for issues that were never explained to the fire service
or the Union Fire Company membership was never
addressed. The council members
once again claimed they were not told anything EVEN when one of the council
members sat on a board at a public meetings (two meetings) and supported the shutdown. Yet he knows nothing.
The Mayor states that he cannot and I do
not do it alone. Well, who are you
working with? The council members have
no clue every time they are approached with an issue. If the Mayor and the
council are cornered on a position their standard response is; “we believe
there may be litigation in this area, so we cannot comment”. Really?
We must be getting sued a hell of a lot because they never can address
issues!
Isn’t also amazing that Councilman Mathieu is
“suddenly” qualified to be the facilities manager for the school district? How did that happen? Oh, that’s right; he was handpicked by the Mayor for his non-advertised
position at the school district. He was also present when the thefts were taken place
yet failed to notice anything wrong! Gee, that’s
the guy we would like to see move up.
I’m sure it would not happen again under his eagle eye watch. We also found it funny that he was never questioned even though he was right there while
the thefts were taking place. Let’s vote him back in as a councilman, he can
perform the same quality service at the township building as he has done at the
school district. And because it would
cause such a stir, the school district has put off appointing him to the
position until AFTER the election. Yet the campaign literature circulated by the
Mayor indicates he ALREADY has the position.
Explain that!
The Mayor claims he has done many
wonderful things without raising taxes.
Let’s look at that. There was
another tax increase to fund the rescue squad even though they charge for their
services and collected over 1.5 million dollars (not including the steady flow
of cash from the race track) in fees and receive tax money. That is a tax
increase.
When the Mayor was instrumental (before he
took office) in the sale of the water and sewer department there has been a
steady increase in our rates for service.
That is a tax increase.
When the Mayor failed to include trash
pickup service in our township services, the result is higher costs to the
taxpayer as compared to surrounding communities that include it in their
township tax. That is a neglected
service that should be provided by the township resulting in higher costs for the tax payer.
The Mayor donated funds we received from
the state to build a community center for ALL the citizens of our township to
the school district to build a gymnasium.
To date, there is no plan for the community to use this facility. And there is NO community center for the
community to use for programs other than a gym workout.
The $100.00 Homeowners Assistant Grant
payment this year is $100.00, down from the original $300.00. Despite the Mayors claims THAT IS A $200.00 TAX INCREASE.
Look to communities like Tullytown to
see how they allow the citizens to truly benefit from something that adds a
burden to their community. Tullytown
citizens receive more than $5,000.00 from their borough and DO NOT pay local
taxes.
The people trying to deliberately
mislead the citizens of our community are the Mayor and the Council! Ask them about the upcoming
tax increase and they refuse to answer.
Ask them how they intend to pay for the paid fire department and they
refuse to answer. Ask them why the call
volume has not changed in 40 years yet the
police department has doubled in size with no significant improvement of the service provided and
there is no answer. The police department budget has more
than doubled in 10 years with a majority of the police officers being
paid OVER $100,000.00 a year. When asked to explain this, there is no response.
Instead of looking to improve the
financial situation for the citizens of our community, the Mayor and Council
have chosen to grow the size of our government without improving it.
All you have to do is turn on the comedy channel, also known as the
local government channel and watch the Mayors show to see what they are spending money on.
Larger government, no improvement of
service, reduction in funding to our dedicated volunteer fire companies and a
reduction in communication to our dedicated volunteers, doesn't sound like any
type of trusted, dependable government to us.
They (the fire service) have been summoned to mysterious meetings with
the Mayor and Director of Public Safety.
When asked what the meetings are for, they are told they will find out
when they get there. When they get to
the meetings they are told their funding will be reduced despite being told that would not happen. The township intends
to take additional funds away from the volunteer fire companies starting in January 2014. They will now have to pay their own vehicle
liability insurance and Workman’s Compensation insurance. All with reduced
funding. Oh, the Mayor didn’t mention that in his letter? How odd.
AFTER the
election they will begin the propaganda campaign announcing a tax
increase. They will claim that they have
not raised taxes in years, which as we have stated IS
NOT TRUE. They have continually raised taxes while claiming they were not!
That Mr. Mayor is misleading. You have gained personally in your position
as Mayor. Your family and close
associates have benefited from very favorable treatment by law enforcement
while you maintained your position as Mayor.
The Mayors letter gets even funnier. He wants us to elect an all Republican School
Board. This is the same school board
that failed to detect decades of thefts from our
school district. An all Republican
School Board that attempted to block the
Superintendent’s investigation into theft of time by several employees. An all Republican School Board that has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to an
outside auditor to conduct audits that failed to
discover over one million dollars in thefts.
The Mayor claims he wants diversity on the School Board. Are you kidding us? The current school board has intimidated the
public, failed to properly govern funds
entrusted to them, failed to take corrective
action, failed to initiate investigations or
seek a police investigation when advised of thefts of time and on numerous occasions blocked
the Superintendent when he tried to hire an
investigator to look into the thefts and even threatened
to cut after school programs to scare the public into yet another tax
increase. SHAME
ON ALL OF YOU!!! And this, Mr.
Mayor is what you want us to vote for?
The Mayor states that he has spoken to
many residents who are frustrated with Washington D.C. He is glad that problem
is not here. Really? Mr. Mayor, you conduct business in this
township the same way the President Conducts
business in Washington D.C. You refuse to address any issues and it’s either your way or no way. The reality is Mr. Mayor you and the
President have a lot in common. You both have
controlled the way the media presents information, you have the same attitude the president has regarding programs
you want despite obvious failures (example: paid
fire department and the “state of the art” training center). And like the President, you really only care about your power and yourself. Our township is operated the same way Washington D.C. operates, the titles are
just different. OH…AND
YOUR RECORDS AND HIS ARE SEALED.
GEE.... CONCERNED
CITIZENS OF THIS TOWN, WHO SEE THROUGH THE MAYOR AND HIS PUPPET COURT COUNCIL.
WHAT A SURPRISE!! NOW YOU ALL KNOW THAT THIS ISN'T JUST ME, BUT MANY OTHERS!!!
IT'S DEFINITELY PROOF THAT THEY'RE ON TO YOU "YOUR MAJESTY" AND SEE
RIGHT THROUGH ALL YOUR LIES!!!
