WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2019
CHESTER COUNTY PRESS
3A
Chester County Press
Local News options. Public education is an investment to be made wisely.” Wolff has also been an advocate for the plan that the district is pursuing. “A new building is a much smarter and better use of our tax money,” she said. “A new high school will allow us to expand our technology offerings, eliminate the cost of portables in the district, reconfigure grades across the buildings so that we have breathing room in the buildings and offer a true middle school configuration of grades six to eight. We get a solution that lasts for many years, instead of a short-term solution we’ll need to address again in a few years.” The opinions that the new candidates have on the high school project varied. Ciliberti indicated that she was opposed to the plan. Linn said that she is absolutely in favor of building the new high school. “The key,” she said, “is to stay within budget. That is the job now.” Fanning said that she “absolutely supports” the construction of the new high school, but wants to make sure that expenditures are kept to a minimum. The school district can only build what the community can afford, she said. She identified the proposed community health center, which is included in the new high school plan, as an example of a luxury item that she wouldn’t support.One of the questions asked during the forum was whether the candidates would support such
a health center. A majority of the candidates, including Lisi and Billig, said that the new health center would be an item that could be taken out of the new high school project to reduce costs. It would seem, no matter how the election turns out, that the health center might not make it through the planning stage. Ciliberti thanked Lisi and Billig for their responses to the question about the health center—she lives in their region, and she does not want to see the school district spend money on the health center. The first question at the forum was about whether Pennsylvania is funding education appropriately. Beatty said that the state is providing a lower and lower percentage of total education funding to Pennsylvania schools, and by doing that the state is placing a greater burden on local residents. “I’d like the state government to find more money for public schools,” Beatty said. Engel said that unfunded mandates are an issue that makes it difficult to pass school budgets without costs going up. One example of the unfunded mandate, Wolff said, is the testing that is required, but the costs of administering the tests falls to the school districts. She also noted that state law requires that prevailing wage be paid for any school construction projects. In Avon Grove, it’s the prevailing wage of
Philadelphia, which is much higher than other areas. This drives up the costs for the school districts. Billig said that the best thing that the state could do is address the rising pension costs by taking action to finally solve the problem. Linn said that, as a superintendent in Delaware, she had a lot of experience working with lawmakers on issues. She also noted that Pennsylvania is the opposite of many other states in that, here, most of the revenues are generated from local taxes. The candidates shared similar views on a number of the topics that were raised during the forum. For example, everyone was in agreement that the school district’s facilities should be utilized for enrichment programs of interest to the community. A question about whether the candidates believe politics should play a role in school board elections resulted in all of them saying that educational issues shouldn’t be decided based on politics. Another question, about how the candidates would handle the stress of serving on the school board, did not draw any significant distinctions among the candidates. All the candidates were generally in agreement that the Avon Grove Charter School provides an educational option for local families.Another topic that was raised during the forum was school bus safety. Everyone was in favor of safe school buses,
Suspicious transactions...
and Kennett Township staff cooperate with the investigation, they are not at liberty to discuss the specific details of the investigation, the release said, which includes the name(s) of any individual(s) involved. “First, we don’t want to hinder the investigation,” Stevens said. “Second, we don’t want to damage the reputation of innocent persons.” The letter also stated the supervisors “have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the Township, its citizens, its employees and every part of our government. We take that responsibility very seriously and we are working to do our duty quickly and in a fair and even-handed way. We want to assure everyone that Kennett Township’s finances are secure.” The supervisors informed their constituency that they promised to keep residents fully informed within guidelines provided by counsel; yet, as they prepare for their May 15 meeting at 7 p.m. at the Township Building, the
township’s three supervisors – Stevens, Dr. Richard Leff and Whitney Hoffman – are likely to face a barrage of questions from the general public in an effort to piece together the facts of a story that potentially threatens to tear down the very platform of transparency that Stevens, Leff and Hoffman all campaigned on. As Stevens first campaigned for supervisor in 2011, he did so on a pledge to restore transparency to a government that he believed was manipulating the township’s assets. A major part of his platform was his suspicion that the township had assigned a fictitious auditor to prepare the township’s 2009 and 2010 audit reports. When asked why he believed the township may have concocted a fictitious auditor, Stevens said that the Township did so to protect public access to the financial records of two items: the healthcare coverage of the township board and the financial picture of open space funds.
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were notified by the Fraud Department of our bank that they had found a number of suspicious transactions on Township accounts.” In an official Kennett Township press release sent on May 11, the supervisors wrote that they carefully reviewed the findings with the bank, legal and law enforcement representatives and immediately referred the matter to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office. Also, steps were taken to make sure no further unauthorized transactions take place. Mike Noone, First Assistant District Attorney, confirmed to the Press that there is an investigation in place, and that the Kennett Township authorities are cooperating. A township supervisor confirmed to the Chester County Press on May 14 that township manager Lisa Moore has been placed on paid administrative leave. In addition to cooperating with the District Attorney’s office, Kennett Township Board of Supervisors Chairman Scudder Stevens said that the township has also hired a forensic accountant to investigate the case at the maximum level,” he said, “by combing through every transaction from the past eight years, to assure us that everything is authentic.” The release also said that the amount of money involved is still under investigation, but the amount of the transactions in question are expected to be within township insurance policy coverages if a determination is made that the funds were improperly withdrawn from the accounts. While the supervisors
Charles Beatty
Jeff Billig
Carmela Ciliberti
Herman Engel
Christina Fanning
Dorothy Linn
Tracy Lisi
Mark Stewart
Bonnie Wolff
of course, but the discussion yielded a good public service announcement—if anyone in the community sees someone not obeying the law when a school bus stops to pick up or drop off a student, it’s important to let the authorities know. Billig explained that one of his constituents in Region II notified him of a situation that was occurring where a vehicle was failing to stop for the school bus. The school district was able to contact the State Police, and they were able to set up a patrol. They ended
up stopping motorists who weren’t following the laws. Toward the conclusion of the forum, Fanning noted that taking part in the event was helpful.“It’s fun sitting up here,” Fanning said, “because a lot of good ideas are being brought up.”While the candidates didn’t agree on all the issues, there was agreement on perhaps one thing—the importance of district residents going to the polls on Tuesday, May 21. Linn had the final word at the forum, saying, “On May 21, go out and vote.
It’s important to have your voices heard.” (Editor’s note: Two of the candidates, Mark Stewart, and Bonnie Wolff were unable to take part in the meet-the-candidates forum. Both were provided with a list of the topics raised during the forum so that they could provide responses for inclusion in the article. Stewart did not respond. Wolff’s responses are included in this story.)
According to Stevens, the township supervisors illegally took healthcare reimbursements for their Medicare co-pays and are not in the township’s health plan which Stevens said is a violation of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors code. On Nov. 8, 2011, Stevens, a Democrat, defeated his opponent, Republican incumbent Alan Falcoff, and in 2012, took his place on the board with Republicans Robert Hammaker and Michael Elling, who both decided not to campaign for additional terms. Leff was elected to the board in 2013, and Hoffman was elected in 2016. Stevens, who is now in
his second term as board chairman, said that he, Leff and Hoffman will address the investigation with the general public at their May 15 meeting. “I have never attempted to prevent people from expressing their concerns, and I’m trying to be prepared for that eventuality,” he said. “There is most likely going to be a lot of discussion related to this, but it will mostly be an explanation of what we’re doing now, rather than what’s happened in the past. “The fact is that we are all deeply saddened that
there is any hint of anything going on, and we are anxious that the investigation can be completed, as exponentially and as thoroughly as possible,” Stevens added. “We have worked as assiduously as possible to open up the dark corners of the township and to be sure that everything was open to review and open to consideration. And to the extent that it wasn’t sufficient -which we don’t yet fully know -- is sad.”
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To contact Staff Writer Steven Hoffman, email editor@chestercounty.com.
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com.
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