And Justice for????????????? : Final Pre-Election 2017 Post

Justice is a very complex and there have been volumes written as to what it actually means and how to apply it in society.  One of the best known works is Rawls' A Theory of Justice.  In common usage most people think about justice as fairness, or equally opportunities and protections under the law.  Ironically, Rawls wrote another book Justice as Fairness.  In this last post before the election  I wish to remind or inform you have some incidents to think about when voting on November 7.  And please remember the meet and Greet at Delmont Public Library.

Before we get into the more of the nitty gritty let me try to explain the political climate in Delmont. This is a rough guesstimate way that I believe will be fairly accurate.  I took the biggest number of votes cast in each party and am assuming that to be the total number of voters for the party.  These numbers are on the 2017 Primary Results.

Democrats	136
Republicans	140
Total	276

I will use the population numbers from 2016 for the comparison.  I am using the Per Capita tax paying population to put this into perspective.  In 2016 943 residents paid per capita taxes which is roughly 35% of the population at that time.  In Delmont politics roughly 276 people voted which is only 29.3 % of the tax paying base or 10.5% of the total population. I believe using the per capita tax figure gives us a better idea of who is voting and the results are fairly close to the pareto principal of 20/80.  Hopefully, the size of these numbers will encourage you to go the polls.

The quote that follows is part of a letter that was submitted to Delmont Council by a Citizen.  I am not going to list the author's name because I did not seek permission to quote this eloquently written passage.  Since this letter was written to Council it is a matter of public record.  My disclosure of this does not violate any laws to my knowledge.  Most of this would be available under the Sunshine Act.  Please really think about what this says it was from a citizen on the outside critiquing the functioning of Delmont Council.  I for one wish more citizens would hold us accountable for our actions.

No one should have to goad you into doing the right thing. This same statement applies to all members of Borough council. We are ever hopeful that eventually the right combination of Delmont Borough residents will be elected to Borough council such that the Borough’s elected officials, individually and collectively, will simply commit to doing the right thing—not the convenient thing, not the easy thing, not the self-serving thing, but the right thing—to the best of their ability in all circumstances, for the benefit of the community.

We are not yet at that point in history. 

Now I will cover a few topics that concern me very much going into the New Year with the yet to be elected Council.  In many of my posts I have harped on Lack of Leadership.  Most of my concerns in this area were narrowly focused on leadership from the Visioning perspective and the attempt to move Delmont ahead in a positive way.  However, as I was reminded by a letter that one of the reasons that I became involved in local politics is I thought that Council at the time was disrespectful to residents at times and treated them like idiots.  This appalled me.  To a certain extent I may have been entangled in similar situation and not paying enough attention to the most important aspect of Leadership Relationship Building, not only within the Council itself but with the relationship we as a Council have with the Community of Delmont.  

Regardless of who wins the Election the Council is going to have to deal in some way with the second most senior council member.  They are not up for reelection on Tuesday and their conduct at a recent meeting is in my opinion, and some others I have talked to, an embarrassment to what many would consider acceptable behavior by an elected official. I don't believe the Council as it currently stands has the leadership or the guts to do what ought to be done.

Justice as fairness or Equality

The first really minor part that effects me personally and that I explained in great detail in my blog post Catch-22 how I was effectively removed from Council allegedly for causing some unnecessary discussion on sewage issues.  I stated it as removed from Council, because I was removed from the only legitimate Committee to which I was assigned.   Well the incident that inspired me to write the immediately preceding paragraph dwarfs what I did by many magnitude. Since I might be biased, I would gladly submit to asking the potentially offended parties which actions they considered most repulse and worthy of punishment.  

Letters Forwarded to Police Department

I want to start off by saying that I am not 100% sure that this incident was not an e-mail mistake of some sort. I had a major e-mail debacle of my own this year and no first hand strange and embarrassing things can happen.  If this was not an email mistake than I think we have a huge problem in a small town.  It needs to be pointed out that there have not been that many letters by members of the public sent to the Borough Secretary to be forwarded the two years that I have been serving on Council.  Consequently, there was not enough of a sampling to lead conclusively to one practice or another.  I will now describe the situation. 

The above mentioned letter was sent to the Borough Office with a list of people to forward it to (Council, Mayor, Engineers, and Solicitor).  I was shocked to notice that it was also sent to the Police Department.  This letter was not threatening or violent in any way.   Here are my thoughts:

1. It should be given to the police if there is an overt threat.
2. It is the responsibility of a recipient if they feel threatened to involve the police if they wish.  It is possible if parties know each other well that there could be threatening nuances that wouldn't be recognized as threats by third parties.
3. Who authorized the forwarding of the letter?
4. If a certain level of privacy is going to be violated there better be written procedures governing the process and the public needs to be made aware that copies of letters are being forwarded to law enforcement.
5. This type of surveillance needs to be applied equally across the board. 
6. Annoyance by an eloquently written letter by a citizen exercising this First Amendment Rights does not constitute a threat.   
7. Citizens do not communicate enough with government in local municipalities, then should not feel threatened that there may be some recourse for taking an active part in government.

I appologize but I do have a tendency to get emotional when I feel that basic Rights that so many brave men and women died for are being infringed upon.  In my opinion the phrase "Make America Great Again" is Bogus.  America never stopped being great, and if we don't pay attention to potential infringements of  liberty and personal freedom at the local level, we are at risk of loosing more as it moves up through the levels of Government.  

If this happening was a mistake no harm no foul.  It will then show that I am watching out for the citizens of Delmont and am continuing to push for transparency of Borough actions.  If it was intentional then we need to find out who? what?, and Why? they felt it was necessary to copy law enforcement.

Barriers to Information

There is not a consistent procedure for obtaining information for Council people in Delmont.  Many people are familiar with the Sunshine Act.  It is the State's version of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act).  Council members who go through training get a very good understanding of the types of information that should be readily available and that which could be problematic and need solicitor input.  One thing about Right to Know requests is municipalities have to act within 30 days.   Well, if you are a Council person you may need the information a lot quicker.

I was told that I had to fill out a RTKF Right to know form to get copies of the audit reports from the last 10 years for the budget preparation.  I was dumbfounded by this ridiculous request.  I am a Councilmember and I am asking for budget information.  I made a phone call to the Right to Know Office in Harrisburg.  I was told very few Boroughs require such a thing of their Counsel People.  The ones that do have written ordinances, resolutions, or procedures.  They are usually applied if you are from the wrong political party.  Incidentally, the  Information Officer for the Borough told me no Counsel member ever filled out paperwork for information.  Where is the justice in the application of these ideas?

Conclusion

Delmont is not only at a "Crossroads" for business, economic development, and identity but also at a crossroads for leadership.  I thought it important to share these incongruities in how things are being done so you can decide if this is the business as usual you wish to keep, or if you want to grow and change Delmont.  Here is the thing, Delmont is going to change and Grow.  We need to decide if we want a Council that is going to watch what happens and reacting to those events, or do we want a Counsel that is going to create and as far as practicable manage the future?  May God Bless Delmont in the challenges ahead.