Members of Concord First, the citizens’ group that wants Concord Township to become a township of the first class, have filed a formal complaint against township solicitor Hugh Donaghue.
Concord First’s Colette Brown said several members have filed complaints with the state Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Review Board in connection with papers filed on behalf of Concord’s Government Study Commission before the commission was officially empaneled and without the knowledge of the seven commissioners.
“The complaint explains that Mr. Donaghue was highly motivated to interfere with Concord First's efforts to change the government structure to a Township of the First Class because such a change would put his and the other supervisors' jobs in jeopardy,” she said in an e-mail.
Concord First petitioned last summer to have a question on the November ballot that would have asked voters whether or not they wanted Concord to change from a township of the second class to township of the first class.
Despite getting more than the required number of signatures, the petition was challenged by the township supervisors and the Delaware County Board of Elections. It was ultimately denied by the Court of Common Pleas. Commonwealth Court upheld that ruling, so Concord First appealed to the state Supreme Court. The court has not yet ruled on the appeal.
The papers currently in question were filed on Nov. 17, the Supreme Court’s deadline for filings in the case. Attorney J. Michael Sheridan filed the papers at Donaghue’s request, but Supervisors’ Chairman Dominic Pileggi said on Jan. 5 that Donaghue and Sheridan were both acting on behalf of the supervisors.
While voters approved the Government Study Commission in the Nov. 4 election, the election wasn’t certified until Nov. 24 and the members were not sworn in until Nov. 25. In December, all seven members of the Study Commission said they had no prior knowledge of the papers’ being filed in their names.
Having a question on the ballot for the study commission was the idea of the Board of Supervisors. Pileggi said during a meeting last summer that the move was to head off Concord First’s petition drive.
Brown and her group are also alleging that public funds were wrongly used for Sheridan’s filing and have secured a copy of the invoice Sheridan submitted to the township. The bill is for $2,975, she said.
Among the papers Sheridan filed was a petition to intervene, a move that, according to Donaghue, would have given the study commission party status in the matter. However, the Supreme Court denied that petition to intervene.
Prior to that, however, Concord First filed an objection to the petition to intervene. That was denied because Sheridan’s petition was denied, but according to another member of Concord First, Dan Levin, the court itself opened the door to the complaint’s being filed against Donaghue.
Levin said in an email, “the [state] Supreme Court denied our application but wrote that it was doing so ‘without prejudice to the submission of any appropriate complaint to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.’… So this court order reads to us as a message from the court that they reviewed what we wrote, saw our point, and are directing us to file such a complaint as directed.”
When contacted for comment, Donaghue said, “I can’t comment on litigation."
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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