The Democratic Party candidate for judge of Common Pleas in Delaware County said she applauds the action of the county sheriff to delay housing foreclosures, but Nancy Rhoads Koons has reservations.

“I’m very happy that they’re going to institute the program that I’ve been asking since April to be instituted. I’m disappointed it took a political campaign to make this happen,” Koons said before a lightly attended rally at the county courthouse last week.

Koons, with 14 of her supporters, spoke briefly in front of the courthouse steps Friday, July 17. She is running for the open Common Pleas Court seat against Republican Linda Cartisano, a member of County Council.

Koons’ campaign platform includes establishing a special court in the county to hear foreclosure cases in the hopes of stalling or preventing foreclosures to keep people in their homes and paying both mortgages and county tax levies.

“Delaware County should be doing the right thing to do, rather than doing the right thing because of politics,” she said.

She said she would not like to think it was her campaign that led to County Sheriff Joseph McGinn petitioning Common Pleas Court President Judge Joseph Cronin to stay a sheriff’s sale of properties, a petition that Cronin denied.

But, Koons said, the timeline indicates the sheriff’s actions may be politically motivated. McGinn filed his petition Thursday, the day before Koons planned rally at the courthouse.

“I asked for this to be instituted in April. We had a rally at that time and we’ve continued to try to put pressure on Delaware County to institute this program. Today we are having a rally, and this has been planned for several days. … And last night it happened,” she said.

She told the small group that she thanks the sheriff for his efforts and offered her help to him to get the program instituted.

“This is what happens when you have Democrats and Republicans working together to help the people and meet the needs of the people,” Koons said.

However, things did not happen quite the way Koons or the sheriff wanted. Judge Cronin denied the petition and nearly 100 homes were put up for sheriff’s sale Friday, the day of the rally.

Koons has worked with a mortgage foreclosure diversion program in Philadelphia and said she has helped people keep their homes there. She wants to see that happen in Delaware County as well.

But Koons does not stop there. She said she also wants to see special commerce courts and mental health courts. She said such specialty courts would meet the needs of the people.

“This is just a start. We will continue in our efforts to have Delaware County meet the needs of the people. … We need to partner up our youth who are at risk and partner them up with mentors of the Big Brother [and] Big Sister programs,” she said.

Delaware County Democratic Party Chairman Cliff Wilson said anything local governments can do to help homeowners keep their houses is warranted since there is no national program. He cited as positive the announcement of the Cook County, Ill. sheriff five months ago to cease sheriff’s sales on foreclosed homes.

“That would be too radical for a Republican sheriff in Delaware County,” Wilson said.

Yet, Wilson also praised McGinn for his petition to stay the sheriff’s sales.

“The old style Republicans would have rejected this just because [Koons] had the idea first,” he said.

Koons said she’s glad McGinn took the position he did.

“This affects so many aspects of our community. And hopefully, that is why the sheriff is instituting it, because he recognizes that. It hurts the lenders [and] the homeowner of Delaware County,” said Koons.