Deborah Love – ChaddsFordLive.com

Letter to the Editor: Reflections of Chadds Ford past

It’s early December 2013 and another year draws to a close here in Chadds Ford Township. I’m attending what is probably my sixth or seventh Board of Supervisors meeting this year and I’m prepared for business as usual. That’s the way it goes through most of the evening but this secession is, at last, a little different. It’s easy to think of our newly elected supervisor, Frank Murphy, and the tasks he and the other two supervisors face for the new year in 2014. With a little contemplation thoughts turn to Deborah F Love in her final meeting as supervisor. With a service of more than 12 years to Chadds Ford, you can only have the deepest respect and appreciation for an individual who is willing to give this amount of their time and energy in the public interest.

Deborah herself this evening articulates some benchmark events during her tenure, expediting the northwest quadrant of the loop road, beginnings of a recycling culture in the township, the development of the Girl Scout property — then known as Sunset Hill — by Toll Bros., to name a few. I’ve lived here through it all and understand that’s it’s not an easy job to make the tough decisions for things that must be, at times very unpopular with the citizens of our township. An individual willing and able to take on these responsibilities is unique and deserves our thanks.

Ms. Love took the office of supervisor in this township during a time of change and helped her fellow residents manage this change well. There where mistakes made but for the most part the residents of Chadds Ford Township are better off for her service. Now, a new administration takes over in an equally dynamic period in our township and we know that they are of equal dedication and energy. One has been there done that for many years, some are just getting warmed up and one steps into the fray as the new year begins. An example has been set and we can only hope that Ms. Love continues her interest in our township and her consul is heard at future municipal meetings.

Thomas Singer
Chadds Ford Township

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No tax increase in Chadds Ford

Local News

To borrow an old phrase: There will be no new taxes in Chadds Ford, not going into 2014 at least.

Supervisors, on Dec. 4, unanimously passed the budget for next year without raising any taxes. The current millage rate of 0.787 will remain for most property owners. Those whose property is in a fire hydrant district will continue to pay a rate of 0.882 mills. A mill is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

The budget is balanced with income and expenses anticipated at slightly more $1.2 million.

Property, open space and local enabling taxes represent the largest sources of income. They total $637,694, more than half the projected income.

The major portion of anticipated costs pertain to road and highway services. That total comes to almost $300,000. Wages and benefits for township manager, secretary and treasurer add another $176,000, while legal and engineering costs are anticipated at a combined $133,500.

Deborah Love prepares to sign the last batch of bills as a supervisor in Chadds Ford Township.

Other business

• The Dec. 4 meeting was the last regularly scheduled meeting for Deborah Love as supervisor. She did not get the Republican Party’s endorsement to run for another term. Frank Murphy will replace her on the board beginning in January.

Supervisor George Thorpe thanked Love at the beginning of the meeting for her years of service to the township. At the end of the meeting, Love thanked the people of Chadds Ford, saying it had been “an honor to serve for 12 years.”

• Picking up on business from last month, the board acted on an appeal from Dave Kelleher, the owner of David Dodge. Kelleher renovated his dealership and had been assessed $8,600 for open space as part of the Fee in Lieu ordinance.

The ordinance requires a donation of land or a fee in lieu of land for developers who develop a certain amount of land or for others who renovate property.

Love, last month, suggested that the fee charged be lowered to $1,500 because of assistance Kelleher has given to the township over the years. However, Supervisor Keith Klaver objected.

The resolution was passed with a provision allowing Kelleher to appeal, which he did. The board voted Dec. 4 to lower the fee to $3,500.

• The board also voted 3-0 to allow a request for a zoning text amendment to go forward to the Planning Commission and the Delaware County Planning Department. If approved, the change would allow for assisted living facilities in the B-business district.

Such a facility — a three-story structure on Route 202 — is being sought. The location is the former site of C Harry B 4 U Buy.

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Sestak helps kickoff Klein campaign

Local News

Sestak-523 — Sestak helps kickoff Klein campaign

Rhona Klein kicked off her campaign for Chadds Ford supervisor with a fund-raiser plus meet and greet at her home on May 29. Among the roughly two-dozen attendees was former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak who is looking to challenge U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey in the 2016 senatorial election.

Rhona Klein

Klein will face Republican Frank Murphy in the November general election.

One of the themes brought up was that of frustration. Both Klein and her campaign manager, Jesse Sheppard, said there is frustration in the township, even with among Republicans, over some of the things that have transpired.

Klein said much of that has to do with the hiring of a township manager who she has called incompetent and ill prepared for the job. She said that situation cost the township hundreds of thousands of dollars in uncollected taxes.

“The frustration is with the incompetence of the supervisors overseeing the township staff. You appoint people who are ill prepared, unqualified to be in a very important position and they upset people. Yes, Joe Barakat is gone, but he was removed after Republicans got outraged and complained,” she said.

Klein’s candidacy this year was somewhat opportunistic. She lost to Deborah Love in 2007, but Love did not get the Republican Party endorsement for another term. That endorsement went to Murphy instead.

The Democrat said she would not have run if Love, a two-term supervisor, were seeking re-election because Love helped Klein out with personal family matter.

That, however, was not the only reason Klein chose to run.

“I was very upset by what was happening as I find out more and more about the situation with the $450,000 in uncollected taxes…When I heard Deborah wasn’t running, it put me over,” she said.

Klein thinks she can bring much to the table during the election. She said her strong points include 15 years of experience working for local governments, a master’s degree in public administration and believes she is well versed in issues that face local governments, including environmental, personnel and budgeting issues.

According to Sheppard, the night was a simple kickoff for the campaign to help get Klein’s name out, let people know she’s running and, of course, to raise some money.

Sheppard said there was no monetary goal in mind for the event, and said the campaign is in good shape now, but there will be more competition for money from county candidates as the election draws closer.

He said it’s also important for the campaign to reach out to Republicans.

“In the school board election, we won because people were frustrated, legitimately frustrated parents who were independents and Republicans and they supported us. We have to do the same thing here because there are just as many legitimate reasons to be frustrated with the way the Republicans have been running the township.”

He also said that there are many Republicans who “pride themselves on splitting their vote, who really do weigh the candidates and don’t just always vote the party. It’s part of their DNA and that bodes well for us if we can figure out how to find them.”

Sestak was on hand to support Klein.

“Not as a Democrat. I’m out here because what she speaks about is being an American before you’re partisan [sic] to the point where you work together as a community. That kind of principled compromise is absent in elected officials today,” Sestak said.

Speaking briefly about his own future, the retired admiral and former two-term representative said he’s serious about running for the U.S. Senate again. He’s established an exploratory to that end.

“I believe the greatest harm to Pennsylvania is the lack of the Senate to govern,” Sestak said, “because they never act unless there’s a crisis. Therefore, we’re going from crisis to crisis, lurching from crisis to crisis and that’s lost the trust of Americans.”

Sestak lost to Toomey in 2010.

Feature photo: Retired admiral and former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak addresses a gathering of Rhona Klein supporters.

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Tensions in Chadds Ford GOP could lead to loss of Love

Local News

A rift in the Republican Party of Chadds Ford Township has a sitting supervisor wondering about switching to the Democratic Party.

Deborah Love, whose term on the Board of Supervisors is up for re-election in November, is not seeking an endorsement from the Republican Party’s Executive Committee. She sent a letter to party leader Mary Kot saying she did not want the endorsement because the committee has become exclusive and engages in cronyism.

“Exclusivity – This committee in April of last year [2012] closed its meetings to a select few excluding any Republican, elected and non-elected, who offered a different opinion or policy. Cronyism – This committee has sought to advance the personal agenda of its members as opposed to promoting the interest of the Chadds Ford Community as a whole,” she wrote.

The letter may have been anticlimactic since the committee had already voted to endorse Frank Murphy to be the Republican candidate for supervisor before she sent the letter. Murphy currently serves on the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board and spent 10 years as township commissioner in Aston.

“We were very proactive in our efforts to seek a candidate whose primary concern would be the township,” Kot said. “We were thrilled with the responses we received and after an exhaustive process we endorsed Frank Murphy.”

Love told Chadds Ford Live that she is talking to other Republicans, Democrats and independents about her next campaign. When asked if she would change parties, Love responded by saying she’s keeping her options open.

“I hope she would not [change parties],” Kot said. “I would be disappointed if she did. We understand that Deborah would be supportive of Frank.”

Democratic Party Chairman Rob Porter said Love had not contacted him.

Love, a former member of the Executive Committee, said things began changing last spring when the committee went from eight people, down to four — the party’s committee people — Kot, Paul Koch, Valerie Hoxter and Rick Eckman.

That was a mistake, Love said, since the Republicans had lost a school board race and there was a national race in the fall. Instead of reducing the size of the group, she said, it should have been reaching out and being inclusive instead of exclusive.

According to Love, Kot stood fast to the decision. However, when it was time for the committee to interview Love for this year’s endorsement, she was interviewed by six people, not just the four committee members.

Those other two people were Bruce Prabel and Deb Reardon, former voting members of the committee who were moved to the nonvoting positions of treasurer and secretary respectively.

“It dawned on me that the only two people who were removed from the executive committee were Craig Huffman and myself,” Love said. “That was an eye-opening thought.” (Huffman is the township Planning Commission chairman.)

She said there had been disagreements on fund-raising activities for the party in 2011 and then on her campaign fund-raiser last September. Love said she learned that people were told not to attend.

“Phone calls were made to people who usually support me telling them not to support me,” Love said. “They also made phone calls saying ‘don’t go to her event.’ So it wasn’t a passive non-support, it was an active non-support.”

(At that time Kot thought it was too soon to have a fund-raiser for a 2013 election, especially with a presidential election in November.)

The Republican leader said reducing the size of the Executive Committee had nothing to do with Love. Rather, it was a matter of bringing the Chadds Ford GOP structure in line with that in other townships.

“The format we chose is what most municipalities in Delaware County use. That is the elected committee people are the voting members,” Kot said, adding that “it’s absolutely not true” that people were removed from the committee because they had different opinions.

She also said that some committee people felt it wasn’t the best idea to have a sitting supervisor on the committee.

“Members were uncomfortable with that,” Kot said.

As for cronyism and personal agendas, Love said there had been issues between herself and Hoxter, the township tax collector and former treasurer for Love’s campaigns.

Love said there were times when she had communication difficulties with Hoxter over getting campaign paperwork filed on time. In one case those problems led to a late filing. The campaign was fined $20 for that infraction.

She added that last fall’s controversy over the township manager’s salary was also a symptom. Love said that Hoxter and others wanted the manager’s salary to be in line with what other township managers got, but that they balked in January when Chadds Ford supervisors voted to reduce the tax collector’s compensation beginning next year.

“It appears that the cronyism is in support of Valerie,” Love said.

She said her opponents wanted the manager’s salary to fit the market place, but that tax collector’s salary should not. They also want to spend freely on some projects, “but scrutinize others to the penny.”

“This isn’t about Republicans and Democrats; this isn’t about politics and political parties. This is about a group of people who, in my mind, have chosen to go on a witch hunt,” said Love.

She added that people have reported difficulty in reaching Hoxter about township tax issues and that there were complaints from people saying they couldn’t reach Hoxter on sewer issues when she was treasurer for the Sewer Authority.

Hoxter responded with the following formal statement:

“Miss Love’s comments and allegations regarding cronyism and my performance are far from accurate. Sadly, it appears Miss Love has chosen to make matters personal, rather than focusing on what is in the best interest of our township.”

According to Kot, “It’s absolutely not true” that the committee is promoting any individual’s personal agenda. “We have done only what we think are the absolute best interests of the township, not even in the best interests of the Republican Party.”

Love has had the Republican Party’s backing since 2001. With the party’s endorsement, she challenged and defeated then incumbent Republican Supervisor Harvey Kliman in the spring primary that year. She ran unopposed in the general election and was, again, the endorsed candidate in 2007 when she won re-election defeating Democrat Rhona Klein that November.

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