Mister Tredyffrin and Friends

Guess what I’ve got?

You remember that story about the Planning Commission appointments last Spring? Let me remind you. Paul Drucker found an amazing candidate. Really amazing. But the Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors ignored her and instead appointed their own vastly less qualified candidate. Why? Simple. One has a “D” after their name in Warren Kampf’s notebook, while the other has an “R".

The story made big news in the papers at the time, and is still a bone of contention among the Supervisors. But now we can see a bit more of the truth behind the decision. Because I’ve got their resumes! That’s right, the actual resumes presented to the Board by the candidates themselves for consideration of their qualifications, and now part of the public record. Taking one look at these resumes, it is crystal clear where the priorities of the Republican Supervisors lay.
[hint: it’s not in your best interests…]

Find out more when you play Be the Supervisor!

Follow up:

Welcome to Be the Supervisor!, the exciting family game of civic responsibility. In today’s session you must select the best candidate to fill a vacancy on the Township’s Planning Commission. Working on the Planning Commission is an important job. The members face serious challenges and hard choices. Their recommendations carry a lot of weight. Don’t take your responsibility lightly! How will you choose? Will you base your decision on the qualifications of the applicants? Will you simply choose the one from your political party? Will you just do what the vice chair tells you to do?

Let’s begin. A Democratic Supervisor has nominated one individual. The Republican Vice Chairman suggests we wait to see who else comes along. A couple months pass and someone else finally comes along.

Here are the resumes submitted by the two candidates, the complete record of qualifications supplied by the candidates themselves and now part of the public record. Please take a look at them and decide for yourself which one you feel is best qualified for the position. Take your time. Review them carefully. That’s what real Township Supervisors do!

Candidate A’s resume is eleven pages long and is not padded with any superfluous personal information. She is Professor of Real Estate and Finance and a Professor of City and Regional Planning Graduate School of Design, both at the University of Pennsylvania. She is Co-Director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, Co-Director of the Spatial Impact Lab for Urban Systems, and Director of the Wharton Geo Spatial Initiative and Lab. Before this she was nominated by President Clinton and approved by the United States Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There she served on a number of commissions and taskforces, including the White House Interagency Taskforce on Livable Cities. Her primary research interests are housing and mortgage markets, real estate economics and urban economics. As of last spring she had published 108 research articles, book chapters, books, reports, and industry publications. Many of these publications are cited in township board documents across the country, including those published by the Tredyffrin Township Planning Commission itself! She is the recipient of dozens of honors, scholarships, and grants, referees manuscripts, serves on the editorial board of numerous scholarly journals, and belongs to many professional associations.

Candidate B’s resume is three-quarters of a page long, including an “Objectives” statement and information about his primary schools and sports he played as a teenager. He is three and a half years out of the military. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1998 and then served in the Marine Corps, including two tours of duty in the Middle East. Since the fourth quarter of 2003 he has worked in the McKee Group, a small family business involved in real estate development and management in Springfield. He is currently Vice President of Commerical Development. In addition to his land acquisition activities, he has helped with Homes for Our Troops and managed the delivery of Care Packages to US solders in Iraq.

Have you made your choice? Do you feel good about your decision? Let’s compare your answer with the professionals!

Here is a story from the March 8 Main Line Life which details the outcome and provides some justification from the Supervisors about their decisions.

So, how did you do? It’s important to remember that the issue isn’t the person the Republican board selected. He might do an okay job. We’ll see. The point is that we have here, in our Township, a true gem of a citizen with impeccable credentials who is willing to help us out. But she was passed over for silly political reasons; a shining opportunity lost to partisan arrogance.

This is the problem.
Ending one-party local government is the solution.
Vote for Democrats this fall and end cronyism in our township.