What an Outrage

Well, it sure didn’t take the Republican hypocrites on the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors long to toss the Sunshine Law out with their promise to conduct a thorough and fair search for a new chief of police.

In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, Supervisor Patrick Mallon proposed a police chief review committee comprised of citizens who would be nominated to review all applications, conduct interviews, and make a non-binding recommendation of the top 5 candidates to the board.

For those of you who don’t know, “other business” comes after regular agenda items. Unless there is an emergency, I have never seen it used to push through important business that should require a period for public input – and there are very few decisions as important as empowering a select few to determine who the next police chief will be.

Why do I say a select few? Because not only did Mallon propose this police review committee, but he already had a list of those whom the Republicans decided should serve on the board.

Now, if this wasn’t discussed among the four Republicans on the Board outside of a public meeting and in clear violation of the Sunshine Law, how was it that they not only had the list of those who will serve on the committee ready to introduce, but all four voted to approve the appointments with only a few words of background on each person and virtually no discussion among themselves?

In the words of a friend of mine who has been around long enough to know, “I do not recall Middletown ever appointing a committee without taking applications. Last night they appointed one of the most important committees in this township (a chief of police search) and took not one application.”

It is clear if this had been done by the previous Board, Mike Fitzpatrick would have rounded up a few shills to file one of his famous lawsuits for violating the Sunshine Law – and for once he might have prevailed.

Who are these shining examples of public service? Believe me, if you are not a supporter of Lieutenant Kane for the chief’s position, you probably wouldn’t recognize them. Four Republicans, David Zellis, Michael Lentine, Sharolyn Hessenthaler and Michael Jones. Democrat David Kemmerer has already privately indicated his support for Kane and Martin Duffy, the other Democrat, publicly indicated his support for Kane on at least two occasions that I am familiar with. And Todd Buch, the seventh member, is not even registered in Middletown Township. Furthermore, there is an extreme lack of geographic representation on this committee. Given the diversity in Middletown Township, this committee should be comprised of a representative sample of citizens from across the township. This is difficult to achieve, though, when in fact three of the seven appointees come from Mr. Mallon’s district (Upper 6).

Why wasn’t there some consideration for balance on this committee? There are a number of those who have been involved in public service that could have been considered. There are talented recruiters and public business managers who could have been asked. Furthermore, rather than naming partisan appointees for this important committee, perhaps a better approach may have been to identify the qualifications desired on this committee and then recruit people that meet those qualifications. Examples may have been:

1. An experienced Human Resources executive.
2. Representatives from large township business that rely heavily on the Middletown Township Police Department like Oxford Valley Mall or Sesame Place.
3. A representative from St. Mary’s Medical Center, the largest employer in Bucks County.
4. A fire chief or volunteer fireman, given how closely our police and volunteer firefighters work together.
5. Retired Pennsylvania State troopers or FBI agents living in the township.
6. A representative from Neshaminy School District.
7. A block captain from a township Neighborhood Watch Group.

Coincidentally, there you have seven examples of the profiles that could have been represented on this committee. Instead, what Mr. Mallon wants to be a bi-partisan effort, is really just more of the same partisan politics.

The only conclusion I can come to is that Kane was promised the job by the Republicans running for office and now they are delivering on their promise. All Middletown Township residents should be outraged. This “search” is nothing but a sham.