Calling out Bobby Flay

Well, actually it's almost 'Showdown' time. The Times Herald's Great Pork Sandwich Showdown is right around the corner. This may sound like a bit of shameless self promotion but I have an ulterior motive in mind. We have 10 restaurants bringing their best to the Holy Saviour Club Wednesday, June 25. The competition will be fierce, and we're expecting a big turnout based on the number of people who have called asking for tickets. There have been plenty of ads in the paper and a brief running every so often, but here comes the ulterior motive for the blog part. I would love to take credit for this idea, but that goes to Joe Tarantino. We were talking about the contest over lunch Friday when he suggested that I try to get Bobby Flay to come to town for a throw down against the winner of the contest. What a great idea. The day after the contest I'm going to do my best to get in touch with his people to see if we can get him down here. I'm guessing Bobby Flay can't throw down on an Italian pork sandwich as well as any of the restaurants competing. What do you think?

And then there were two

We could wait until the dust settles and Barack Obama officially says no thanks to Hillary Clinton, but let's go ahead and get this party started. Do any of you really think Obama has a chance against John McCain? If so, please, without being nasty, self righteous or condescending, tell me why. I guess there are really two questions here. Do you think Obama will choose Clinton as a running mate, and do you think Obama, who is much more popular, should be president instead of the seasoned veteran, McCain? Did you notice I didn't bring race into the issue? Good, because I don't want you to either. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream is alive and well. Let's judge these two men on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. This is now a race to determine who will run our country for the next four years. Let's start peeling away the layers and looking at what each candidate stands for, not what each candidate looks like.

Code Enforcement Collapse

Norristown's code enforcement department is about to have a bomb dropped on it, and of course, I mean figuratively.
Charlie Sweeney has his job back.
Sweeney, who, when I was a cop reporter, was the borough's fire marshal, was fired after a debacle unfolded at the 4 Bakers building on Airy Street.
He took the borough to court, who by the way hired the very pricey firm of Cozen-O'Connor out of Philadelphia, and won.
He's been re-instated with full back pay.
I'll have more as the story unfolds.

Let the sun shine in

The state's Sunshine Law is not the greatest effort at transparency in government that I've ever seen, but it's better than nothing.
Local governments and local school boards are supposed to abide by the law, but I'm not so sure everyone out there is playing by the rules.
Officials in the Methacton School District have apparently been telling a resident of the district that he may come into the administration building only during a two hour window to see documents.
That's just wrong.
I checked with the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's resident expert on the Sunshine Law and she told me the district has to make public documents available during their regular operating hours.
I really don't think violating the state's Sunshine Law is in the best interest of the residents of the district, even if there are one or two residents who are a little more demanding than others.
While we're on the subject. What the heck are Norristown officials thinking with this new proposal to destroy public documents? Space is always at a premium, but some of these documents are not all that old.

Open...or shut

Have you ever tried to go to your local municipal building and pick up what you thought should be a public document? How about your school district? If you have and you've been shut down, let me know. Or, if the door was wide open I'd like to know about your experience, too.
Gov. Rendell (I was a big fan until he simply dropped the ball on property tax reform, created a monster with the gambling board and has all but ignored the shenanigans at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, but I digress), has come up big this time with the appointment of a director of the Office of Open Records.
All too often I hear unbelievable tales from people about how they were denied a public document. We did our own audit here a few years ago and a local district justice actually told the person we sent in to the courtroom that they couldn't have a criminal complaint because the detective on the case said so!
That's my most outrageous story, what's yours?

Vote with your mind, not your heart

It's your turn now. I've said all I have to say. You know where I stand and now it's time for you to let everyone know where you stand. Did you vote for Obama or Clinton? Are you ready for 'change'? People need to vote with their minds, not their hearts. All of the change Obama is talking about and all of the rhetoric Clinton is spewing is aimed at your emotions, not your mind. McCain is talking common sense approaches to our nation's problems. So, no matter what you did today, think about what you're going to do come November. The Democratic primary has been entertaining to say the least, but when the general election rolls around it will be time to get serious. We're talking about the leader of the free world. Personally, I don't want a rock star in the White House, and I don't want a woman who learned from her husband.

Primary numbers

No matter how you add it up, John McCain wins the Republican primary Tuesday.
I know what you're thinking, way to state the obvious, but the reason I'm bringing it up is this renewed vigor from Ron Paul. What is this guy thinking?
While I really won't have much to watch on the Republican side Tuesday night I will be paying close attention to the Democratic side. It's getting down right entertaining.
Hillary is lying about being under sniper fire for some unknown reason and Obama is now being endorsed by nearly every entertainer interested in politics.
No matter how you add it up, it just doesn't matter.
McCain beats Obama or Hillary come November.

Just a little reminder folks. You can only vote for the party you're registered under, and there are a lot of people running for committee seats so keep your eyes wide open, these are the people who sit in the backrooms brokering the deals.

"County turns blue" and so am I

Don't get excited, I'm blue as in depressed, not Democratic.
What else can I say? How about, I told you, I told you, I told you.
The Republican Party in Montgomery County has been so splintered for the past few years that the surge in Democrats registering to vote should be of little surprise to anyone, especially Republicans.
I did notice something in Saturday's story about the registration coup. Did you catch it?
Republican stalwart and county Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. was doing the talking for the party.
I don't know about you, but I would certainly hitch my Republican wagon to Castor.
Now, if we can only get Bob Kerns sitting in the county GOP Chairman's seat we might just stand a chance of taking back the majority.

Nepotism in Norristown?

I'm not sure if nepotism is the right word to use here because the home rule charter Norristown is now under doesn't really say an elected official is not allowed to get a borough job for two of his children. It does have several entries about employees of the borough not being allowed to hiring family members, especially if that person would be supervising said family member. And it has another entry about nepotism after the fact, describing an instance where someone already employed might be in violation if a relative is elected or appointed to a position.
Why I find this so astonishing and why I'm going into such detail is that I can't believe there isn't a clause in the new home rule charter that states something along the lines of 'relatives of elected officials are not to be hired by any department head within the municipality.'
Here's the deal. Two of Councilman David Hodo's children have been hired by the borough. Now I know David. I've spoken with him on a number of occasions and he seems like a fine gentleman to me, but certainly we can all see where there is at the very least an appearance of a conflict of interest.
What is an employee to do if an elected official, one who could very well hold said employee's livelihood in the palm of his hand, comes to the employee and asks them to hire their son or daughter?
Now what happens if said children find themselves in a bit of a pickle with the local police department?
There are just too many 'what ifs.'
Nepotism or favoritism. No matter how you slice it, it just doesn't seem right.

Vote switching in America

If you're a Republican what are you going to be doing April 22?
I know what I won't be doing. I won't be switching my party registration so I can vote for Hillary to hurt Barack.
What ever happened to may the best man (or woman) win?
I think McCain has it sewn up anyway, and here's why.
Hillary's supporters hate Barack so much that if he gets the nomination all of her followers will migrate over to McCain. And the same goes for Barack's supporters.
So I'll be sitting in the newsroom watching the returns.
What will you be doing?

Let's keep the conversation moving

We made a couple of mistakes with the Jim Van Horn story in last Friday's edition. I haven't seen the reporter since then, but trust me when I tell you I'll let him know exactly where he was when he went to District Justice Augustine's office. There also was a problem with the charge, which, apparently was harassment, not disorderly conduct, which leads me to the topic of discussion.
Should Van Horn resign from the school board?
If you think he should let me know why, and if you think he shouldn't let me know why as well.

Will the real anonymous please stand up?

What's with all the anonymous comments? Do you really believe someone is going to hunt you down if you put your real name on a comment? How about this, if you don't want to put your full name, how about just your first name? I put my name up here, why don't you? There's one anonymous who keeps on and on about how I'm connected to Mark Marino and I'm afraid to post his comments because....I'm not afraid, I'm just tired of reading the same blather over and over again. I posted it the first time you said it, but I'm not going to keep posting the same comment. Come up with something original for Pete's sake. Or, better yet, try to further the conversation just a bit. And when you do, please, put your first name, at least, on the post. There are a couple of people who have been using their real names on posts and I think it just lends credibility. The idea of this blog is to further public discourse, not provide a bully pulpit for someone who wants to post derogatory comments about other people. So, will the real anonymous please stand up?

Montco GOP's future

Where do we go from here? And when do we go from here? Look, I'm not in the backroom, as I've told you before, but it's no secret the Montgomery County Republican Party is splintering faster than an old Christmas tree in a shredder. What I want to know, and what everyone I've talked to wants to know, is, will Ken Davis try to retain control of the GOP? I say no. What do you say? I say Bob Kerns should finally get his shot at running the party. What do you say?

Covenant of the ARC

I'm sure you're all aware that an appeal has been filed to stop the American Revolution Center from being built at Valley Forge National Historical Park. The piece of land they want to build on, while it is within the boundaries of the park, is not actually owned by the park. So, in reality, anything could be built there, zoning permitted.

And of course zoning is at issue in the appeal. But the appeal is not the covenant I want to talk about.

Just what is the covenant that provides for an American Revolution Center?

Tom Daley apparently has a collection of artifacts from the Revolution. Sounds like a covenant to me, but does that give him the right to the ARC?

Now the Schuylkill Alliance Chamber of Commerce wants to build the ARC.

Sounds like they have a plan that would bypass all of the zoning issues currently facing the ARC. Al Paschall, the head of the chamber is working on a deal that would put the ARC at the vistor's center. Sounds like a perfect place for the ARC to me, but without the covenant can he get it done?

The holder of the covenant of the ARC might just hold the upper hand here, but the greater good would be served if the ARC was brought back to the park, where it all began.

Perfect seasons

No, I'm not talking about the New England Patriots. Doesn't it seem like they're in the Super Bowl every other year? I know they're not, but it sure seems like it some times.
Anyway, I'm talking about the Norristown Area High School boys basketball team and the Methacton High School girls basketball teams.
These two schools are on a roll to say the least.
The streaks started me thinking about all of the great athletes to come out of our area.
I can name a few, but I was hoping for a little help.
Let's get off politics for a couple of minutes and talk sports.
Who do you think is the greatest athlete to come out of Montgomery County?

Caught in a different Trappe

Two wrongs don't make a right. I thought it was wrong for former councilman Mark Carrig to stay on after he had moved out of town and he eventually did the right thing and resigned.
Now council has appointed solicitor Bob Brant to the zoning hearing board, if my source is correct, and not the planning commission. Either one doesn't really matter for the point I'm trying to make. First, I don't know Mr. Brant. I'm sure he's a fine person, but he also happens to represent a real estate investment company that proposed an 88-townhouse project to council.
I could be wrong, but it certainly sounds like a conflict of interest to me. And you know what they say about the appearance of a conflict.
If there's some kind of 90-day probationary period for commissioner members I would suggest council reconsider the appointment.

The truth certainly didn't set us free

The truth of the matter is we don't know what possessed Jim Matthews to sidle up to Joe Hoeffel. Jim knows exactly why he did it and maybe some day he'll let the rest of us in on it. We know he wanted to appoint his own solicitor. He got his wish. But other than that, is being chairman really that much more prestigious than vice chair, which is what he would have been had he stayed true to Bruce Castor? And, if he would have allowed Bruce to pick his own solicitor he would have been chairman.
I asked you guys to send me a note or two on what's going on with appointments in your townships. I basically heard from Whitemarsh and Lower Providence.
Some people, read Republicans, in Whitemarsh is a little upset that Sean Kilkenney was appointed solicitor out there. Personally, I don't know Kilkenney, but I have seen his name pop up as solicitor in a few other municipalities and I'm wondering how many he can take on before he's spreading himself too thin. You'd think he'd have his hands full with Norristown alone.
Speaking of solicitors, Lower Providence is on the verge of changing theirs as well. Folks out there are upset with a new appointment to the zoning hearing board, and now they're getting a new solicitor.
The year's starting off with quite a bang. Stay tuned folks.

The moment of truth

The moment of truth is almost upon us. Montgomery County commissioners will reorganize next week and as we've reported in The Times Herald, Republican Jim Matthews has formed an alliance with Democrat Joe Hoeffel to wrest control of the county from incoming commissioner, and Matthews running mate, Bruce Castor.
Unless there's a last minute deal the Matthews/Hoefell duo will be running the county and Castor will most likely be spending more time at his law firm.
To those of you who donated to the Matthews/Castor campaign, if it were me, I'd be asking for my money back.
Look, this isn't really about some unholy alliance. There's a chance that Matthews/Hoeffel will do just fine running the county, but that's not the point. This is about all of the people who thought they were voting for a team only to find out one member of the team jumped ship right after pulling into the harbor.
There will be reorganization meetings all over the county next week. Drop me a line and let me know how you think things shook out in your town. Not that I'm implying that there's any kind of shakedown going on here, but, boy, won't it be interesting to see who the next county solicitor is?

Try, try, again

Man, take a couple days off and the barbs start flying (see entries in previous post). The talk around the water cooler is that Castor's not giving up on Matthews just yet. He still thinks he can talk Jim into forming an alliance with him, thus giving Republicans the majority they won at the polls. Hey, I'll take it. After losing five county row office seats to the Dems it would be nice to retain control of an office we actually won. And now that we're down to the end of 2007 will someone please tell me what the Dems in Congress did all year?

Doing my job, the sequel

About a month or so ago I blogged (or was it in my column?) about the possibility of Republican Montgomery County Commissioner Jim Matthews teaming up with Democratic commissioner-elect Joe Hoeffel, leaving Republican commissioner-elect Bruce Castor the odd man out. Well, it sounds like it is going to come to fruition. Not quite the way I predicted, which would have had Hoeffel being elected chairman and Matthews vice chairman, but if the reverse is true does it really matter?
You know what really matters?
That this is just another sign the Montgomery County Republican Party has more splinters than a termite could handle in a month.
I don't know folks, perhaps it's time for someone to step up and take the reins away from the Asher/Davis duo.