On behalf of the community, I have just emailed the following formal request to members of the Board of Supervisors (bos@tredyffrin.org) Tom Hogan, Township Solicitor and Mimi Gleason, Township Manager were copied on the email. There are many unanswered questions concerning St. Davids and after several reviews of the last supervisors meeting, it is clear to me that this community deserves better from some of its elected officials. It is my understanding that Paul Olson will have returned from his vacation and will attend the February 22 supervisors meeting. It is important to note that by making the formal request today, it meets the timeline deadline for getting on the agenda. Agendas for Board of Supervisors meeting are done the Thursday before a meeting, so today being Wednesday, the excuse of being ‘too late’ will not work in this case.
Do I think that this formal request to add St. Davids Golf Club to next week’s meeting agenda will work? Don’t know. One thing I do know, is that we are not going to allow St. Davids to just be swept under the carpet and pretend it never happened. As residents of this community, we deserve better.
Dear Members of Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors –
I am asking that St. Davids Golf Club be added to the Agenda for Monday, February 22, 2010 Board of Supervisors meeting. Since the supervisors meeting of February 8, I have fielded many comments, emails and calls from township residents who do not support the supervisor’s decision to return the escrow to St. Davids Golf Club. There has been much discussion in regards to the township’s Home Rule Charter, policy and procedural errors and the precedent for developers working in this township, as set by the January 25 vote to return the escrow to St. Davids Golf Club. Residents asked many questions at the February 8 Board meeting, in regards to the St. Davids issue, which supervisors were unable to answer and due to stated attorney-client privilege, Tom Hogan was also not able to respond. As a result of unanswered questions, there is an underlying trust issue in this township towards some of our elected officials. In the best interest of our community, I formally request that St. Davids Golf Club be added to the February 22 Agenda of the Board of Supervisors meeting.
Thank you for your consideration.
Regards,
Pattye Benson
1475 Swedesford Road
Malvern, PA 1935
Tel: 610.644.6759For disclosure purposes, this email request to the Board of Supervisors will appear on Community Matters, www.pattyebenson.org .
One of the supervisors should make a motion to reverse the decision, or make it null and void, correcting the wrong that has been done and calming the troubled waters caused by the ensuing uproar.
Even if the Board comes out with a ‘cardboard check’ moment with this St. Davids bru ha ha at the upcoming meeting, they still need to be held accountable. This is not their first breach of trust with the community. Their inappropriate actions and demeanor towards the residents is of the lowest standards in governance. With the advent of this blog we can all see how upset people really are about this situation.
Joey G – I think that you are spot on with your comments. There will probably be a ‘cardboard check’ moment right at the beginning of the meeting. It may be that there is a ‘fund raising effort’ going on right now to finance even fancier sidewalks than were originally required… Expect LOK to make an effort to preempt the resident comments re SDGC.
That is their MO, they repeatedly try to diffuse the public uproar over bad decisions and abuses of power by putting on this charade of caring about community input. This pattern has grown predictable and boring.
They will certainly try to twist this, then maybe Warren can add to his list of accomplishments that he ‘led a community funding drive to build the sidewalks that the citizens wanted’, similar to his bogus claims re fire dept funding on his PA157 press release. http://newstalkpa.com/topic.php?id=675#post-1820
The only true resolution involves LOK stepping down, this community should accept nothing less. The trust has been permanently broken.
Thank you Pattye for not letting this issue go away.
The good people of this township elected Lamina, Kampf, Olson & Richter to govern at an acceptable standard. That acceptable standard means you are to govern by the rules as indicated in the Home Rule Charter. Where does it say in the HRC that as elected officials, you get to make up the rules?
I have watched the supervisors meeting, I have listened to the residents, and I have read the many comments on Pattye’s blog and I suggest that the 4 of you (Lamina, Kampf, Olson & Richter) need to do the same thing. And Tom Hogan needs to review the video clips and comments. As a resident I am expected to see some indication that our elected officials are listening to the residents at the next BOS meeting.
I’m not sure what the objective of the email is — how does putting it on the agenda advance anything. Doesn’t someone have to make a motion — I don’t go to Supervisor meetings enough to understand the process — but to ask for a topic to be on the agenda when there is no action associated with it — isn’t the same thing available under New Business on the part of the township residents? I applaud your guts in pointing out the deficiency, but since there is no cause of action or motion involved, can’t they just ignore this saying there was no need for it to be on the agenda because there is nothing left to discuss.??? Thanks.
Questions were asked at the last BOS meeting with no answers available — I think that those questions deserve answers, without residents hiring a personal attorney. If St. Davids Golf Club is not on the agenda, it is questionable whether a supervisor could ‘officially’ ask for a reversal to the prior motion. Although technically since the motion and subsequent vote was made without it appearing on the agenda, if we took that the supervisors way of governing I guess a new motion could be made without appearing on the agenda. Many residents are anxious to ask Paul Olson specific questions; and since it was not at the last meeting that had not been possible. The point for the email was to drive home the point that many people in this township are not ‘done’ with St. Davids GC until the problem has been ‘fixed’.
Thanks — don’t for a moment think I don’t agree with your request. I applaud your guts for making it…I just don’t know if a citizen has the ability to put something on the agenda. I give you full credit for pushing this issue — O&L certainly will learn the tangled web rhyme and should commit it to heart.
Maybe we should push for Kampf to move on and you can have his seat?
6. TOWNSHIP BUSINESS:
A. Supervisor Liaison Reports
B. Paoli Pedestrian/Bike Plan Study Committee
C. St. David’s path
Thanks!
Agenda for Board of Supervisors Meeting, 2/22/10
http://tredyffrin.org/boards/bos/agenda.aspx
Here’s the best part of the evening’s agenda: we can ask why they bother to amend a plan that Bob Lamina specifically called visionary…not real…
>>>”Attempting to say both that the St. Davids decision wasn’t different from how they would treat “John’s Hoagie Shop” and that the vote had “nothing to do with St. Davids in particular,” Mr. Lamina went on to shred the 2009-approved Township Comprehensive Plan: “Who are we to insist that a business or resident, anyone, put a sidewalk where one was never intended? Yeah, it’s out there in a Comprehensive Plan, which isn’t a binding document. It’s a visionary document. [A sidewalk] that wasn’t intended and the community didn’t want.”<<<
So here's the final listing on the next meeting's agenda:
PUBLIC HEARING
Consideration and possible adoption, via resolution, of the "Patriots Path Plan", as an amendment to Tredyffrin Township's Comprehensive Plan