Pattye Benson

Community Matters

Tredyffrin Township Police Department

Abandoned House in Chesterbrook – Owner Deceased, Who is Responsible?’

Few things rattle a neighborhood like an abandoned home. Run-down and abandoned homes can make an entire neighborhood look bad. Trash, overgrown grass and pest problems can spill over into neighboring properties. But abandoned houses can be more than just an eyesore — they can bring down property values, create safety hazards and invite crime. But who owns these properties, and what can you do to make them take responsibility for their home?

There’s a difference between a home that is simply vacant, meaning everyone in the neighborhood knows when and why the last residents left, from an abandoned home, where people sort of left without saying good-bye. Such is the case with a single-family home in Chesterbrook – the residents left one day four years ago and never returned.

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At the end of the Tredyffrin supervisors meeting on May 16 , under ‘New Matters’, a group of citizens from the quiet Armstrong Court cul-de-sac in the Fox Hollow community of Chesterbrook spoke about the abandoned home on their street. They passionately described a deteriorating overgrown house where the residents simply disappeared about 4 years ago, in 2012.

The neighbors went on to describe unusual activity at the house during the past winter – different people regularly coming and going during the middle of the night, departing by sunrise each day. Concerned for their safety and the rundown, overgrown appearance of the house, they told the supervisors that they had made phone calls to the police – one neighbor reported her concern was dismissed and told that she was a ‘busy body’.

For those that may not know, the Fox Hollow development is located in theFox Hollow 6 far western section of Chesterbrook. The rear yard of the abandoned house backs up to the PA Turnpike; and very little separates the speeding cars from the property. Concerned about its unkempt appearance, neighbors admit that they took turns keeping the grass mowed, so as not to detract from their own properties.

Following the May supervisors meeting, I have had contact with several of the Armstrong Court homeowners. Visiting the neighborhood, I tried to assure the residents that between the township staff, supervisors and police, help was on its way. It has been a month since the last supervisors meeting and unfortunately, the neighbors report no follow-up contact and little change.

Fox Hollow 4

Walking around the house, it is obvious that the house is in complete disrepair. Due to severe deterioration, it’s unclear if the building is salvageable. There are holes in the roof and on the end of the upper floor, piles of trash bags and furniture parts on the driveway and garage area, uncovered utility pipe in the front yard, water and electric turnoff notices littering the walkway and the front door is adorned with official-looking vacant/abandoned stickers.

I checked Chester County public document database for property ownership and discovered that the owner of record (who neighbors claim never lived in the house) purchased the home in 2005 at the age of 88. According to the neighbors, it was the owner’s son and his family who occupied the property until abruptly leaving in 2012. According to her obituary, the elderly owner passed away in May 2011 at the age of 94 in a Wynnewood nursing home. Public records indicate that the mortgage was satisfied in April 2013 and that property taxes are current. Although the owner (who never lived in the house) passed away four years ago, her name remains listed as the sole owner in 2016.

Single-family homes in the Fox Hollow community of Chesterbrook are valuable. A quick check on Zillow indicates a house, around the corner from the abandoned Armstrong Court home, sold for $700K last September. Why pay off the mortgage and stay current with taxes and let the vacant house fall to disrepair for 4 years. It makes no sense.

The neighbors need help; which is why they spoke publicly at the May supervisors meeting. They are worried about their safety (remember the house backs up to the turnpike), possible illegal activities, devaluation of property values … and the list goes on and on. The owner of the property is deceased, so what can these folks do?

Tredyffrin Township’s elected officials, staff, solicitor, police … Who is responsible for helping these Tredyffrin Township residents?

Tredyffrin Township Police Department brings multiple pornography charges against middle school students in the TE School District

Today the Tredyffrin Township Police Department filed multiple pornography charges against three middle school students at TE Middle School and Valley Forge Middle School for allegedly creating and sending sexually explicit images. According to the police report the images included nudity and child pornography. The ages of those charged range from 11 – 15 years old. Suspects viewed and shared the images while in school. The investigation by the Tredyffrin Township Police began in April 2015.

An excerpt from the Tredyffrin Township Police Department press release of November 3, 2015 is as follows:

The Tredyffrin Township Police Department has announced that Juvenile Allegations have been filed against three (3) juveniles, for different incidents related to the creation and distribution of intimate images and harassment. The distribution of intimate images can range from a charge grading of a summary offense to a felony, depending on the age of the participants, the age of the receiver of the image and circumstances involved in the viewing, storage and distribution of the intimate image.

In this case, those intimate images consisted of pictures or videos of students who attend Tredyffrin-Easttown School District middle schools; Valley Forge Middle School and T/E Middle School, as well as images retrieved from the internet. The age of the juveniles charged ranged from age 11 – 15 at the time the incidents occurred. Additional juveniles are likely to be charged in the near future.

The allegations were a result of investigations which were begun in April of 2015 by Tredyffrin Township Police Department and are continuing. During the investigation it was reported by both victims and participants, that intimate images consisting of child erotica, nudity, child pornography and pornography were created, sent, stored, and viewed by a number of students both at their homes and while at school.

In most cases the images and videos were sent voluntarily by the juveniles to other minors. In some cases intimate images were sent to unknown persons who were met in Cyber Chats conducted with various social networking applications. In another case, a student offered to sell an intimate image of a classmate to another student. The charges connected to this were, Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, Section 6321 (a)(1), Transmission of Sexually Explicit Images by a Minor, a summary offense and a Misdemeanor of the 3rd.

In one case, an intimate image of a sex act was taken off of the World Wide Web by a juvenile male, then distributed and portrayed as being that of a juvenile female student to her class mates. The resulting harassment lead to an assault at the T/E Middle School.

The charges related to this incident, from Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Crime Code included the following: Section 5903, Obscene and other Sexual Materials and Performances, a Felony of the 3rd degree; Section 7512, Criminal Use of a Communications Facility, a Felony of the 3rd degree; Section 6318, Unlawful Contact with a Minor, a Felony of the 3rd degree and Section 2709, Harassment, a Misdemeanor of the 3rd degree. Also charged was Section 3126 Indecent Assault, a Misdemeanor of the 2nd degree; Section 2709.1, Stalking, a Misdemeanor of the 1st degree.

During the investigation the majority of the parents whose children were involved were very concerned and cooperated fully with the investigation. One parent who routinely checked their child’s cell phone and computer usage was surprised to learn that his child was using a cloud based storage service to store and retrieve intimate images and avoid detection by his parents.

Many of the intimate images were found to have been created by the juveniles taking selfies, in their own homes with the location services setting on their phones activated. This action would allow for viewers of the images, including child predators to locate the homes of the juveniles via Meta data stored in the picture file.

Following the release of the Tredyffrin Township Police Department special juvenile report today, the TE School District released the following statement:

The T/E School District has been cooperating with a police investigation related to alleged misconduct by middle school students. We take these matters very seriously and follow up with procedures that promote safety for all students. The incident may also carry school-based discipline. As such, the District cannot comment on specific student discipline matters, as we must do all we can to preserve the privacy rights of all students.

The District has cooperated fully with law enforcement agencies throughout this investigation and will continue to do so. We join with the police and the entire community to emphasize responsible use of technology and to affirm the rights of all individuals to live and thrive in an environment free from harassment. This message is central to our mission and our daily work with students.

Mark Cataldi
Director of Assessment and Accountability
District Safety Coordinator

Substance Abuse Discussion Continues — Berwyn Fire Company EMS Captain weighs in

Substance abuseContinuing the substance abuse discussion, Berwyn Fire Company EMS Capt. Michael Baskin provides background about Narcan and its use in heroin overdose situations. Important contact information is provided at the end of his remarks.

As a resident, it is reassuring to know that the local fire company and police department personnel are trained and equipped to handle drug abuse situations. Discussions about drugs and their consequences are extremely important — perhaps a community forum with the school administration, police department, fire company, parents and residents.

Pattye,
Thank you for bringing some of these concepts to the forefront of your community readers.

Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a medication used in opioid overdoses to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. If administered early enough, an overdose victim will begin to get a respiratory drive back, and shortly after become alert and aware. Naloxone only works if a person has opioids in their system; the medication has no effect if opioids are absent. There are many drugs that people overdose on that Narcan has no effect on. It is a temporary drug that wears off in 20-90 minutes and therefore anyone who received this drug needs to get to advanced care as the effects of the opioid may return after Narcan wears off.

As was noted, Tredyffrin police have been carrying Narcan for a little while now and have already administered it successfully. Berwyn, Radnor and Malvern fire company paramedics (the 3 primary paramedic providers to T/E) and other services have had Narcan as Advanced Life Support (ALS) providers for decades. As of July 1st, 2015 the Department of Health has allowed for Basic Life Support (BLS) to have access to Narcan in addition to the ALS. Departments across the Commonwealth are going through training now.

From a community approach perspective, the T/E community is well covered with Narcan access in an emergency. In extreme situations, providing rescue breathing and/or CPR to an overdose victim who is not breathing will provide needed oxygen prior to emergency services arriving. The ideal community focus needs to be preventing the need to ever use Narcan. Community, family and professional help should be available to anyone who needs it. Accepting that our community is not immune to these problems is a very big start.

Community education of drug, alcohol, mental illness and suicide prevention is a tremendous help. Acceptance of those who have these problems as a community is what leads us to success. By isolating, hiding, alienating or ignoring people who need guidance, we hurt rather then help this goal.

Here are some useful local numbers:
The Chester County Drug & Alcohol Hotline: 610-344-6620.
Crisis Counseling: 610-280-3270
Chester County Suicide Prevention: 610-344-6265

These numbers are just as much for someone searching for help personally as they are for someone concerned about another.

Respectfully,
Michael S Baskin
EMS Captain, Berwyn Fire Co

Tredyffrin Township Police Department update on local substance issues, including the use of NARCAN

NARCANEarlier this week, I wrote the post, “Depression, alcoholism and drug addiction…Saving lives is the Answer”. Completely by coincidence, on Wednesday, July 21, we learned that the Tredyffrin Township police had arrested Lynne Twaddle, age 61 of Pugh Road on suspicion of dealing heroin from her Wayne home.

Twaddle was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, criminal conspiracy, possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal use of a communication facility (phone). Beyond scary is the fact that Twaddle’s house is located 150 ft. from the entrance drive to New Eagle Elementary School.

At the time of the Twaddle’s arrest, Tredyffrin Township Detective Sgt. Todd Bereda commented, “It’s just now with the change in society, we’re seeing a burgeoning amount of oxycodone and opiate use, it starts with pills and ends up with heroin.”

As a follow-up to the post on Community Matters, I received an email from Tredyffrin Township Police Superintendent Anthony Giaimo and was given permission to share it. Valuable information, the public needs to know that the Tredyffrin Police are actively involved and continuously seeking ways to combat the growing local drug abuse problems.

Greetings Pattye –

Thank you for your recent post regarding substance issues within our community (and beyond). We need to spread the word!

We have seen drug related tragedies among our young residents year after year.

We have taken a number of progressive steps, which have gained the attention of Commonwealth officials.

We were the first in the Commonwealth of PA (with ARCH) to acquire and maintain a drug “turn in” box. Additionally we have hosted town hall meetings (Kacie’s Cause) and are continuous attendees and participants at ARCH meetings.

We are presently formulating new educational programs through our Community Policing Unit.

One resource that has received excellent feedback is our new Crime Watch program. On this site, I posted a Parent’s Tool kit, suicide prevention and drug / substance abuse resources as well as other resources posted by our Community Policing Director Rhonda Carroll. Our site can be found through the township website or at www.tredyffrinpd.org (There is also a mobile app).

T/E School Board Director Liz Mercogliano mentioned the possible use of NARCAN, heroin antidote naloxone, in treating drug overdoses in a comment on Community Matters. The public should know that the Tredyffrin police are trained in the use of NARCAN. I received a follow-email from Supt. Giaimo clarifying the department’s usage of the heroin antidote:

A number of people have asked if the police department uses NARCAN, an opiate antagonist, to combat the potential loss of life from a heroin over dose. I can say that we not only have this drug in all of the police cars but were on the leading edge of this program. To date we already saved a life with the use of NARCAN.

Rest assured we (I) will keep up the pace to keep our community safe from this deadly drug influence.

As we learned from Supt. Giaimo, the Tredyffrin police have already saved one life with the use of NARCAN.

If residents have concerns and/or questions regarding substance abuse, you are asked to contact Tredyffrin Township Police Officer Rhonda Carroll, Director of Community Policing, Tel. 610.644.3221.

Following the arrest of suspected heroin dealer Lynne Twaddle, the T/E School District posted the following message on their website, www.tesd.org

As you may have read in the news, on July 21 the Tredyffrin Township Police arrested a District resident for alleged sale of heroin. We congratulate the police on their continued efforts to combat the distribution of illegal drugs, and we cooperate as needed. The alleged perpetrator lives in close proximity to New Eagle Elementary School, but I have been assured by Superintendent of Police Anthony Giaimo that although the investigation is ongoing, there is no connection between this arrest and any T/E students at this time.

The District will continue to implement and extend safety measures to promote greater security in our schools. Such measures include but are not limited to buzz-in systems at school entrances with video capabilities, external fencing, improved locks on classroom doors, external window signage, and updated emergency preparedness procedures. Additionally, we continue to provide age-appropriate educational opportunities and support programs across the curriculum for students to learn about the negative consequences associated with illegal and prescription drug use and abuse. I thank the community for its continued support of these District efforts.

Best wishes,
Richard Gusick
Superintendent of Schools

TESD Agenda includes bonuses for administrators & 5-year contract for Business Manager; Tredyffrin Township Agenda includes new Finance Director and Police Department news

On Monday, there is a TE School Board meeting at 7:30 PM, Conestoga High School. Rather than hitting the print button, I suggest that you read the agenda and accompanying materials online because it contains 450 pages.

On the fourth page of the agenda, under Section VII Other Recommended Action, these three items grabbed my attention.

A. 2014-2015 Supervisory and Confidential Employee Compensation Plan, Compensation Adjustments for 2-14-15 and June 2015 One Time Payment

B. 2014-2015 Administrator Compensation Plan, Compensation Adjustments and June 2015 One Time Payment

C. Business Manager Employee Agreement

In April, the School Board adopted a $120 million proposed final budget for the 2014-15 school year that includes a 3.2 percent tax increase. How is it that the District can increase our homeowner taxes for another year, but still manage to find available dollars for administrator and supervisor bonuses? Where is the fiscal watchdog looking out for the residents? (To find the current salaries and proposed bonuses on (A) and (B) in Section VII, you need to go to pgs. 435 and 436 of the agenda.)

Item (C) under Section VII, ‘Business Manager Employee Agreement’ refers to the proposed contract for Art McDonnell, the District’s current business manager. McDonnell’s salary for 2014-15 year is $163,220 although he is due to receive a one-time bonus of $1,632 as mentioned above. Under his proposed employee agreement (see pgs. 438-441), McDonnell will enjoy a significant salary increase of $22,000/yr. or approximately an 14% yearly salary increase – if approved his salary becomes $185K/yr. rising to $186,632 with the addition of his bonus.

Under the position responsibilities in the proposed employee agreement, the terms state that McDonnell is “responsible for responding to all questions relating to the District business, financial and operation matters” and that he “will interpret the financial concerns of the District to the community”. Further responsibilities refer to an ‘Appendix A’, which is not included with the agenda – the business manager duties are vague and the job description without detail.

Setting aside the salary, the pending employee agreement for Art McDonnell includes very surprising job security, especially given current economic times – a whopping 5-year contract with automatic renewals for additional five-year terms. How does someone get this kind of deal these days?

The length of the District superintendent’s contract is 3-years so why should the business manager receive a five-year contract. Who negotiated this contract with McDonnell? With the retirement of Dan Waters in June 2015, the replacement will inherit the business manager for the entire length of his or her superintendent contract. Having just launched the search for a new Superintendent, why would the school board agree to a five-year contract for McDonnell? Why would the Board want to force prospective superintendent candidates into this type of situation?

According to the proposed employee agreement, the District is required to give McDonnell 6 months’ notice if they want to terminate his contract; otherwise, his five-year contract rolls over with automatic five-year renewals. (With an unsatisfactory evaluation, termination notice is reduced to 60 days). Gratefully, McDonnell’s contract was not included in the consent agenda. Does this mean that the residents expect a Board discussion and explanation (rationale) for the terms of the proposed contract? Again, I ask who on the school board ‘negotiated’ this contract? It looks to me like Art McDonnell asked for “the moon, the stars and the sun” in this contract and he’s likely to get it – where’s the fiscal responsibility?

Also on Monday night is the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors meeting, 7:30 PM at Township Building. I found a couple of items interesting on the agenda

(1) The appointment of Finance Director

(2) Approval of a Memorandum of Understanding (2015-2018) with the Tredyffrin Township Police Association (TTPA)

If you recall, within a two-week period between February 10 and 25 of this year, the Tredyffrin Township’s Board of Supervisors terminated Public Works Director Scott Cannon without public discussion or comment and agreed to accept the resignation of Finance Director Tim Klarich, also without explanation. Klarich was Tredyffrin Township Finance Director for nearly 4 years. I always found his analysis and preparation of the yearly township budget detailed and complete and his monthly financial updates to the board unfailingly thorough. There was uneasiness with the departure of these two department heads four months ago and Klarich departure was particularly unsettling. I look forward to the announcement of the appointment of the township’s new Finance Director.

As for the other agenda item of interest — the residents are aware that the Tredyffrin Township Police Department has been working with an officer deficit during the last several years. If you recall, the supervisors approved the spending of $49K for a Police Department study that concluded hiring of additional police officers was needed. I am interested to see if the needs of the police department will be addressed in the Memorandum of Understanding.

Keep Your Kids Safe – Tredyffrin Township Police Department conducts special meeting for parents Saturday, April 12, 10 AM

The Tredyffrin Township Police Department together with Justice4pakids is sponsoring an important meeting tomorrow at the Tredyffrin Township Building at 10 AM. If you are a parent, plan on attending the meeting and earn how to better protect your children from sexual abuse. The guest speaker attorney Elizabeth Pitts is the Associate Director of Investigations for Swarthmore College. She was a Deputy District Attorney with the Chester County DA’s office for 20 years and supervised the County’s Child Abuse Unit for over a decade.

Justice4pakids is a coalition of advocates, survivors, legal and medical professionals and concerned citizens dedicated to bringing greater awareness regarding sexual abuse in children. The local group helps child sex abuse victims and has three main focus areas: improving statute of limitations laws, education through seminars and literature, and comforting victims by putting them in touch with professional organizations.

The purpose of tomorrow’s special seminar is to make families aware that “stranger danger awareness is not enough.”

Keep your kids safe

When will Tredyffrin Township hire budgeted police officers?

When will Tredyffrin Township hire budgeted police officers?

Looking for answers, today I met with Tredyffrin Police Superintendent Tony Giaimo. I wanted to understand the search for and selection of police officers. As I explained to Giaimo, applicants for police department positions have contacted me over the last 6-8 months, anxious for a hiring update. I learned much about the police department hiring process and thought it worthwhile to share.

Early in 2012, the Tredyffrin Township Police Department advertised the April 14, 2012 physical assessment and written test date for vacancies in the department. According to Giaimo, 130+ individuals applied to take the physical and written exam. In addition to the application form, a physician statement and informed consent form were required.

The physical assessment is judged pass/fail; the written test included multiple-choice questions plus a written narrative. If a candidate passed the physical exam and received an 80% or higher score on the written exam, they moved to the next step. All candidates were notified of the test results 2-4 weeks following the April 14th exam.

Of the 130+ applicants, close to 100 individuals passed the physical test and scored 80% or higher on the written part. The next step for the successful applicants was an oral interview by an Oral Interview Board, composed of three police personnel selected by Giaimo. At the time of the interview, applicants were required to provide education transcripts, military discharge papers when applicable, and three reference letters (other than relative and employers). Failure to provide documents at the interview, disqualified applicants from the selection process. The interviews were conducted between June and August 2012.

Each member of the Oral Interview Board independently scores the oral interviews and those scores are then added to the written exam score. For those applicants that advance to the next step, they receive a polygraph examination. According to Giaimo, the polygraph test is to indicate deception on a pre-determined set of questions. After the polygraph phase, the top list of 15 candidates is prepared. The ranking is based on all phases of the test process to this point. For those 15 candidates, the next step is a background investigation by the Tredyffrin Township Police Department including previous employment, education record, military record, criminal history, credit rating, etc.

The next step is a conditional offer of employment. Hiring is contingent upon successful completion of psychological and physical examinations and selection by the Police Superintendent. (I believe this part of the examination process takes approximately 4 months.) Once this conditional phase is completed, the cadet serves a two-year probationary period.

At the start, prospective applicants are told that the process takes approximately 6-8 months from the time the exam is taken – in this case, the exam was given on April 14 so if they successfully completed each step, vacancies were to be filled somewhere between October – December, 2012.

I received a call from a father of one of the cadets that is on Tredyffrin Police Department’s ‘short list’ in early January, looking for an update. I assured him that the township would be hiring 2 police officers shortly. I was confident giving this response for the following reasons, (1) the police contract was settled; (2) the ICMA consultant’s study (pg. 11) suggested a minimum of 2 additional officers were required to maintain township safety levels and (3) supervisors approved the 2013 budget that included 2 additional police officers (with the possibility of a third officer added sometime during the year).

The focus of my meeting with Superintendent Giaimo was to find out the hiring date of the two police officers. Remember the cadets were told last April the application process would take approximately 6-8 months; it’s now 10 months!

I could not believe Giaimo’s response today re the hiring of police officers; telling me that he had not been authorized to hire. What? That’s right folks. The police contract was signed in December and the 2013 township budget approved (which included the hiring of the two officers) but the Board of Supervisors have not given Giaimo permission to hire the two officers. Gosh, even pg. 11 of the ICMA police department study indicated the township needed to hire two officers to maintain satisfactory safety levels.

Giaimo assured me that he has the ranked list of candidates ready to go — all he needs is the OK from the BOS to make the offers. If you think that adequate staffing of our Police Department is an important issue, you may want to attend the next BOS meeting on February 11 and offer your opinion.

Kichline & Heaberg defend $49K Police Department study, but don’t address hiring additional police officers

Tredyffrin BOS Chair Michelle Kichline and Vice Chair Mike Heaberg have co-authored an editorial on the township police department with the stated purpose to offer facts, history and perspective. (Click here to read the op-ed). Appearing in the Main Line Suburban, their response focuses on the recent police-township contract negotiations and the township’s $49K police consultant study. (On a personal note, I would like to thank the supervisors for appropriately using media for their op-ed rather than the township website.)

According to Kichline and Heaberg, the average wages per Tredyffrin Township police officer is $101K in 2013 with an additional $77K annually in healthcare, pension, life insurance benefits for officers and their spouses/dependents. We know from reading the police contract that retired police officers receive healthcare benefits for life and this is reiterated in the article. It is important for taxpayers to realize that the Police Department budget accounts for almost 50% of the township’s General Fund budget – for 2013, that cost is $8 million.

According to Kichline and Heaberg, the “BOS attempted to negotiate a termination of some benefits for new police hires only, but when the discussions did not progress, the decision was made to go to arbitration.” Their explanation differs from the explanation given to me by representatives of the police department. According to my sources, there was no negotiation but rather the arbitrator for the township took the police contract to arbitration after only one meeting. After nearly a year, we learned in December that the independent arbitrator’s decision favored the police department.

Regardless if the BOS attempted to negotiate with the police prior to settlement, the township’s cost of arbitration was not included in Kichline and Heaberg’s editorial. As I previously mentioned in an earlier post, the township paid $83K+ in arbitration costs. ($14K+ for impartial arbitrator and $$69K for township arbitrators). The total cost for the arbitration is probably closer to $100K as I only received Ballard Spahr billable hours through 8 October, 2012. (Click here for details)

In the op-ed, Kichline and Heaberg defend the $49K spent on the police department study. I am certain that their decision to depend the consulting contract is a direct result of the presentation (or rather the non-presentation) of the police operations study on December 2. This was the BOS meeting where the consultant, Dr. Paul O’Connell of ICMA, was unable to attend the meeting and the idea was to ‘Skype” him in electronically from Connecticut. The Skype attempt failed miserably with the audience and supervisors unable to understand a single word. It was a hopeless exercise and no one could successfully question the consultant in regards to the police department study.

Apparently, at upcoming BOS meeting on February 11, two consultants from ICMA will be available (in person) to respond to questions concerning their study. According to Kichline and Heaberg, ICMA “collected an entire years worth of data on each of more than 23,000 calls for service to our Police. This included type of call, time of day, day of week, response time, number of units responding, time on scene, etc. In addition, they collected staffing and schedule information. This allowed them to analyze the police workload, as compared to our police capacity.”

Obviously, supervisors Kichline and Heaberg are entitled to their personal assessment of ICMA’s consulting efforts of Tredyffrin Township’s Police Department. However, for those that follow Community Matters, you will recall that because I had found ICMA’s presentation so unsettling, I conducted my research on the company. I discovered that ICMA isn’t well loved in some municipalities, with some communities reporting that they overpaid for a cut and paste job rather than an accurate assessment of their fire or police departments. (Click here for details).

There was one question that the supervisors and the residents wanted answered by ICMA’s consultant at the December BOS meeting, “What is the minimum staffing level of police officers required to maintain our quality of service” which seemed to escape a response from O’Connell. In their editorial, Kichline and Heaberg write of their support for ICMA’s police department study yet Kichline commented at the December supervisors meeting that she had read ICMA’s report five times and was still confused as to the number of officers the consultants were recommending.

I am glad that Kichline and Heaberg are committed in their support of the police department, but disappointed that their offer of the “facts, history and perspective” does not address the hiring of additional police officers in Tredyffrin. The 2013 budget included the hiring of two police officers with the possibility of the hire of a third officer during the year. Although the recently settled police contract negotiations may not have turned out the way the supervisors wanted, it should not be used as a roadblock to hiring the additional officers.

Police Department Provides Press Release re Clerical Error of Police Officers

Michelle Kichline, chair of the Board of Supervisors provided the following press release from the Police Department in regards to the Suzy Pratowski matter and the absence of police officers at the hearing. I believe that this was the press release that was sent to the Philadelphia Inquirer. This press release indicates that an internal investigation was conducted and the report was then reviewed by the BOS chair and by the District Attorney’s office.

Tredyffrin Township Police Department

Press Release

With reference to the case involving Suzanne Pratowski, a hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, August 21, 2012 regarding the summary charges of criminal mischief and public drunkenness. Due to a clerical error on the part of the officers (affiants) from a rescheduling of the original hearing date of Tuesday, July 24, 2012, the officers were unaware of the scheduled summary hearing.

A complete and thorough internal investigation was immediately conducted by and reviewed by the investigative division (internal affairs) of the police department. The Chairman of the Board of Tredyffrin Township Supervisors and the Chester County District Attorney’s Office has reviewed the police department’s findings. The findings showed that this was a clerical mistake on the part of the police officers and no outside influence of any type were evident in the process. Internal corrective actions were taken as a result of this investigation.

Police Chief Andy Chambers Tenders Resignation While on Suspension

At last night’s Board of Supervisors meeting, we learned that Police Chief Andy Chambers would resign from the Tredyffrin Twp Police Department, effective December 20, 2011.

Chairman Bob Lamina read a prepared statement that indicated that Chambers made this personal decision to resign while serving a four-day suspension. Last week, the supervisors had suspended Chambers for allowing his 16-year old son to drive a township police car, and his failure to report the incident to the Board of Supervisors. The son was involved in an accident with the township vehicle but Chambers had taken responsibility for all associated costs (towing, repair, etc.) and the car is back in service.

As I have previously stated, and do so again – Andy Chambers is a good guy. Did he have a momentary lapse in judgment? Yes. But now, unfortunately he feels that the price for his mistake is resignation. I do not think that Chambers was under any pressure from the supervisors to resign. As far as the supervisors were concerned, the four-day suspension had settled the matter for supervisors.

I cannot imagine how difficult the last couple of weeks have been for Andy Chambers and his family. We all make mistakes in our lives but most live with the consequences privately. Chief Chambers’ mistake became public and the public scrutiny of his actions, no doubt painful for him and his family. As Lamina read in his statement, Chambers decided that his retirement was the right thing to do for the Tredyffrin police department and for the community. I am guessing that Chief Chambers’ suspension served as an opportunity for personal reflection on he concluded the decision to leave the police department was the right answer for him and his family.

I thank Chief Chambers for his 30 years of service to the community; and offer him best wishes for the future. And, for the record . . . in my book, you still are a ‘good guy’.

In other news from the supervisors meeting, the township budget was approved for 2012. Originally, the budget contained a 6.9% millage tax increase for 2012 but in the final budget, the supervisors lessened the increase to 3.5% millage tax increase. The final budget increase was shaved by reducing professional services and by reducing police hours. The 2012 township budget passed with a 6-1 vote. EJ Richter was the only supervisor to vote against the budget, stating that she was opposed to any tax increase.

The Board of Supervisors meeting marked the final supervisors meeting for Chairman Bob Lamina. After serving 13 years on the Board, Lamina did not seek re-election in the last election and will complete his term at the end of December. Several former supervisors attended last night’s meeting including John Shimrak, Judy DiFilippo, Paul Drucker and John Bravacos. Former and current supervisors joined members of the public and township staff at a reception following the meeting to thank Lamina for his years of service to the community.

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