GOP Radnor commissioner accuses Dem colleague Elaine Schaefer of ethics violation
Campaign for 165th District
RADNOR >> A kerfuffle erupted at the Radnor Township Board of Commissioners meeting when Commissioner Richard Booker accused Commissioner Elaine Schaefer of violating the township charter by campaigning with a township employee in tow.
Schaefer, a Democrat, is running against Republican Alex Charlton for the state Legislature for the 165th District to replace Rep. Bill Adolph, who is retiring.
Booker, a Republican, had complained at the commissioners meeting last month, that Schaefer improperly had township employees attend a meeting for Ward 4 residents. Now he decried Schaefer “using Radnor Township employees as (campaign) props.”
Booker asked Schaefer if she was campaigning when she attended the National Night Out event in Springfield Township Aug. 2 and Schaefer denied that she was campaigning. Booker pointed out that her campaign manager was with her and said that he’d been given pictures.
“I was attending the event,” said Schaefer. “I asked (Radnor Police) Superintendent (William) Colarulo if he was going and he said he was and I said, ‘I’ll see you there.’ It was a police event.” Schaefer again denied that she was campaigning, saying, “I go to a lot of community events.”
Township Manager Robert Zienkowski interjected to say that the superintendent is allowed to go to police events and should not hide from any of the commissioners if he sees them. Zienkowski also said that it was “inappropriate” for someone to take pictures of Colarulo and suggested that he file a police report about it.
“This is not about township employees,” said Booker, who called for an ethics investigation. “I contend Miss Schaefer is lying about her visit. She was using township resources directly in her political campaign in opposition of the Home Rule Charter.”
“How much did Alex pay you to do this?” Commissioner John Nagle, a Democrat, asked.
Booker told Schaefer her “actions are beyond the pale and put all of us in Radnor Township in a very poor light.”
Commissioner Luke Clark, a Republican, suggested to township Solicitor John Rice that he look into the matter.
Rice then suggested that Booker file an ethics complaint and noted that the township had been through three previous ethics complaints in recent years.
Commissioner Don Curley, a Republican, said that three years ago a staff member “was being pressed into action on a campaign … That’s a township issue and we have to pursue it … If township resources were used, someone has to address that.”
Daniel Sherry Jr., a resident and a Democrat, said that when the township Ethics Board looked into the three recent ethics complaints that were lodged against commissioners Nagle, William Spingler and James Higgins “every single one of those investigations was shut down before this board saw the evidence.” He also questioned Schaefer’s actions when she recused herself from serving on the Ethics Board in the Spingler case since it regarded Villanova University, a client of her husband’s business, then stepped back in to cast the deciding vote in the matter when it was before the commissioners.
Schaefer also discussed and voted on the North Wayne Field basin issue until Sherry and his brother brought an open records request to determine that she also had the same conflict with that park’s owner, the Radnor Township School District, he said.
Schaefer’s statement that she was not campaigning at the Springfield Township event but that her campaign manager was with her “raises eyebrows,” Sherry said. However, Colarulo “has always struck me as professional to a T,” he said.
And Sherry urged the commissioners to keep any information regarding an ethics investigation in the public domain and said that Schaefer should want her constituents to know of any “exculpatory evidence.”
After the meeting, Schaefer chalked Booker’s remarks up to “election season.”
“This is what happens when you put yourself out there to run for office,” Schaefer said. “My skin is thick and I haven’t done anything wrong and these attacks will continue for three months because my campaign is having some success and we’re doing well.”
Later, Schaefer also said that two of her commissioners colleagues were “actively involved in my opponent’s campaign.” Clark had donated $1,000 to Charlton’s campaign as of May and that Curley was seen canvassing the neighborhoods with Charlton.