Don’t trust party switcher in Delco race for judge
Editor:
It’s only February, but tensions are running high in Delco Democratic politics.
On Saturday, Feb. 18, the Delaware County Democratic Committee will hold its endorsement convention wherein hundreds of elected and appointed Democratic committee people will cast their votes to determine the party-endorsed candidates in the 2023 Primary Election.
However, only a single countylevel race will be contested for the solitary open seat on the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. Vying for the endorsement are attorneys Rachel Ezzell Berry, our county register of wills, and Jennifer DiPillo.
Last week, Democratic committee people across the county received direct mail pieces (a common practice) from DiPillo’s campaign, comparing herself to her opponent, Berry, by sheer numerical values representing years active as practitioners of the law. Predictably, DiPillo boasts superior numbers. The headline? “Experience matters.”
We all have heard it a thousand times in stump speeches, TV ads, and in direct mail. It’s practically a catchall for incumbents and candidates whose opponents are younger than they: dismissive on a basis of age, regardless of values, work ethic or even expertise.
But let’s consider what’s at stake in our courts, and what should be our methodology in assessing good judicial candidates. For so many reasons, I posit an alternative metric: integrity.
If the past few years have taught us anything about our courts — federal, state, or county — it’s that integrity, honesty, fairness, and nonpartisanship are paramount on the bench. Consider the most obvious example: the fall of Roe v. Wade and the three Trump-appointees who deceived Congress during their confirmation hearings to make it possible.
We’ve seen what happens when we elect judges who lie. We’ve seen what happens when we elect opportunists who will say anything to earn their positions of power.
In 2019, DiPillo ran as a registered Republican for the same office.
She sought a nearly $200,000 per year job, effectively for life (10-year terms, easily reelected by retention), running under the same party banner as Deb Truscello, a Republican operative famous for going on to organize buses from Delco to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
However, DiPillo claimed in a January letter to DCDC members that she “considered to be independent of either party.” A number of DCDC members, who have spoken to her in person, claim that she told them “she didn’t have time to change her registration.”
In fairness, she did change her party registration later that year. But 2019 was not just a big year for DiPillo; it was positively seismic for Delco politics.
For the first time since before the Civil War, our County Council flipped Democratic, securing the remaining three of five seats formerly held by Republicans.
We elected a Democratic District Attorney, and the first and only four Democratic judges, at the time, on the entire Court of Common Pleas. It became clear, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that if you wanted to win countywide in Delco, you needed to run as a Democrat.
And as of 2023, there are roughly 40,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the county.
In her aforementioned letter to the DCDC, DiPillo dismisses her decision to register Democratic in 2019 as realizing the “error of ways” on account of the “nightmare of the cult of Trump.” But the timeline simply does not support her frail apology. Instead, it seems that her “error” was a matter of strategy, not ethics.
Candidates who serve their own careers first should frighten all of us, regardless of party affiliation, because we have no reason to trust their values.
Integrity matters.
David Brown, Haverford Township Democratic Committee
Chester’s leadership has failed the residents
Editor:
Here in the city of Chester, we are beginning another year under Act 47.
In 2020, Gov. Tom Wolf appointed Michael T. Doweary and his staff to serve as the city receiver to advise our local elected officials. The city’s Chester Upland School District had already been under a separate receiver appointed by a previous administration.
The citizens of Chester have begun to ask where is the change they so drastically need in the city? Why are we paying some of the highest taxes in Delaware County, yet we continue to receive poor service with no accountability or transparency?
The disunity between the elected officials and the citizens is disheartening because it leaves the citizens feeling like we have no voice, and the mayor and City Council works to meet their personal agenda but not the needs of the people.
In a recent, State of the City address, Thaddeus Kirkland, Mayor of Chester, highlighted his administration’s achievements such as new businesses, crime prevention and community programs.
However, in this speech Mayor Kirkland failed to acknowledge and take any responsibility for the city’s escalating financial problems such as pending bankruptcy, continued financial mismanagement (i.e.. pension board, Parking Authority contract and the $400,000 phishing scam with Councilman Will Morgan), high rates of poverty, failing public school system, and the city’s poor air quality leading to high rates of asthma and cancer.
As Mayor, Kirkland has continued to appoint business leaders to redevelopment boards who do not reside in the city, who are overwhelmingly white and male, and do not represent the people and interests of the city’s residents.
Kirkland’s administration continues to not have a strategic plan to attract new industries and job opportunities to the city of Chester outside his hyped waterfront development project.
Historically, Chester’s leadership has negotiated partnerships that do not benefit the citizens, such as with the soccer stadium, casino, and other previous projects. We can no longer give land and tax abatements to wealthy corporations who invest little in Chester’s infrastructure.
The mismanagement of the city impacts services, morale, and increases the taxes of local citizens whose median family income is less than $40,000. Chester residents are overburdened with increased taxes, city fees (i.e. trash, storm water authority fees), gun violence, health disparities, population decline, failing school system and saturated with polluters that designate our city as an environmental justice area.
No more will we allow corporate interest and our elected officials to break our soul when it comes to the survival of our city.
We, the citizens of Chester, are keeping a political scorecard. No longer will we accept mediocre leaders who do not understand that we have a right to a quality of life that is safe for our families and provides clean air, land and water.
Thom Nixon, Chester Residents Concerned
for Quality Living
Solar power grants higher; learn how to get one
Editor:
Grants through the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program have recently doubled in size due to the Inflation Reduction Act, and rural businesses can use them to implement renewable energy systems like solar power, which have been proven to slash, if not altogether eliminate, monthly energy bills.
Meanwhile rural municipalities and nonprofits are eligible for the USDA’s Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant program.
Projects in rural underserved areas are being prioritized.
Combining these grants with the new 30 percent solar tax credit and additional tax credits for lowincome and energy communities in the Inflation Reduction Act will result in major, and immediate, energy cost savings for almost all applicants as soon as the switch to solar is flipped.
Let us give an example of how this would work. Say your business currently spends $1,000 a month on electric bills.
A typical solar system for a business of this size could be about 140 kilowatts and would cost approximately $300,000 or less to install.
A REAP grant could cover up to 40 percent of this amount, the solar tax credit an additional 30 percent, and a low-income or energy communities tax credit an additional 10 percent, in addition to the 100% depreciation in the first year.
All those tax benefits equate to an almost 100% reduction from the cost of system in the first year: quite a bargain.
And then those solar panels would go on to save that business big money each month. Countless businesses have almost eliminated their energy bills altogether through the power of solar, saving tens to hundreds of thousands each year.
The USDA has a REAP application deadline of March 31.
The PA Solar Center will be hosting a free Zoom webinar on this grant program, as well as the Community Facilities program and tax credit opportunities, on Friday, Feb. 17, from noon to 1:15 p.m.
Learn more at pasolarcenter. org.