New faces and old inducted to county bench and council
MEDIA COURTHOUSE >> Sunday Dominic F. Pileggi resigned his seat in the state Senate after serving the 9th District for more than 13 years, many as majority leader. On Monday afternoon, the 58-year-old Chester resident assumed his new post as a judge in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.
“This is my third branch of government,” said Pileggi, a Republican who was mayor of Chester for nearly four years before taking the late Clarence Bell’s place in the state Senate in October 2002. “I hit the trifecta.”
He was inducted for a 10-year term along with two other newlyelected Republican judges, Margaret J. Amoroso of Middletown and Anthony D. Scanlon of Springfield, who was appointed to the bench in 2014 then elected to the post last November. Also inducted were sitting Republican judges James F. Nilon Jr. and James P. Bradley, who were first elected in 2005 and retained last November’s election.
Their ceremony was preceded four hours earlier by the induction of three sitting members of Delaware County Council — Colleen P. Morrone of Concord, John P. McBlain of Aldan and Michael F. Culp of Springfield — and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan of Ridley Township, all Republicans who were all reelected to four-year terms last November.
Culp, a Springfield Township commissioner and Media attorney, was appointed by the all-Republican Delaware County Council a year ago to fill the council vacancy left by Tom McGarrigle of Springfield who was elected in November 2014 to the 26th District’s state Senate seat filled since 2001 by Republican Ted Erickson of Newtown Square who retired. McBlain, who is also an attorney, was first elected to council in 2011, as was Morrone who is the president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Delaware and Delaware County.
Following the morning induction
in ceremony, council members re-elected Mario J. Civera Jr. of Upper Darby, who is in his second four-year term, as chairman, and Morrone as vice chairman. They also re-appointed Marianne Grace as Delaware County’s executive director for two more years.
President Judge Chad F. Kenney presided over both the morning and afternoon induction ceremonies that were staged in the Honorable John V. Diggins Ceremonial Courtroom and featured spouses, children, mothers and other relatives and friends delivering certificates of election and witnessing the administration of oaths of office.
The induction of judges began and ended with invocations by two of Pileggi’s six siblings, the Rev. Mr. John J. Pileggi who is a deacon at St. Katharine Drexel Church in Chester, and the Rev. Anthony M. Pileggi who is chaplain for the Little Sisters of the Poor in Newark, Del. Scanlon’s niece, Jennifer Green, a probation officer, sang the National Anthem after Amoroso’s uncle, Thomas J. Judge Sr., director of the Delaware County Recorder of Deeds office and former longtime chairman of the Delaware County Republican Party, led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Amoroso was introduced by her sister, Carol J. Miller, who noted that Amoroso had wanted to be a judge since she was 8 years old.
“We’re here to celebrate her dream come true,” said Miller, who noted that Monday was also the birthday of their 89-year-old mother, Margaret Judge, and Amoroso’s husband, Albert, both of whom assisted in her robing.
Amoroso’s children, Alex, Laura and Michael, held the Bible while their mother took the oath of office that was administered by her friend, Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon. Patrick, Ryan and David Scanlon held the Bible for their father while Barbara Scanlon assisted in her husband’s robing. In introducing his father, Patrick, a Delaware County assistant district attorney, noted that his dad held down a full-time job while earning his graduate degree in business from Widener University and his law degree from Temple University.
Another Delaware
County
assistant district attorney, Michael A. Pileggi, sparked laughter in the courtroom when he introduced his father as being in the same league as Aristotle, Christopher Columbus “and Jack Whelan, my boss.” One of Pileggi’s two daughters, Gabrielle, held the Bible as Judge Linda A. Cartisano, a former Chester solicitor, administered the oath to Pileggi who she called her longtime friend “and occasional boss.”
Diana Pileggi helped her into his judicial robe.
“I didn’t get involved with politics until my 30s. She really didn’t sign up for that. I believe it has been nine elections,” said Pileggi in expressing gratitude to his wife and the rest of his family including daughter, Elisa Young, who was unable to attend the ceremony.
Pileggi also acknowledged his Chester roots and the long line of Delaware County judges who have come from the Chester area including Cartisano and the late James Gorbey, Joseph Battle, Ed Zetusky, Robert A. Wright and Robert C. Wright.
“I’ve been a resident of Chester my entire life. It’s a town full of good people,” said Pileggi.
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