On May 16, 2023, Washington County Republican voters will
face one of the most important primary elections in decades. All of the
noteworthy contested races are in the Republican primary. This commentary will examine several primary
issues and raise questions that the candidates should address before ballots
are cast in May. A future commentary will discuss the Republican primary
candidates.
Republican voters that are seeking a change in our local
government should be careful what they wish for. We have recently experienced
the damage that disruptive officials with misguided motives can cause in the
Row Offices. Electing two extremist Republican commissioners in November could
further unravel a well-run county government by depleting county reserves and
crashing county bond ratings. Radical ideology
does not foster rational governance.
Cultural War Issues. The
primary election offices being contested are the Commissioners’ Office,
District Attorney, Treasurer, Coroner, Prothonotary, Clerk of Courts, and
Register of Wills. The last three positions are clerical offices with a single
statutory function, to serve and support the courts.
Republicans already control much of Washington County government.
It would be a mistake to elect more extreme commissioners who are wallowing in
the election victimhood and cultural war positions of the former president. Washington
County needs pragmatic commissioners who will continue to guide our strong
economy and maintain our high standing as a well-run medium size Pennsylvania
county.
Term Limits. Republican
candidates proudly push term limits and other government reforms as a campaign
issue. In 2021, two of our present commissioners also wanted local voters to
consider term limits. Under state law, the only path to accomplish this goal
was to prepare and place a referendum to adopt a Government Study Commission
before county voters. Astonishingly, two years ago, several Republican
candidates in this primary, rather than elect study commission members who
agreed with their reform positions, worked tirelessly to defeat the Study
Commission referendum. This insured that term limits along with other
initiatives to improve local government could not be considered and presented
to the voters. The result was no term limits or other reforms.
Voter Integrity. Republican commissioner candidates claim voter
integrity as an important campaign issue. Several extremists seeking primary votes have
spent their Thursday afternoons since the 2020 presidential election at
commissioner meetings. Their group of election deniers have demanded
unwarranted election recounts, wacky forensic audits, the replacement of voting
machines with paper ballots and the decertification of election results. It did not matter that Republicans carried
Washington County by a significant margin, that voter fraud does not exist or
that voting machines are secure. Other integrity issues, like requiring voter
ID, are state issues and cannot be changed by county officials.
Replacing Appointed
Civil Servants with “Patriot” Republicans.
Republicans have controlled all aspects of county government over the
past election cycle. Nonetheless, a more radical breed of Republican has
captured the local party apparatus and is supporting extremist candidates in
the primary. A vote of no confidence contributed to Republican Diana Irey Vaughan’s
decision not to run for reelection.
A troubling position of the extremist Washington County
Republicans is to terminate experienced civil servants within the present
Republican administration and replace them with unqualified partisan supporters.
This would include Chief of Staff, Michael Namie, (brought out of retirement by
the Republican Commissioners); Elections Director, Melanie Ostrander, (responsible
for the administration of complex, contested elections); highly respected
Finance Director, Joshua Hatfield; and President of the Chamber of Commerce,
Jeff Kotula (who has worked for 20 years to bring economic opportunities to
Washington County). If new commissioners gut these and other important positions,
it will decimate the administration of county government and the public will
suffer.
Qualifications and
Performance in Office. Voters should
consider the qualifications of each new candidate and the performance of in
office incumbents. For new candidates it
is not enough to parrot a vague party line without demonstrating qualifications
for and knowledge of the position each is seeking. Bad behavior while in office
should be sufficient to disqualify incumbents.
This would include being held in contempt and incarcerated for failing
to follow court directives and for other unconscionable conduct, which has
embarrassed the county.
Cooperation with the
Courts and with Audits. The Row Offices’ first priority is simply performing
statutorily mandated clerical functions by serving the Washington County Court
of Common Pleas. The second nonnegotiable function is cooperating with the
county controller in the yearly audit process.
The voters should not support any Row Office candidate who
balks at following directives from the President Judge. This conduct violates
the law. In addition, Court Administration is installing an automated case
management system designed to save time and money. Row office candidates must
pledge their support to implement this important project.
Regarding audits, the voters should reject any office seeker
who refuses to cooperate with the county audit process designed to uncover
financial discrepancies and faulty accounting procedures. Elected officials
cannot fall back on requesting state audits (which only audit the limited funds
payable to the state) to absolve them of this absolute responsibility.
Individual Issues. Voters may have individual issues to present
to the commissioner candidates. In my case, commissioner formation of an
authority to develop a performing arts center and appointment of a county
diversity commission are important. The coming months are a time for the
candidates to hear proposals from the voting public at candidate forums and
other events.
No comments:
Post a Comment