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Watch What You Read in Whispers
Posted
02-07-2001
I am often amused by the political gossip of the Tribune Review's
Whispers column and surprised that so many people actually think that the
information from Whispers is factual. One such piece of information appeared
recently that made note of me attending a reception for Republican
Commissioner Scott Conner. The person who tipped off Mr. Whispers attempts
to make a criticism of me that I'm no different than Dick Vidmer in his
relationship with Terry Marolt because I went to Conner's event.
What the informer to Whispers
fails to understand is that I wasn’t critical of the Vidmer-Marolt
relationship because it was Democrat and Republican, but because those two
guys served behind the scenes masters who simply didn't care about the
welfare of county government. If my two former colleagues were of the same
political party, I would have been equally critical. Westmoreland County has
been left with growing indebtedness, a bloated payroll, and budget deficits
in the future that are the results of a coalition that simply managed with
questionable priorities.
With the commission form of
government and a three-person board, there will most certainly be
cooperation between members of different parties. I'm willing to work with
both and/or either of my colleagues irrespective of their political
affiliation. As far as attending Scott Conner's event, I felt that since he
attended my golf outing, I would reciprocate and attend his event. Neither
of us made financial contributions to each other's campaign.
The three county
commissioners vote the same on probably 99% of the issues. That isn’t
surprising because much of what we vote on is routine business. There may be
philosophical and political differences that cause disagreements, but,
frankly, to work effectively we need to make those decisions and move on.
I'm not going to agree with Tom Ceraso or Scott Conner 100% of the time.
Tom's ties to some of the political "old guard" at times put us on opposite
sides of certain decisions. Scott doesn't have the same political ties, and
he has advocated a different set of priorities. We may differ on some
philosophical issues related to the operation of government, but there are
many ideas where we find agreement.
The old Vidmer-Marolt
arguments won't fly with Scott Conner and I. We may cooperate sometimes and
disagree other times. But unlike Vidmer and Marolt, who both essentially
served the same behind the scenes folks, we really don't have those types of
ties to anyone. That fact has been so unsettling to the political balance of
power in our county and caused folks like the ones that cry to Mr. Whispers
to try and paint me with the same brush as the old regime. But it just isn’t
going to work! |
