Four of Nether Providence’s seven wards will be selecting their commissioners this November (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th). We’re excited about the slate of Democrats who are running. The voters will have a chance to size up our municipal candidates on October 3rd, when the League of Women Voters will moderate a candidates’ forum.

Aside from brief opening and closing statements, the questions will come from the audience.

Where: Nether Providence Township Building, 214 Sykes Lane
When: October 3, 2007, 7:30 PM

The next in Bryan Lentz’s town hall meetings will take place close by at the Hedgerow Theater. This is your chance to hear an update on a range of issues, as well as to ask any questions you might have of your state representative.

Where: Hedgerow Theater, 146 W. Rose Valley Road [map]
When: Wednesday, September 19, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m

Residents who cannot make it to the town meeting are reminded that Lentz’s district office is located at 630 Fairview Road, Suite 104. You can call the office at (610) 544-7301.

At a press conference this week, Democratic challengers David Landau, Ann O’Keefe, and John Innelli took issue with the closed and secretive practices of the Delaware County Council.

They quantified some of the results of one-party government:

Council members have cast 2,012 votes since 2003, agreeing unanimously each time. The Democrats took such unanimity as evidence that one-party government has made impossible the kind of critical approach that will keep contracting costs and other costs low for county taxpayers.

Landau pointed out that the county budget has grown 75 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1979, when the council became all Republican. [Source]

The three Democratic candidates support a platform to increase transparency and greater responsibility in spending:

• new rules for bidding and awarding of contracts
• television broadcasts of council meetings
• advance publication of all ordinances under consideration
• more stringent ethics rules for officials