Last night State Representative Mary Joe Daley (D) (in the below photo, top right), State Representative Matthew Bradford (D) (in the below photo, top middle), and State Senator Vincent Hughes (D) (in the below photo, middle right), who all represent in Harrisburg at least a portion of the communities within the Colonial School District, attended last evening’s meeting of the Colonial School Board and spoke in favor of it adopting a “Responsible Contractor” policy.
Elected State Treasurer Joe Torsella (D) (in the below photo, top right) sent a letter in support that was read by Leslie Finegold, the vice-president of the school board. State Senator Daylin Leach (D) (in the below photo, middle left) attended a previous meeting to offer his support of the policy.
Also in attendance last night were Karen Bramblett (D) (in the photo just above, bottom right) and David Gannon (D) (in the photo just above, bottom left), both who voted on Monday for a “Responsible Contractor” Policy in their role on Plymouth Township’s Council.
Bramblett spoke during the school board meeting in favor of the policy. We don’t have all the details yet, but Plymouth Township was sued yesterday over its adoption of the policy. We asked Bramblett and Gannon about the lawsuit as we entered the meeting and Gannon basically told us it was no big deal (more to come on the lawsuit).
The Colonial School Board adopted the policy by a vote of 5-4. Those voting in favor were Board President Felix Raimondo (in the above photo, middle bottom), Finegold, Adam Schupack, Jennifer Dow and Euince Franklin-Becker. Those voting against were Susan Moore, Rosemary Northcutt, Mel Brodsky and Cathy Peduzzi. All nine seats on the school board are held by Democrats.
A lot happened during this meeting. It is going to take three or four articles to detail everything. But first we want to document the time when the these state level elected officials formally endorsed Jason Salus-style politics on your local school board.
Salus (D) (in the above photo, center square) as we have mentioned many times, is the elected Treasurer of Montgomery County and the area leader of the Democratic Party. As we have shown through emails provided to MoreThanTheCurve.com, through his role as area leader, he actively encouraged candidates and members of the school board to adopt a “Responsible Contractor” policy.
Salus raises a lot of money through the unions. The “Responsible Contractor” policy is considered union-friendly, due to requirements it places on contractors regarding apprentice programs and graduation rates involving those programs.
Over the next couple of weeks MoreThanTheCurve.com will examine the campaign finance forms of these elected officials and publish exactly how much union money each was standing on when speaking in favor of the policy. If you believe this is a pay-to-play situation, then this is moment, at least publicly, the elected officials mentioned became part of the problem.
One thing to point out. Salus has attended several meetings when this policy was discussed. He has never went to the podium to speak in its favor.
We wonder how Daley, Bradford, Leach, Torsella and Hughes feel about that? They put themselves out there and Salus sits in the back of the room silent. As soon as the vote was taken he left.
Makes you wonder who is in charge.
Just in: this morning Salus posted on Facebook and patted everyone involved on the head:
Photos: Each politicians Facebook page.