I'd like to call this meeting of the county council meeting to order for Wednesday, January 21st, 2026.
Can everybody please rise for the pledge of allegiance of the flag?
I
pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
We're going to start off tonight with our county council announcements.
Councilwoman Joanne Phillips.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Tonight I want to take a minute to remind residents about our Delco Alert System.
This is Delaware County's free emergency notification system that keeps our communities
informed, prepared and safe.
You may have heard that there's predicting snow for this weekend.
And systems like the Delco Alert are critical in moments like these that we might face over
the weekend, giving residents accurate real-time information that they can trust.
Delco Alert delivers essential messages straight to your phone, email, or landline, including
our Code Blue Alerts that Councilwoman Shaffer is going to address.
And also, storm, flood warnings, road closures, health advisories, and municipal service
changes.
It's one of the most effective ways for county and local officials to communicate during
emergencies and disruptions.
Participation in this program has grown steadily, and many municipalities now use the platform
to issue their own community alerts, and that number continues to rise.
The system is available to all our 49 municipalities in the county, and it's already being used
to share everything from weather warnings and vaccine events to street paving notices
and trash delays.
Signing up is quick and easy. Just visit delcopa.gov slash delco alert.
If you search that, you will find it, and it's very easy to sign up for the mode of communication that you want.
You can choose what type of alerts you'd like to get, how you'd like to receive them, text, call, or email,
and you can register multiple locations such as your home, your work, or a family member's address.
This is a powerful tool, and we encourage all the residents to take advantage of it.
So saying informed is the first step in being safe and looking forward to the weekend
It might be a great idea to sign up before Sunday. So, thank you
Thank you councilwoman Schaefer
Yes, I want to make a few comments about our code blue program at the county and the alerts there
thereby
As you are all very very well aware it is very cold this week
And I'm going to tell you a little bit about what the county is doing to ensure that our
vulnerable and unsheltered residents are receiving the care that they need.
The Delaware County Health Department issued a code blue effective through Saturday morning
as the winter weather approaches this weekend.
A code blue notification is issued for excessive cold once the temperature goes below 32
degrees.
And upon the announcement of a code blue, the cold plan goes into effect, which utilizes
our libraries as warming centers.
It opens up overflow beds in our shelters and it creates an outreach system to our at-risk
residents who are identified through COSA.
DCHD also provides free emergency mylar blankets and other public health resources
to residents through the test and go kiosks that are across the county and during a code
blue residents are advised to dress in layers, limit time outdoors, seek indoor heated spaces
and check in on your neighbors. Thank you to the health department, COSA and all of our departments
for the hard work keeping Delco residents safe during these winter months. Please visit
at delcopa.gov backslash health
or call the DCHD wellness line at 484-276-2100
for more information.
For more information about the 2026 cold plan,
you can go to delcopa.gov backslash health
backslash cold-information
or call the DCHD wellness line.
for medical emergencies always call 911 thank you thank you council woman Dr.
Taylor good evening everyone tonight I want to share how we celebrated the
legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with our fourth annual day of service on
Monday in Chester despite some unexpected winter weather we had a
great turnout at Chester City Hall and Wider University for an inspiring day
of community building. Built on the foundation of Dr. King's principles of equality, social
justice and compassion, the MLK Day of Service offered residents the opportunity to engage
in meaningful volunteer activities and community building efforts. This year's event included
a breakfast at Chester City Hall, followed by a peace march to Weidner University.
Once we arrived at Weidner, we worked on community beautification and community building
activities on campus that appeal to all ages. Finally, we wrap the day up with the first annual
Hoops for Hunger basketball game, which collected donations to benefit local food pantries.
And I want to congratulate Chester for taking home the trophy in this year's game.
These activities fostered unity, addressed social issues, and inspired us all to continue the
work of building a more inclusive and compassionate Delaware County. Coming together
for events like this shows us how we can continue to carry out Dr. King's vision of service as a tool
for change. And they remind us that his legacy remains as relevant today as it was during his
lifetime. Thank you to our partners who made this event such a success for the fourth year in a row
including Weidner University, the Philadelphia Union, the City of Chester, America 250PA Delco,
the Cultural Arts and Technology Center, or CAT Center,
making a change group, the Delaware County Heritage Commission,
and the MLK Commemorative Committee of Chester and vicinity.
And we hope to see you all at next year's event.
Thank you. Vice Chair Ruther.
Good evening.
Last Friday, America 250PA held their Delaware County kickoff event
in front of a packed crowd in this room to preview a year full of celebrations for our
nation's 250th birthday.
We were joined by members of the America 250PA leadership team, including former Pennsylvania
Governor Mark Schweiker and Executive Director of America 250PA Cassandra Coleman, as well
as officials from across the county at the state and local level to discuss Delco's
important role in our nation's history and how we're celebrating the occasion.
Friday marked the first day of the statewide organization's first two-week tour across
the Commonwealth, where we'll be celebrating the start of America's semi-quincentennial
year by stopping at courthouses and historic sites in all 67 counties.
We were honored to be one of their first stops.
As an American 250PA Delco Commissioner, I'm looking forward to the events we have in
store over the next few months.
From reenactments to book talks to a film festival, we have something for everyone to
enjoy as we celebrate America's 250th birthday.
Thank you to everyone who stepped up to help support these events.
I want to give a special shout out to our friends at Visit Delco, some of whom are
here tonight, for their continued support in promoting our county.
Stay tuned for more information about upcoming events as the year progresses.
To learn more, visit america250padelco.org.
And I know there are definitely some events that I've put on my calendar. Thanks.
Thank you.
Tonight I have a statement that I want to make. It's basically a personal statement on my behalf.
I know that in the past two weeks people had questioned as there was about my in
regards to my property taxes in IRS taxes in regards to the property taxes
yes did I get behind I did what reason did I get behind various multiple
reasons when you have two family members both fighting with cancer and other
family members that you're trying to take care of as well. Sometimes you have to make
sacrifices and I did what I thought I had to do best for my family. Not also did I help
family but I helped friends as well. There were some friends that needed a place to stay.
I gave them a place to stay without even charging them until they can get on their
feet. I will continue to support any resident and I will do anything I have to do for my
family. But one thing I did not do is run or hide from my financial responsibilities.
The county has what they call a payment plan. I utilize the payment plan and it's open
to any resident to use. I am currently up, excuse me,
I am currently up to date on my
payment plan. And my payment plan will end May of this year. I have people, after I found
out about the IRS situation, once it came to my attention, I have professionals who
is working along with the IRS to ratify the situation. Everything is not what it
always looks like and they're going to the process and we will complete the
process. If I owe something, I want to pay it. That's who I am and I will
continue to do so. My personal comment period will be coming up in this
moment. Council members speaking, please keep the decorum. Thank you.
My personal life has not affected me to do my job for this county.
I represent working class people. That's who I am. That's who voted for me. And I will continue to do that.
I will remain to be honest. I will keep my integrity and my resolve.
The next outburst, you're going to leave.
I will keep my integrity and my resolve and will continue to fight for the working families across this county.
Some people may like it and some maybe may not but if you choose not to like it
that's okay because as long as God has me in the seat I'm gonna sit here I'm not
going anywhere until God say so or my four-year term is over thank you. I'll
have a
public comment period and I will go over some of the rules around that.
Thank
next on the agenda.
We can go to the portion of public comment. We just ask you that you
come forward, state your name, and the municipality that you're from, you have a three-minute
limit. So I will turn it over to our solicitor, Ms. Aubrey. I did want to double-check and
see if we had junior council comments. Okay, no junior council comments. And I thank
Thank you all for being here though it's always a joy having you here.
Good evening.
So, public comment is an opportunity for those who reside in Delaware County to comment
on matters on which council may act.
It's not a form for personal attacks or question and answer session but the public can ask
questions during the common period but council members are not required to answer and often
they do not.
From time to time after a speaker has concluded, officials may use clarifying statements
that's not an invitation for back and forth though.
Each speaker will have three minutes.
People wishing to speak on appending resolution
or ordinance will be given the opportunity
to do so for those specific items
when those specific items are discussed.
Speakers when they come up to the podium should start
by stating their name and location of residence
within Delaware County.
I highly value our ability
to hold disputed discourse in this public forum.
in moderating the rules I expect to myself that I treat the audience and each
speaker with respect, dignity and fairness. I'm not perfect and I'm not
perfect and sometimes I miss something so if I demonstrate inconsistency please
know it's not intentional. Those in the audience are expected to conduct
themselves with decorum and civility. Speakers should refrain from abusive
and slanderous attack and loud disruptive behaviors or other actions that interfere with the orderly
conduct of the meeting may result in a temporary pause in the meeting or other actions until
we can bring back a respectful atmosphere so that we can move forward with the business of
government and so that we can actually hear what you all have to say. With that said,
I look forward to listening to you and ask that you give everyone in the room the same
common courtesy. Thanks.
Our first two speakers Charles Alexander and State
Representative Regina Young.
Charlie Alexander from the Mean Streets of
Brumall. What's up Delaware County and what's up Commie Tyrants. Richard it's
funny you said last time you usually don't address ignorance but every single
time I've been up here that's what I've addressed. Five ignorant people that
don't know.
I know how to run a county and have frankly cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions.
Should we tell everyone about the Don Gwinella lawsuit I heard you lost recently to the developer?
Or should we address the taxes again, Richard? How about both you ignorant commie tyrant?
Richard, your own record here first saying you paid off your taxes, which was a lie.
But then with your prepared speech and public relations spin, you claim to be just like
all the other struggling families with overdue taxes in Delaware County. First lie, yours
grew over 30 grand and 60 grand. That took years. They didn't even allow a little lady to get past
3500 and BAM they seized her home. Second lie, you claim to have reached out to Gloria's family.
BAM another lie. They're my dear friends now and Gloria had to spend the twilight of her life
being under this stress. May God hold her close to his heart. Third lie, let's read this straight
from the county website, Richard. Payment plans may be an option for owner-occupied
properties at the discretion of the Tax Claim Bureau. You don't live in either of those
properties, resign you ignorant lying commie tyrant. Shame! Shame! Shame!
A weeks ago you
gave me that weird face and you stuck your tongue out at me and here you are caught
in your web of lies, Richard. You're caught that's right there in black and white
on your own. And you don't belong on that council. If you had any decency, you'd resign
now. It's shameful how you people are. Speaking of shameful, Elaine, I've reported to the Small
Business Administration, how can you go from not paying yourself in 2019 to making over
100K each year in 2020 and 2021 being paid by PPP loans? Do you know how many deserving
businesses were turned down, but you got paid. Resign. Shame. Shame. Shame. By the way, I don't know how true it is, but I'm here and you lost the court case for the Don Juanela property, Delco Woods, to the tune of 40 million, because you clowns tried to use the Trojan horse of a mental health institution, which the judge found violated your eminent domain claim.
You're all incompetent. You're all ignorant. Two of you should resign immediately in shame and to the other three
I haven't exposed for something shameful yet, but to quote the wicked witch of the West
I'll get you my ignorant commie tyrants and your little dog, too
Shame shame shame and Richard one last thing. I hear nepotism works with you both in derby township and here with the county
You get your daughter jobs. That's nepotism, buddy. That's friggin corruption, too. Thank you, mr.
State representative Regina Young.
Before the next speaker begins,
I really don't like interrupting or stopping anyone,
regardless of how I feel the speech,
and I can see that there are motions on all sides of the room.
Sometimes people can really trigger our emotional responses,
but our goal here tonight is to hear everyone speak.
Everyone gets three minutes,
so I appreciate everyone's patience from time to time
in order to avoid interrupting I may just give a signal right to ask people to
bring it back down because I really don't want to have to stop things to
bring it back so thank you all and with that said our next speaker if I may I
don't want to make our state representative a wait but I would
like to respond to that very bizarre and crazy accusation that that show
just entailed against me as many of you know I am the executive director of
the Skookle River Greenways National Heritage Area.
The Skookle River Greenways Heritage Area is a 501C3.
It's been around for 50 years.
It is an organization that connects people
and communities to the river, to the Skookle River Trail,
which our organization builds, maintains, and promotes.
I was hired as the executive director
of that organization in 2017.
This is a paid position.
It was a paid position then.
It is a paid position now.
In 2019, I was very honored to be elected to this board.
And because I was elected to do public service,
I reduced my salary by 20% to lessen up my schedule
to allow me to do this job.
In 2020, the pandemic hit
And, like many small businesses and organizations, our revenues were challenged.
Like many non-profits, we raised a lot of our revenue from events, and there were no events
during the pandemic.
Fortunately, the federal government, at that point, signed into law under President Trump
the Paycheck Protection Program, and businesses from all over the state and the country
could apply to get payroll help for two and a half months.
My organization applied and we received that aid.
And because of that, I was able to keep nine people employed throughout the entire pandemic,
which was the point of that program.
Now, I want to note that while most organizations during the pandemic were
all of their people were working from home,
production was slowed down, scheduling was slowed down.
For my organization, my staff had to double down
and go into overdrive because what we produce,
trails, open space, outdoor recreation was in high demand.
The entire world during the pandemic
wanted to go out on a trail and enjoy the river.
So thanks to the Paytech Protection Program,
I was able to keep a full staff
And we were able to give the public what they wanted at that point, and that was to be outside.
So I'm very grateful to that program.
I'm very proud that we were able to stay fully employed through the whole thing.
And to the comments of Mr. Alexander, I have to say, you know, if you don't know the facts
and you don't understand how things work, sometimes things can feel like a conspiracy.
But all you need to do is ask and do a little research.
thank you thank you this is a warning okay I made clear what the rules are
there's time for public speaking we cannot have kids calling out in the
middle of the council members do not have a three-minute limit the public does
thank you with that our next speaker unless there's further comment sure
thank you so much I would say this is my first time at please state your name
Where are you?
State Representative Regina Younger represents Philadelphia and Delaware colonies, that is
Tinnacum and Corwin specifically.
So what I will say is welcome to the colony board because government is difficult, it's
complicated, and someone who is at the state where it's bipartisan voices, we have to
deal with everybody.
We are people serving people, I like to say, and one of the things is you follow
anything around government and it sounds as passionately as some of you are in this room.
My hope is that you're following the movement of government and not necessarily just the
personal lives of people.
In the capacity of governing, your concern really should be how I can help my county.
We all have division.
We all have things we're not going to agree upon because we have dividing political
political parties. There's going to be times our approach is going to differ. However, the
goal is to make Delaware County a better place. And so what I will add is that I had asked
Sharon, the county clerk, is there opportunity for people to make appointments with their
county council members so they can either help the administration? Because here's
what I will tell you what I share with when I talk to schools and whether it's
elementary school, public, the high school or middle school. Either you're a part of the
solution or you're part of the problem. So we all have to decide in this moment as adults
because my understanding since junior council didn't present, there are no children here.
We are all adults. We need to govern ourselves accordingly. Now, that does not necessarily
mean you don't have voices and concerns that you want to share. What I will encourage
everybody there in this room is that understand if you're not, if you're critical of an administration
or a particular person, first identify if you add it to the solution or if you're part of
the problem. And if you're part of the problem with government officials, understand you're
hurting your own county because a county divided cannot lead. A government divided
cannot lead. So I will just really encourage everybody here to make sure you're reaching
out to the people to ensure that you're an added necessary voice because if the goal is
to make sure Delaware County is in this optimum space, you are a deciding factor in that.
It doesn't matter what your political lines are, it doesn't matter what your gender are,
it doesn't even matter what your personal lives are because we all have a story to
tell.
My grandmother said, you live long enough, you're going to have a story.
So I'm just going to encourage us all, I'm not going to use the word to quorum
what I will say is, understand, ask yourself, it's a character thing. It has very little
to do with titles. It has everything to do with character. So check yourself.
And if you're with people, then. If you're with people, then I'm not picking up. Bye.
Kathy from Haverford and Gary Ryder.
Kathy from Haverford. Well, well, well. Listen
up tax payers at Delaware County. Your taxes have gone up over the past three years.
The one major reason is Ballard Spar has collected $1.4 million on frivolous lawsuits.
Dwayne Morris has collected $1.1 million from our county taxes.
That is your money spent not on services, not on improvements, but on legal fights that never should have never happened.
Members of county council and elected officials of this commonwealth, the declaration of independence
begins with a principle that still governs every level of public office.
Government exists to secure the rights of the people.
It affirms that every person is endowed with certain unalienable rights, including
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The founders also set a standard for public officials.
They wrote that when government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people
to alter or to abolish it.
This is not a threat.
It is a reminder that all authority comes from the consented of the governed.
They warn that people often suffer while evils are sufferable.
But when abuse has become a pattern, a long train of abuses and unsurpatience, the
The people not only have the right, but it is their duty to throw off such government.
That duty begins with diligence.
It begins with citizens who pay attention, who ask questions, and who insist that their
officials follow the law, honor their oaths, and respect the limits placed on government
by the Constitution.
Every elected official swears an oath to upheld the Constitution.
The oath is binding.
It requires transparency, accountability, and fidelity to the rule of law,
not selective compliance, not convenience, and not personal discretion.
Legitimacy is earned through service, not assumed through position.
When government honors its obligations, trust grows.
When it disregards them, the foundation weakens, and the people have every right to demand better.
Today, we stand in the same tradition as our founding fathers, not seeking conflict but
insisting on constitutional governance and lawful, responsible leadership.
This is not radical, this is American.
Can I just make a quick comment?
I couldn't agree more with Ms. Geiger,
especially today as I read the newspapers
and saw what was going on in Minnesota
with people who purport to be federal law enforcement officers
conducting warrantless door knockdowns,
dragging American citizens out into the night.
We've had a situation here in Delaware County
where a man with known mental health issues
and drug issues was allowed to die.
An Upper Derby resident was allowed to die
in the custody of ICE.
We've had reports of these same
federal law enforcement officers
pulling a parent from a home and leaving an unattended three-year-old bare
alone so they could deport that individual. Fortunately the neighbors
looked out for their neighbor and their neighbor's child and managed to take
care of that kid and find another home, another family member, but
you know something those federal officers okay that's it I'm sorry all we are
going to have to pause council member Ruther is speaking if you wish to stay
in this room and have your opportunity to talk and listen to those who agree or
disagree with you please rain it in thank you just gonna say that that those
federal officers if they're law enforcement they're mandatory reporters
right? They're the ones who are supposed to be at least calling the local police or CYS
to come look after that kid. And they didn't.
So let's all hope that when it comes to following the laws, that all parts of government do that
and do not violate it. And by the way, filing a payment plan is not violating the law. Engaging
in an IRS, discussions with the IRS following a matching program are not violating the law.
That's why you have the legal right to contest an audit.
I did this for 37 years while I practiced law, and you have the legal right to do that.
So I agree with Ms. Geiger, Kathy from Havertown, that people should follow the law.
But it's everywhere, and I just love how people stand up here and cherry pick things
that aren't violations of the law.
They're utilizing the regulations that are made available.
Gary Ryder and Salvatore Giovi.
Gary Ryder, Marple Township.
See a lot of faces here, new faces here.
It's good.
I agree with the state representative
that you've got to be part of the solution, not the problem.
Every time I come up here, I come here
speaking about Delco Woods mostly.
That's why I started coming.
It's a park.
Park, the largest park in Delaware County. They've done nothing with it. There's dilapidated
buildings, there's been homeless people in there, they've been, there's been rumors
that illegal immigrants have been staying in there, maybe being housed in there. A lot
of stuff going around. I don't know, but it's in the town I live in and it's very
close to my house. So with that, many a times I gave ideas of what they could
do have camping there. It's a large wooded area, 220 acres. There's car shows we
could have in the parking lots. You could have food festivals. You could have
swap meets. You could lots of things. I'd love to see it done at that park.
Absolutely nothing being done. They put up walking paths. Walking paths are
great. Found out here they're getting these grants. They say there's no
money for Don Juanela. They're getting grants, building all these walking
parks all over, but they do nothing with this 220 acres of land. They were trying to put
a mental institution there. They tried doing that right across from my house. You know,
that would ruin our, you know, our house, the cost of our housing would go way down.
You know, I understand there's, you know, a problem with mental illness, but it's
in a residential neighborhood, you know, and they have a walking park with women and
children walking there and they're going to put a mental institution. It's not,
not the place for it in my opinion. I have given them my name and phone number
and emails never got a call from them so I know them woods I've been going in
there more than anyone I know them better than anyone in this county no
doubt no doubt in my mind nothing nothing so since coming to the meetings I
got into I'm not in the politics at all I came for the park well the health
Department, from coming to these meetings, they've rent these kiosks for $165,000 a year
a piece. We have seven of them. Then they have to be supplied. Now, it's millions of
dollars being wasted. They could just rent a storefront for, say, $2,000 a month, right?
It would bring economy to the owner of the buildings, pick up people off Snap, handing
out the products that are in the things and it would help everything it would help the economy do
they do it absolutely not waste of money the dollar the health department in my opinion from what I've
seen and I'm not in the politics it's just wasting our tax money I mean imagine 165 thousand
$1,000 a year for one of these machines.
Great. Thank you.
Salvatore Giovi and Casey Drayton.
Just because we have new people in the audience and I know Mr. Ryder likes to say the same things at every single meeting,
I would like to address the health department issue.
Just to be clear, we do get an additional $8 million that are coming into the county that was not coming into the county
prior to having a health department because we have a health department.
And as for the kiosks, as I've explained several times before, those are paid with a federal
grant and that federal grant is specific on what it's supposed to do and it's supposed
to provide access to multiple locations for supplies for residents.
And that is exactly what we're doing with that grant.
We can't actually spend that grant on other things.
So I just want to make sure everybody in the room is clear on what the facts are.
Thank you.
Delfintour Jovey, Clifton Heights, 40 year Delco resident, I'm going to be like
my man back there.
come here once a month saying the same thing, I would like to formally bring it to your
guys' attention that my five-year-old biracial fraternal twins were kidnapped four years
ago, taken 100 miles away with nobody's permission, by their mother, a mother can absolutely
kidnap her own children, all right?
Delaware County Domestic Relations, every single public servant that's on the paperwork
dealing with this issue are co-conspirators to kidnapping and extortion, all right?
They've currently got me off of social media for the last year and a half.
This disorderly conduct charge, they opted to two felonies because I refused to take the deal.
And then my attorney told me we're not allowed to make the jury aware of that fact,
that it was a disorderly conduct for a year and a half, and then all of a sudden,
now it's two felonies.
title for a day, our domestic relations policy. I call it the policy atom bomb that was dropped
on our country 40 years ago, 40 years ago. I haven't found one person that agrees with
how we're doing it, the child support weapon. My baby moms are victims whose irrationality
is being taken advantage of. My mother, when they made me a child porn 30 years ago,
All right, why did my money? Why did my dad's money have to go through anybody to get to me?
Am I done?
Holy shit, what he put together for me and my kids as judge love
They're trying to take a hundred and ten thousand dollars of 15 years future child support payments
My dad's got trust my kids are gonna get when they're 18 even if they take it all I still walk
67,000 up
All right, so my dad sent me up
Who set my dad up?
who set my dad up to put all these nasty, dark, villainous people into this really bright corner.
He got a principal and charged 1,000 students.
They put him on every other weekend time with his kid.
I believe Ohio, I believe that Delco's upper echelon of criminal, they got RICO charges coming.
I call them breadcrumb criminals, way to leave the crumbs and crumbs and crumbs and crumbs.
and 1,000 humans wouldn't be able to connect the dots for 1,000 years.
AI's coming in and doing it, bam.
And in a report to five amazing Americans, that's going to come in and charge these people.
All those I'm being told, my orders are to come up here and make y'all publicly aware.
And then, per my state prison training, all you guys are supposed to say is,
thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will be more aware.
I can't grind you up. I just formally made you publicly aware. I'm running for governor
in the mid 30s to late 30s. All right, I've been sober for eight years on the street when
I was 90 days in. It's coming. Thank you, sir. Casey Drayton and Karris Coker.
Good evening.
Honorable council members. Happy New Year. My name is Mr. Casey Drayton. I'm relatively
a new resident of Delco. I'm also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a grandfather of
eight. Recently I hit the senior mark of 65 and I'm here tonight to ask, plead, and
beg, going forward that my Delco council does not, does something about the
municipality real estate tax law of 1920. I'm sure you are all aware of the
situation with Miss Gaynor, Gloria Gaynor of Upper Darby Township, the 91 year old woman
with dementia, Miss Gaynor who lost her home in 25 years to a real estate tax sale here
in Delco. And after making an attempt and able to pay her property taxes, you heard from
a few people, a couple of people already about that situation. This situation is
very unfortunate, uncomfortable and has set heavy on my heart. And I felt compelled
to do what I can to help. As a veteran and current public employee with the federal government,
I believe in service. My father served before me, my son served after me, and my grandson
is also currently serving in the U.S. Navy. We love this country. We know it's not
perfect. And we know this is just unacceptable to think that we have to pay
the bills of the back on the off the backs of our seniors or any residents
in Delaware County. So again, thinking of the words that I heard from John F.
Kennedy many years ago. That's not what your country can do for you. I'm
asking what can you do for your country? I'm asking all you all of you to
So please do what you can to stop the madness that our seniors are experiencing.
Any residents who loses their legacy for a $3,500 bill.
From losing a home after 25 years of paying her taxes, model citizen, this is truly unnecessary.
And I do have one more request to ask.
As the state rep said, is there anything I can do going forward?
To stop this from occurring again and again, please do not hesitate to let me know.
I thank you and good evening.
Harris-Coker and Rodney Hill.
Harris-Coker Concertownship.
Numerous times on the agenda that you have at the, it says, subject to solicitors approval.
I am still very concerned about the lack of the oath of office by our county solicitor.
I realize that she's taken an oath at the bar, and she may have taken an oath of allegiance
in other circumstances, but the state law stipulates that all county officers
shall voluntary execute an oath or affirmation and then with regards to
other unelected persons in county government. Section 403 of chapter 4
article 4 says oath of office in addition to any oath or affirmation
required by any other act of the assembly, all county officers, their deputies, their
assistants, and their clerks before entering on the duties of their respective offices or
employment shall take and subscribe the oath of office or the oath of allegiance.
Then it was said, well, the home rule charter is a little different.
Well, I did some research this week, and the Homeroom Charter counties still fall under
the second class county requirements, and true Delaware County's administrative code
has been changed to read that, you see, the Delaware County code only says all county
officers shall voluntarily execute an oath or affirmation as prescribed by county ordinance
or commonwealth laws. However, that does not exempt the county from the obligation that
the state has within its laws, which are that all county officers, their deputies, appointees,
clerks, and so forth, are to take this. I find it highly unusual and concerning.
And we're talking about law. So I'm asking you to have a look at the matters that I
just gave you. You are the advisor to the county council on legal matters.
And would you read the plain language of that law and see what your conclusions are?
And I do hope that there will be a public swearing in of Mrs. Aubrey and some
soon time some time very soon. Thank you very much. Rodney Hill and Cynthia Sabatini.
Hello everybody how y'all doing? Respect is everything. And if you don't
stand by that. Stand by nothing. So I'm going to ask you to start with your name. But I
wanted to start with that. Thank you. My name is Rodney Hill. I'm vice president of a council
in Sharon Hill borough. I'm here in support of Richard Walmack. I've known him for a
a very long time him and his family and he has he.
It has helped me in ways that for someone that's not blood-related, you know, you'd be surprised.
So I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for all the advice that you've given me
and others. I also would like to thank Monica Teller and Richard Wormack for always being
supported of all our events that we do and always coming out in support of sharing her
So I'd like to thank y'all for that.
So my main thing is this is my first time here, right?
And the one thing that I see, I see some folks come up here
and they talk without any resolutions at all.
Like you come up here and you read your laws
and you do your research, but you do not
have a resolution of how to push things forward.
If you keep talking about things and not having a resolution, it stays stagnant.
The goal in government and anything in life is to move forward.
And you have, and that's it, I mean, you come up here, so it just looks like you're just
complaining, you know, like this lady over here, right?
You know, she's just talk, talk, talk, talk, you know what I mean, that's it, you know.
So, and I'm just saying, ma'am, I like to keep it real.
I'm beyond with you.
Like, you get these type of people that come,
no resolution, they don't want to just disrupt.
And I want to say, for county council,
if y'all need me for anything, you know,
and I'm gonna be emailing y'all, I'm here.
I'm here and the citizens of Sharon Hillboro
because y'all have helped us out a lot.
And I'd like to thank all of y'all for what y'all do.
Thank you so much.
Cynthia Sabatini and Michael Straw.
Cynthia
Sabatini, Upper Providence Township.
2026 is becoming the winner of discontent for Delco residents with frigid temperatures,
extremely high heating bills, and a county tax bill soon to be delivered that's 19% higher
than 2025, and a compounded 50% higher than the tax bill in 2023.
And now council will be delivering the summer of discontent and disenfranchisement with
council meetings only being held at 1pm.
On several occasions this council noted that they were the ones who instituted the 6pm
meetings.
meetings. I believe that the new schedule reinforces the saying, one hand giveth and
one taketh away. It's most interesting that this disenfranchisement is occurring during
the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Mr. Womack, you noted that you want to see a zero or
minimal tax increase for 2027. You noted that not holding evening meetings will save
the county 40,000 annually since police over time won't have to be paid. Even though your
interest in cost savings is commendable, I'm dubious that saving money is your true reason.
Considering during the December 2025 council meeting, you and Ms. Ruther were overheard
not being in favor of a second round of public comment, even though Solicitor Aubrey and
council person Schaefer endorsed the idea. I think council persons who voted to
eliminate the evening meeting should take the advice of a former Democratic
president, Harry Truman, if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen. I'd
like to make a suggestion. You appear poised to increase the hotel tax. Why
don't you take some of the revenues generated from this tax to reinstate
the evening council meeting. Council says it's for transparency, now prove it. Thank you.
Michael Straw and Kim Brown.
Michael Straw, media borough, to piggyback off of what Cynthia
Sabatini stated, this council ran on increasing and improving transparency in the county government.
From what I've seen, you've taken a giant step back. Why do I say this? First, you stop
Delaware County Council's Facebook page from accepting any public comment. Second,
you ended the second public comment period in meetings and now the majority
of this council voted to move these meetings to 1 p.m. during the day. So
just to be clear, everyone here applauding or speaking tonight in a
few months, can you honestly say you'd be able to attend these meetings
during the day on a Wednesday at 1 p.m.? No! You wouldn't be able to
to. That's not transparent at all. The reason the council wants to move these meetings, all
to save $40,000. It's funny. We see these vigorous cost-saving measures now and not before
the 23.8% tax increase, the 19% tax increase, and the 5% tax increase the previous year.
I can test this was done because you've heard enough from residents who are critical
of you and don't want to hear it.
Over the past two years, I pointed to several other cost-saving measures that this council
could have implemented to stop these large tax increases.
Representative Regina Young is correct.
A county divided cannot lead.
I also believe that a government that runs from its constituents can't lead either.
If you want us to participate and make sure that the vast majority of working people
can attend these meetings, then make sure they're at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. Previously,
this council has noted on many occasions that they took issue with previous Republican-led
councils having their meetings during the working hours of the majority of residents. So stick
to your original agreement and keep them at 6 p.m. Thank you.
Kim Brown and Michelle Scofield.
Kimberly Brown, Ka-Win. Here I am to present my notorious
report on the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. It's quite interesting how you
deemed it necessary to reconstruct the security checkpoint repair garage roof instead of addressing
the condemned training building where employees have been conducting training for the past
year and a half. The building has a significant hole in the roof and a gap in
the ceiling which means when it rains or snows the water into the training room
where employees are engaged.
I am here to take a stand tonight to serve the
county of Delaware a civil complaint due to county Delaware County gel
oversight board that is in violation of the Sunshine Act for a very long time.
enough is enough. November Jail oversight board meaning there was no quorum. There
was a request to spend inmate welfare funds. Four thousand dollars was spent
out of the inmate welfare funds to enhance turkey portions. The state is
supposed to provide the prison, the county's supposed to provide the prison
inmates with foods. It should not be taken out of MA welfare account. 20,000 for
holiday bags. Does everyone in the jail celebrate holidays? But 20,000 in
holiday bags. There is about a thousand inmates in the jail. So we're spending
about $15 per bags and we have $1,000, it doesn't add up to $20,000.
Where's the rest of the Christmas bags?
I presented you a list of violations that then happened on the Gel Oversight Board.
I objected last week, Ruth or you wanted Joanne Phillips to run for council.
you know the Sunshine Act. I know for sure you do. I suggest you to sit with Ms. Joanne
Phillips to go over the Sunshine Act and to run the board.
Richard Womack, I knew you for a long time. You stood by me. Ms. Taylor stood by me for
the last two years fighting about this jail. I've been investigated. I've been harassed
at the jail, but you still by me.
Just hanging there.
Do not let the wolves talk, staying strong,
because Michael will need you at the end of the day.
Thank you.
Michelle Scofield and Theo Gifford.
Members of council, thank you for the opportunity to speak.
My name is Michelle Scofield, and I live in Upper Darby
Township here in Delaware County.
I stand before you as a resident,
a constituent, and a direct taxpayer of Delaware County.
I am also a woman of the sandwich generation.
Seven years ago, I stepped away from my career and placed my professional goals on hold to
care for my mother.
To provide a home where she can wake without the fear where her health, nutrition, dignity,
and to provide a home where her health, nutrition, dignity are protected and where
compassion is not optional.
Caregiving teaches you something very important, life changes every day.
Even for responsible people, hard seasons do not erase character.
They reveal them.
I want to speak to the tone that we're hearing tonight and gently remind us of the values
that hold a community together.
From what we have been, what has been shared publicly, Councilman, Councilmember Richard
Womack is on a current and approved payment plan.
That is compliance.
That is responsibility.
Many residents in this county rely on a payment plan at different moments of their life.
We do not strip them of dignity or worth for doing so.
Finances are personal.
I repeat.
finances are personal.
They're not up for public spectacle or punishment when
obligations are being met and no public funds are involved. I'm going to repeat
that again. Finances are personal matters. They're not up for public
spectacle or punishment when obligations are being met and no public funds
are involved. Accountability matters, transparency matters, but so does
respect, fairness, restraint, empathy, and compassion, not just in this chamber but in
how we live our daily lives with one another. If we choose judgment over understanding or
punishment over appropriation, we risk creating a culture where no one feels safe acknowledging
hardship. And that serves no one.
As a resident, we all benefit from modeling the kind
of community. We want our children, our elders and our neighbors to live in. One that allows
people to confront difficulty honestly and move forward responsibly. I am proud to live
in Delaware County and I believe that we are strongest when we hold people accountable
without losing humanity. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
Thank you.
B.O.
Gifford.
And Al Johnson.
Good
evening everyone.
I'm B.O.
Gifford.
This is actually my first time here.
But to be transparent, I spoke with Wal-Mack quite some times about the tax raises.
And my main concern, what my main concern is what are we going to do with the tax
increase?
these taxes are going to be put to use for all communities. And I stand by what Richard
Walmets decision. I also stand by Richard transparency and speaking on his personal life, even though
that is exactly what it is, his personal life. I don't believe that anyone's financial
personal finances should be public. However, this may be a smear campaign or just to tarnish
the good name of Richard Walmart. One thing I can ask is that all of City Council, all
of County Council can be transparent on what are we going to do now that the taxes is
raised. People are being put out their homes because of taxes. Is there any type of resolution
to keep these people in their homes because of financial hardships, and I feel as though
that would be something that we should all look into, not just the payment plan because
sometimes people can't make those payment plans, especially elder people on fixed income.
So those are things that, you know, instead of complaining, let's find solutions and
keeping people
I would
like to note that the county has instituted a program. It began last year where residents who are home owners can defer the increase in their taxes. So they would pay the same amount of taxes that they paid the prior year.
So the increase that is increased this year, that difference, they would not have to pay.
They have to sign up for the program.
There is a lien put on your home which does not impact you until and unless your house is sold.
But that is a way to defer your taxes and not to be able to manage the increase.
I recommend that people do look into that program.
It is on our Treasurer's Office website.
We had over a dozen people take advantage of that program last year
and is an opportunity for people who cannot manage the difference remain in
their homes. Thank you. Next speaker, Al Johnson, followed by Felicia Coffey.
Good
evening. My name is Al Johnson from Morton, Pennsylvania. I represent the
Dillard County Employees Independent Union at the facility at Georgia W. Hill.
I made a promise to myself in the past that I've come up here and I've
discussed some of the issues and discrepancies that we had at the
facility when it was bad. But I promised myself when it was good that I would do the same thing
and keep that word. I think that's only fair.
Intorm Warden, Deputy Warden of Massalina has been doing a fantastic job. He has really
been in the trenches with these officers and boosted morale. And one of the best things
he could have done was bring those splits back. The morale has gone up 1,000 percent
because of that. We have some people that are against it and that will try to make it
look bad, but splits are not the problem. The problem is understaffing and the facility
has been aggressive with doing that and we do appreciate that. We do appreciate the construction
that we see going on with the new locks, with the new doors. We see it coming together
slowly but surely and we're grateful for that. The officers do appreciate that.
One thing I do want to say, I watched the last council meeting and had some other things
I wanted to say about the facility, but I do want to say this about Mr. Womack.
I have called this man personally, so at the facility, you don't understand, we were
under a warden that was basically treating us like we were on a plantation field.
you. This man stood behind us the entire time. And he was the only one that really put his
neck out there for us, the officers. And we're forever grateful for that. I'll never forget
that. My perception of a person is your engagement with me, not with somebody said, not with
with somebody's opinion is, it is my personal engagement with you. And you have really
put your neck out there on the line for the officers, and we truly, truly appreciate that.
Just want you to know that. Thank you very much.
Felicia Coffee and Teresa Harris Johnson.
Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Council.
I'm here in support of Mr. Richard Womack about his personal tab six.
Actually, my comment mimics our state rep and our wonderful woman that came up and spoke,
came up and spoke from Upper Darby and ma
'am you lost a few seconds with that
disruption so I'm just gonna ask that when it hits zero you'll get a couple of
seconds to finish up if you need it okay okay no problem thank you and I just
wanted to say for Richard I know where you are because when I ran in 2019
everyone did that to me about my taxes about my personal things but they
and come back and say when everything is done and over with, they don't tell you the good
part at the end, because all my taxes was completely paid off in the balance of zero.
So they don't tell you when you're doing good.
They always want to hoist it up when you're doing, and their eyes bad, but everyone owes
a bill, everyone, and not to minimize the bill of whatever it is, but it's a bill.
And I am here to support you, and I'm glad to see that your colleagues also support
you because that is just as important.
If they can see one unified front to come together, that would be amazing.
And I appreciate all of you guys up there for all of the work that you do for all of
us in Delaware County.
And Councilman said, you can't be a part of a problem, be a part of a solution, or
if that was, so I want to be a part of any solution that I can put forth any effort
to help you guys.
What can we do in Collingdale to help you because we are all for you.
And I want to say you guys have a wonderful rest of your evening.
Teresa Harris Johnson and Dawn Ellis.
Good evening everyone. My name is Teresa
Harris Johnson from Darby Township. I have known Richard Womack for over 30
years. During that time he has been transparent in everything that he's done.
I have been with him when he has people have come up to him and talk to
them about their personal concerns or problem be it with their property or
financially or their children or whatever it is and he would always take
down the information was always willing to help them reach out to him couple of
times a few times I've even asked him Richard did you get back to that
person yes I did it the problem was solved he's also been a caregiver for
his mother and his father I know that personally I've been there when he's
been destroyed and upset because of his parents problems I've been out
I've worked with him.
And anytime a person is concerned about their parents,
that doesn't mean that he is not concerned
about his responsibilities as a man.
Richard has been a man in everything that he's done.
I respect him.
His transparency is unquestionable.
And those people who did leave the room, unfortunately,
and were not able to hear this,
But sometimes, instead of you being so outspoken in the audience, why don't you first find
out the facts yourself?
Then you can judge somebody on what has been done.
His taxes has nothing to do with him sitting in that seat tonight.
None whatsoever.
When he was in Darby Township, he was there.
and he worked hard and he worked with the community first, the Democratic Party and everything else.
This man has gone over and above board and has deserved this seat before he was even voted into it four years ago.
And for now because of his unfortunate financial difficulties, we, not we,
some people are going to stand here at this podium and they're going to judge him. Who are they?
Everybody in here has some time or another been in debt.
If you have a charge card, you're in debt, and you better pay that charge card or they're
going to come after you.
I support this man in everything that he's done, and that anyone in here can say that
he hasn't.
Now, when he applies for this position, is it written anywhere in your bylaw as
a constitution that you had to be up on all of your financial difficulties? No. So if that's
not there, so then why are we even having this? Why? That's his personal problem, has nothing
to do with none of us. Thank you.
Dawn Ellis. And if anyone else would like to speak, please approach the podium.
Dawn
Ellis.
Hi, I'm Dawn Ellis from the Great Neighborhood of Darby Township.
This is my first meeting. Not too pleased, not too impressed, but I came here just to say and be transparent.
I have big bills. I owe money. I owe taxes. I work two full-time jobs and run a non-profit business.
The IRS loves me too, but whose business is that?
But I'm standing here today because I run a non-profit business or a business that is
not for profit.
I just want the world to know that if you Google my name, you may see that I owe taxes
too.
So I just want to say it wasn't anybody's business, not personal, to pull information
on someone's finances.
But if we go and do it, do it.
You know what I mean?
There are so many applications out here.
If I had the peanut gallery's name, I'd pull their information right now because I am that
good.
So with all that to say, it ain't none of my business.
Now my daughter told me not to come here and say not a word because I talked too much.
But I just, the experience from tonight, the one thing I learned is you could be
loud, but what you say and ain't strong. But I'm going to stand up here and say that
I'm loud and strong and transparent too. And Richard, don't you get up out there and see.
Next speaker please.
Hi, Laura Lewis, Radner Township. I'm here
as always to talk about election machines. Recent vulnerabilities in election voting
systems like those from Dominion and ESNS have sparked renewed scrutiny, especially
with foreign ties and remote access risks.
Two Supreme Court rulings now allow reopening cases
dismissed for lack of standing,
potentially impacting dozens in Pennsylvania.
In Bosby, Illinois, State Board of Elections,
the Supreme Court decided on January 14th, 2026,
in a seven to two ruling,
the court that federal candidates
have Article III standing to challenge state election laws
which in this case relates to mail-in ballots received after election day
alleging voting dilution. This reverses lower courts and could lead to more
pre-election challenges to meet machine related rules. The case of Watson v.
Republican National Committee questions of federal statutes preempt state laws
allowing ballots cast by election day but received later. It directly ties to
vulnerabilities and extended counting periods where machines could be manipulated remotely.
These rulings address lack of standing dismissals and open the door for approximately 18 to
20 cases from 2020 in Pennsylvania, mostly on mail-in ballots and machine counts that
were dismissed on standing that can be reopened under Bost or Watson.
In Delaware County specifically, at least two to three cases could potentially be revived
by granting candidates standing to challenge election rules affecting vote counting.
These specifically involve issues like observer access during ballot processing and canvassing,
ballot curing procedures or related challenges to how defective or provisional ballots
are handled.
And most importantly, broader claims tied to voting machine use, including allegations of vulnerability, improper certification, or interference risks.
As the observed number of mail-in ballots tabulated at the wharf in both the 2024 and 2025 elections continue to contradict the county's posted machine totals.
It's time to return to election day hand counting of election ballots. Thank you very much
Next speaker, please
Good
afternoon everyone. Good afternoon counsel
Tevin next to have a town
So county council you always talk about transparency, and I just say you cannot be transparent when you disable the comments on
Facebook you cannot be transparent when you constantly lie
Light of us blisters when Charlie Xander shows proof of corruption in this county
You cannot show transparency when you constantly increase our taxes.
You cannot be transparent when you want to change the time of these county councilmen
without telling why and I asked a question and unfortunately no one could give me an answer.
But mostly there are solutions that we can find a way to stop the tax increase.
Another solution is to listen to Leah Hoops and Gregory Stenton who found proof of election fraud in this county.
And one more thing, Ruther Ice is a federal law enforcement agency, whether you like it
or not, and they're doing their job to arrest the most hardened criminals in this country.
So you can please stop the gaslighting.
Thank you, everyone.
Next speaker, please.
Hello.
My name is Lori Mizzolo.
I live in Edgmont.
I want to just point out the state rep.
So much of what she said hit me at least.
I agree with what she said.
She also mentioned, you know, reach out, possibly talk to the council about how you can help.
Well, that's not something you feel encouraged to do with a group of people that there's
a great crowd here tonight.
It was actually the biggest I've seen yet and you
You are changing your meetings to one o'clock, which probably means that at most maybe 20% of the people can show up.
Again, I said last week, please consider that change. You're not being fair to the community.
And my second thing, and I feel, I grew up in Derby.
I was one of five kids with a single mother who, when I was 14,
our house was put up for a sharp sale and nobody gave a shit where we went.
Mr. Womack, I don't give a damn about your finances. I really don't.
What I care about is you're a part of a group and all of you,
and you put yourself in public eye, you also open up yourself to the public
knowing your private information. The truth, you're there and people can find stuff out.
What I care about is you all are basically in control of our money.
And what it looks like is if you can't be in control of your own money,
what are you doing with my money?
That's where it bothers me a little bit.
And I don't know anything about the rest of you either,
But I certainly hope that, you know, our money is well taken care of and spent well now 50%
over three years tax increase leads me to believe that there's a lot of problems behind
the scenes.
So, anyway, thank you and have a good night.
Next speaker, please.
I don't even know where to start.
I want to apologize for not being here two weeks ago, I was away.
But I'm back.
You know who I am.
Do you mind just saying your name and township?
Thanks.
Okay.
So I don't know.
This is the first I'm hearing about a time change on these meetings.
I don't like change at all in any way at all.
So I really hope you change your mind about that
because I like this Wednesday night meeting.
I try and come as often as I can.
And I see we have a new person up there.
Hi.
How are you?
I don't care about your finances because there's two sides every story. I don't want to hear either one of them
I don't care doesn't matter as long as you're doing the right thing. I'll go with me
But yeah, we can't change the meetings and I really really want you to reconsider your tax increase. I
Think it's just a little bit too much for everybody
Because of last year's
that is it thank you
next speaker please good
evening council and everyone in the
room my name is Amina Perez and I'm a developer in Delaware County and I came
tonight to show my support for Richard Womack and to let you know I know it's
not easy when people think they know things about you and when things have
happened in the past that people want you to keep reliving it doesn't define
who you are, you can make bad decisions, you can have hardships, you can be human and still
have your dignity and still know that people will respect you.
We see the work that you do and we support you and keep going and keep your head up.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Kathy Buckley from Edgemont and I want to welcome our newest council member.
I hope you do better than the others.
I really have high hopes for you.
So this is not my first time at a meeting.
I've been coming here for two years.
I came because there was a problem.
I saw something during the election.
I have gone to a council member.
I spent an hour with her.
Guess what happened?
Nothing, absolutely nothing.
I went to a DA, spoke to the DA's office
about a problem. Guess what the answer was? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I even ran
for office to change, to make change. The only thing that happened was I got attacked.
I had two negative ads hit on me and I had someone say that I had a tinfoil hat
about the problem that I found this all firsthand that I have been pointing out
for two years again since I've been here two years I've seen the history of the
tax increases and the no need for it somehow the previous board before had
had no problem meeting all the needs of the county within the budget.
You guys get in, all of a sudden, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend.
You put how many people in problems that they're going to lose their house because
they can't afford the taxes, that you increased and it's over 50 percent because if you
put in the first tax then you have to multiply that by the 19 percent that it
bumps you up more. How many elderly people are you going to force out of their house?
How many people that are working three jobs just to live here, have a safe home, have a
good school that are going to get forced out because they can't afford the taxes here
anymore? And I will state it again. You keep increasing taxes. What do we get? I have
yet to see one service do better. The potholes aren't better. The schools are worse. The kids
were kicked out of school for two years during COVID, which they didn't need to be. They
lost two years of education. How are we going to catch that up? We haven't even seen the
damage of what that did to the kids. The mental illness is through the roof now.
Well, anyone think it's because they were kept at home, told that they're going to kill
their grandmother if they breathe on them?
You have not seen the end of the damage.
Looks like there are no further speakers this evening.
Look for vice chair Rufus to make the motion.
Thank you.
The first is a motion.
I move to approve the minutes to the organizational meeting held on January 5th,
2026 and the regular meeting held on January 7th, 2026.
Motion was made in a second.
Questions or comments?
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those ayes have it.
Do you want to introduce Lee to do, yeah.
Well, item 7A is the second reading of ordinance 2026-01
amending and restating article two of chapter 202
of the county code relating to the hotel tax, I move for the adoption of this ordinance.
Seconded.
Which was made in seconded.
I do want to just check in and see if there is a public speaking opportunity for anyone
who wanted to speak specifically on the ordinance before we move forward with the vote.
I want to make sure that people have that opportunity.
No one signed up and it does not appear that we have anyone speaking on the ordinance.
Is that correct?
Thank you.
I will point out to those in the audience that there's a copy of the ordinance in the back of the room physical copies have been made available.
There are also copies available online excuse me.
This is ordinance number 202601.
It was formally numbered as 202504 with its first read on June 18th of 2025.
It's been published in the Delaware County Times.
and it is to increase our hotel tax to the permissible level of 5% to keep us
in keeping with our neighborhood, many of our neighbor counties, and to maximize
our opportunities to bring in income from those who might be visiting the
county and staying at our lovely hotels in order to enjoy many of the special
events that we have going on this year or for any other reason. So I do think
I think we have people from Visit Delco who are willing to speak a little more about how
this came about and some of the benefits that could be incurred with these resources.
Members of Council, my name is Steve Byrne, I'm the Executive Director of Visit Delco.
With me tonight is Rob McPherson, our Chief Marketing Officer.
And we have two hoteliers, Matt Thompson and James Wiley here to support us as
well.
We're going to start the presentation with a quick video and then we'll get into a quick
PowerPoint.
That was a quick synopsis of what we've been doing the last year, all in one minute there.
And I just wanted to start it off on a positive note there.
We're here to talk about the increase in the hotel occupancy tax, but I just want
to see if I can figure that there it is.
Just a quick history on this tax.
We were – our organization was incorporated December 31st, 1984.
So, since 1985, visitors that come into this county and pay for an overnight accommodation
have been paying a occupancy tax on their room.
This is an export tax.
It is not a tax on county residents, and I just want to make that clear.
The way this tax works is the county collects it.
They can buy law, keep up to 4 percent for administration fees, and then they turn
it over to the tourism promotion agency of record, which is Visit Delco.
From that, that money must be used to promote tourism in the county.
If you look at our collar counties, we are at 3 percent, Bucks County and Chester County
are at 5 percent, Montgomery County is at 4 percent.
The State of Pennsylvania passed a law that counties of our classification could increase
their tax rate to 5%.
The other counties chose to do that.
We did not.
And you can see the current budget, how far behind we are.
The reason Montgomery County is only at 4% if you look at their budget, it's $11 million.
They got more than twice the amount of rooms up there and their average daily rate
is higher than ours.
If you look at our projection for 26, if this goes through, we'll make this tax effective
for one April 1st. It puts us more in line with everybody else. We are out there now working
harder than ever. And the reason being is when COVID hit, we lost a lot of our corporate travelers.
And because of that, the Sunday night through Thursday night traveler is just not as high as
it used to be. So we've started getting creative and going out and doing different things, working
shows differently, partnerships out there to make sure that when visitors come in they're
staying in our county. About two and a half years ago we did a strategic plan and the
consultants were interviewing stakeholders and one of the biggest things they feedback
they received was, and these are mainly hoteliers, when they go to shows and when
When they go to events, they would see Bucks County, they would see Chester County, they
would see Montgomery County, but they wouldn't see Delaware County.
The reason is, we just didn't have the funds to go out to attend the show.
Last week, we were at three different shows.
Two were in Philadelphia, one was out West.
Just to go to those shows costs money.
And that's what we're doing is we're putting that money to use to bring more business
into this county.
to charge this tax 66 out of the 67 counties charge a hotel
occupancy tax. This revenue has proven to be an impactful
economic driver for each community. If you look at our
numbers here and this is 2024 numbers because we don't have
25s economic numbers yet four and a half million dollars
million visitors came to our county. They spent 800.
$40 million, creating 13,000 jobs, leading to an economic impact of $1.2 billion. The one
number I want to point out there is that $68 million is right to local taxes, stays right
here in the county. If you look at the little white box on the right there, those are our
key indicators. Our 25 numbers just came in last week. We are up in every category.
the work that we're doing is paying off you're seeing significant growth the one
I will point out is rooms sold were up 4% were rate at about a million rooms
sold per night in this county if you took the five county comparison we are
one of two counties up Montgomery County is up 2%
Philadelphia Bucks County and Chester is showing negative numbers year over
year. So we know the work that we're doing is paying off. I'm going to turn it over to
Rob. He's going to talk about some of the things that we've been doing and are going
to do with the top.
Thank you. So just what, you know, what we're
really trying to emphasize is that this is a creative economic driver where a tax
on someone who spends the night in one of our hotels, that revenue gets used to generate
more local impact on an economic basis. And we just want to show just a couple of quick
things that we'll continue to do and do better, do more impactfully with some more resources.
So one thing, for example, here in this, as we work to grow our potential, we know
we have room for growth. It is 2026, 250th anniversary of the country. We're working
with PA Delco 250, one of the things we're working on is a legacy project where we're
identifying sites in the county that could be visitation sites that aren't necessarily
staffed accordingly or funded accordingly or resourced accordingly to where folks can
visit them on a regular basis. We're identifying those sites, we're putting signage in those
sites that's going to be interactive signage with QR codes where someone can hit the
QR code with their phone and get an audio file to tell them what that site is
about what's significant about that site.
So that site doesn't necessarily have to staff,
doesn't have to have the people or the funding to staff it.
We'll cover that part of it.
It's one of the many things we'll do.
Okay, increase our visibility.
You know, one of the things we're doing right now,
we have an international marketing campaign.
So we know that for the World Cup, for example,
Brazil, France, and Croatia will play
in the World Cup in Philly.
We've got advertising digital marketing
in those countries right now where we're encouraging folks to come and check out our site, check
out our hotels. They don't have to stay in Philadelphia. They can stay in Delaware County
and be 20 minutes from South Philly where all the action is going to happen. And our
advertising is set up in such a way that when they come to our site, they can actually
click a little drop down and change our site to their language. They can learn
more about what we're doing. Just, again, we can do more of that kind of stuff
as we move forward you know we we are we're taking a lot of time to implement
these resources in ways that we know we're getting direct business back one
example is we just did a partnership with an organization from Ireland called
the Donegal it's a Donegal Festival where they're going to be here in March
they usually their festival in Chester County we got them to get to it here
in Delaware County they're going to be playing yellow football I really don't
what it is but it's I think it's close to rugby anyway they're gonna be playing
out of the Glenn Mills school they're gonna be staying in one of Matt's
hotels in Springfield they have 600 room nights out of the deal and we're
sponsoring it so by virtue of us putting our sponsorship revenue on the
table they're able to use that money to offset their own expenses associated
with the event it makes it more appealing for them to have the event
here so again which is we know we've got dedicated room nights from that
event that we wouldn't have otherwise had.
And then of course we want to expand our local impact.
One such event, one such program is our main street grants.
We have a pot of money set aside to grant to the local businesses, sorry the local business
communities in places like Upper Darby, Lansdowne, Media, Swarthmore, Haverford, Radnor, places
where there's a downtown business district.
If they come to us and they can demonstrate to us that they have a project that will
make it a more visitor friendly place, we're going to put some money on the table to help
them get that done. So again, increasing visitation, increasing the amount of people who are in
our hotels, which then leads to additional spending in our community, taxes reaped from
those spends that go back to the community. So we're excited about what we have going
on in the future and we would welcome the opportunity to have a little more of a
resourceful pot of money to work with and make an even greater impact moving
forward. So thank you.
Any questions or comments from council? Yeah, I want to
say a few things. This has been a long time coming. I've been on this board
now for six years and I think for six years we've been talking about the
need to raise this to five percent. We all recognized when we came in that we
We were, our DMO was underfunded and underinvested in, and did not have access to the resources
that all of our neighboring counties had, which put all of our hoteliers and our hospitality
industry at a disadvantage in competing against the big market.
So we've been working on this for a long time.
In the last couple of years, we took extra funding and funded Visit Delco at a higher
level than the 3%. As a testing the theory that putting more money in would result in
more economic activity and more support for our success for our hoteliers. And I am happy
to report that this experiment has proved out the theory that with increased investment
we will get more for our hoteliers and we will have more economic activity coming in.
Over this time, where we've had increased investment, occupancy has gone up
and revenue has gone up.
Activity has gone up.
Importantly, it has gone up here in Delaware County far more than in our neighboring counties.
So it is not the fact that it's going up everywhere.
where it is going up here for a reason.
And the reason is that we've increased this investment.
So in my eyes, this is a very sound investment.
We've proven that out.
I'm very thrilled to have this permanent now.
And one last point I'd like to make
is that the timing of this is important as well
because this increased funding will be available
to be spent this year
when visitation to Delaware County can and should be at a very elevated level
giving everything that's going on between the PGA, the MLB, America 250, all of the
things that are happening. We should be, you know, hitting, going off the charts
in visitation this year, but that doesn't happen without cultivating it.
So visit Delco has done a superior job in the last year proving the case
that with increased investment, the services that they can provide for our hoteliers and
our hospitality do pay off. They do bring in more economic activity. And in my mind,
it's sort of a no-brainer of an investment. So I will be supporting this vote.
I have some comments as well. I just wanted to note that as controller for the last
six years, I've sat on the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority representing
Delaware County being appointed by County Council in that role, and I have seen the
substantial work that it takes to get tourists and hospitality business to the region.
The work is intense.
You have to be in the market.
You have to go to the shows.
You have to have people on the ground.
You have to entice people to come to your town.
And we do it as a region, and I've seen bucks come, Montgomery County, Chester
County and Delaware County, Visit Delco has come and made that presentation to everyone on the board.
This is a tool in the toolbox that we need to use. This will bring economic help to the county.
It'll create jobs and it creates business and it's economically smart.
Our neighbors have wondered why we haven't done this in the past and it's really time to do it.
I think that if we're creative, we'll look for ways to work with Visit Delco
and look for the investments that everyone wants to see happen in this county,
the things that bring tourists and that our residents love too.
And one of the notes that you had on there was about the education.
We recently had an opportunity to visit one of the universities
and hundreds of thousands of people come to visit their students at the universities that we have in this county.
So all this together will give visit Delco a chance to do even more for the county. So I'm in support of this ordinance
Thank you. I just
Wanted to point out a couple of things in response to some of the questions about maybe we should
Not pass this and divert some of the money to other things. I think it's really
This is one of those things where the devil's in the details while the county passes
taxes, the ordinances that increase the tax, and we collect it, we don't get to keep it.
That money has to go into a restricted fund, and then council appropriates it and moves
it over to visit Delco.
And so it's, I think, really important for people to understand that while, you know,
I'm supportive of this tax, you've heard from two other council members who are
supportive of this tax.
It was Visit Delco that came and asked us to raise this tax.
And our response was, initially, well, let's make sure you really need it.
And we found out that prior councils did all the collecting but didn't do all the appropriating and sending it all over.
So we found a pot of money that gave Visit Delco a chance to show us, not just tell us, but show us what they could do.
That was the money that had basically been scrolled away in this restricted account that
couldn't be spent but was collected and not helping anybody.
And we worked with Visit Delco to basically let them build a program to show us how they
were going to spend that money and how they were going to put it to work in all the
ways that you've seen here.
And so this request, for the last couple of years, they've been spending like the tax is at 5%.
See, they're not in their heads, I got that right.
But it really hasn't been.
It's only because there was money that had been appropriated over many years, 30 years,
and not distributed to them and not spent, that they've been able to show us what they're doing.
And that's been a work in progress over these last six years, really.
And now, we know, not just because they've told us, but because they've shown us what
a difference they can make, what a difference they can do in terms of adding an economic
driver and supporting the lifeblood of this county, which is our small businesses, economically,
they're the lifeblood of this community.
And a lot of them are in the hospitality business, and those that aren't end up
supporting the hospitality business in many ways, using the hotels, supplying the
hotels, restaurants that serve food for the people who come there, limousine
companies and Uber drivers who support the guests.
It's really important that we
do this but it is not a tax that we can spend once we get it. In fact the
only way this money can make a difference is we collect it and then
we move it over to visit Delco and to other expenditures.
And even if there's expenditures that the county's interested in seeing, whether it's
things like the lights, the festival of lights, or the Delco 10-Miler that we're all really
supportive of, it really has to be a visit Delco that signs off on those expenditures
because that money has to go to things that are going to improve tourism, which
can include as they've noted historical sites throughout the county and other things. So
I just wanted to give people a little bit of context. If we raise this tax, we're doing
so because we've seen what a more stable and comparable amount of money compared to
our neighboring counties can do. And it can do a lot of good.
So I'm in favor of this
And I support the work that they're doing and my hope is that there will continue to be this kind of
communication and collaboration because it makes a huge difference
You know, I just one other thing that some of that money that we found that hadn't been that had been collected over 30 years and not
appropriate not appropriated prior to our getting on the council one of the things that we were able to do was to
Support the hospitality industry by supporting education programs
that teach people how to work in the hospitality industry
because your best hotel workers,
your best restaurant workers,
are people who know the area.
And so our goal is to put people like that to work.
And that is a program that I know
that Delco's been working closely
with the community college at their new campus.
So it's really exciting.
And my hope is that we can continue
to move forward with these kinds of investments together.
So, thank you.
Comments.
I too agree with my colleagues and I'm not going to go into the long speech,
but I think it's going to be very helpful for moving, you know,
Delaware County forward and the support that we really need.
And I thank you, visit Delco for the work that you have been doing on this.
I know it's.
It's been a long time coming, so thank you for what you do. So at that point, I'm going
to look to Ms. Catalina for a vote. Can I just interrupt? Is this a public hearing?
Do we need to call for public? We did that. Yeah, I think we should.
And I did that a little prematurely.
Please do.
Is there a public comment at this time?
We did offer it earlier, but there was some.
OK.
But she did open it up.
She did.
I watched the guy slide and all that.
And all that was really cool.
And I also heard him say that we're
up above all them other counties that have that tax.
Are we willing to risk putting our tax that high
and losing them back to where they were before please reconsider and think of
that because if they're going to go if they were already staying somewhere is
paying 5% they're not worried about paying 5% they started coming here a
year or two ago paying 3% they're going to go where they were happy in the
beginning I don't know who owns what hotel or anything like that I'm not
against any of you. I'm against raising taxes, period. That's it. And I don't know. It's
a website. Everything's AI now. How much you pay the guy to run the website?
There's
no need to raise any more taxes in the county. Be happy that you're getting the money you're
getting and go with it. Please, I beg you. I beg you, it's not going to work. You're
going to lose money. You're going to lose more money. Stop. Thank you.
Cynthia Sabatini, Upper Providence Township. I do want to thank the folks from Visit Delco
for their presentation. I would like to know, and I don't know if it's appropriate
to ask and have the gentlemen answered this question, but if they could give a concrete
example of how their increased expenditures have helped a specific
community, whether it be Swarthmore, whether it be Springfield, whether it
be Media. I think most people can relate to tangible explanations, tangible
examples. So if the opportunity exists for the visit Delco folks to provide
that kind of example, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
Karen Skokor, Concertownship.
With the comparison of the Collar Counties.
I hear from people in other counties who are having things raised
because they're being compared to Delaware County.
It seems that this is something that's being shuffled around among the
councils of the surrounding counties, and this is another example
of Montgomery County compared to Delaware County.
First of all, Montgomery County has a significant number of greater residents than Delaware County.
So it's not exactly an accurate representation to say they have this much income and so forth
in Montgomery County compared to Delaware County.
I would rather have seen those numbers broken down per capita rather than county to county.
And also, I would like to see a greater effort and a greater concern just
for the average citizen of Delaware County, the residents, rather than the tourists who
are passing through and so forth, and to increase this industry. Yes, there are jobs that come
in from this industry, but no country, no county, can survive on hospitality and tourism
and service industries. It's the residents. We need manufacturing. We need industry
here in the county. Thank you.
It's just a question of how, so I live in Sharon Hill Borough and it's a little town in Delco.
And we have a bunch of, like, you know, industry businesses there.
We really don't, like, really have, like, a real main strip, right?
But we do give a lot of, you know, fun things in the summer.
like I collaborate with Jaylen Gerwin, he plays for the Detroit Pistons and he does a lot for the
community so over the summer we give a six a six-week you know basketball skills and drills
and then we do a festival um you know out in the park and people come from all over and um
cheer up Wormack Visit and Monica tell that they came out and they tell you like it's a big event
And we also do, we have an art department that's called Shack.
And they do a lot of jazz in the park.
So, and every year, you know, these events, they get bigger and bigger.
How does that fit into what y'all of, you know, was Delco?
Yeah, visit Delco. How does that, thank you.
How does that fit in that, you know, anywhere?
I mean, we are getting some new development in our community.
We're getting a new Starbucks and some other things
that we're currently working on.
But how does that fit?
Because we don't have any hotels there.
You know, if you want to go to a hotel, we're giving something
and you want to go to a hotel, you got to go in S10
or somewhere like that.
You know, and the goal is to give like a big festival,
you know, along Chester Pike every year.
That's the goal to bring in revenue to our small area.
you know and again my question is how does that fit into what y'all y'all are
doing like if I wanted to reach out sir can I ask you to state your name too we
got the sharing help I'm sorry my name is Rodney Hill yeah thank you yeah so
that's my question to y'all okay
Johnson Prospect Park I'm also the
Prospect Park borough council president our community is near a tenacum
township where we have numerous hotels within the region. I also served on the Valley Forge
Sports Advisory Board in Montgomery County because I'm an assistant professor of marketing
in Montgomery County. Serving on that board, their tax is five percent. And it has been
instrumental in the services and the promotions that they've been able to do for that region.
They go to conferences all across the country, and they've been able to bring huge sports
events to Montgomery County.
With our development at the Inchester, with the soccer facility, and other facilities
that the county is working on throughout the county, I think this 5 percent tax could
be very instrumental.
Like you said before, there is an administrative fee with the increased tax, so that's an
increased revenue stream for the county but most of it benefits visit Delco and I think
this would just be beneficial for the county and for the tourism and overall economic development
to support our hospitality industry and the economic impact that is also supported by
increased hospitality health of those industries.
So I support this tax. I'll just give you an example. I drive on 95 going to
Prospect Park all the time. The red roof in there is $99.
So we're talking about $1.80 added on to the current existing tax.
So it's not significant and most of this tax is going to be borne
by people that are visiting Delaware County for our amenities.
So I just wanted to provide that comment.
So thank you.
If it's a point of order, you have – it's not a question and answer session at this
time.
I will ask the question.
I understand we have one more public speaker.
I'll ask the question.
Michael Straugh, media borough.
My question would be, as it relates to the first reading of this light item, was it
done last year was it because obviously it wasn't in the January meeting. And what's
the law and code regarding that? Is that like specifically how long are you allowed
to allow for a first reading to go until now? Thank you.
I
want to address that a little. So our county code does require a first and second
reading. It doesn't actually specify that those have to be within a certain window
of time. They have to, or rather, they have to be at least giving enough time between
each reading. The point being is the public should have notice and an opportunity to come
out to meetings, review, think about it. But there is, I could identify no law that
restricts us in saying that it has to be within a certain fixed timeframe once that,
I think it is six or seven days.
I don't have the specific code in front of me,
but once that requirement is met,
but we did look into that
and of course wanted to make sure
that the public had the opportunity and proper notice.
So we didn't ensure that the ordinance
was published in the proper notice time
and we've been able to provide those two readings.
Thanks.
Thank you.
If there's no other public comments
or no other comments from council,
I looked at Ms. Catalini for the roll call vote.
Thank you.
Ms. Phillips.
Yes.
Ms. Schaefer.
Yes.
Dr. Taylor.
Yes.
Ms. Ruther.
Yes.
Mr. Womack.
Yes.
Ordinance 2026-01 passes.
Okay.
Thank you.
Look to Vice Chair Ruther for the Consent Agenda Item.
Yes.
Thank you.
I would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda items 8a through 8u
described and written on tonight's agenda all of them subject to the solicitor's
approval please note that these items or many of these items anyway that were
not routine and even some that were were discussed at yesterday's agenda
meeting and I would encourage anybody who has any questions about you know
did council pay any attention to this were there any questions to go and
review the film for that meeting which is on the website second motion was made
in second any questions or comments if not all in favor say aye I have it
item
nine is appointments nine a I move for the approval to reappoint Joseph D
to the.
The only Darren F bonus Nicholas
really and can J path to and to
appoint.
Sal Miller to the uniform
construction code appeal board
for a five year term ending
January 31 2031.
Second.
Motion was made in second
in questions or comments.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those that oppose the ayes have it.
9B, I move to appoint Max Cooper to the Interactive Gaming Revenue Authority for a five-year term ending January 31, 2031.
Second.
Motion was made.
In second.
Any questions or comments?
Here and now, all in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those that oppose the ayes have it.
Item 9C, the approval to reappoint Kenneth B. Collins, Mary M. Coates, Sharon White,
and to appoint Mark Killian to the Drug and Alcohol Planning Council for a three-year term
ending January 31, 2029.
Second.
Motion made and seconded.
Any questions or comments?
Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those that oppose, ayes have it.
Item 9D.
I moved to appoint Mark Hook and Matthew Bilker to the Juvenile Detention Board of
Managers for a three-year term ending January 31st, 2029.
Eight and seconded. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those that oppose the ayes have it.
Item 9E, quickly
one question. This really should be, this is directed to the solicitor
and I apologize for not pointing this out earlier, but this really should be a motion
to reappoint all three members.
Is it appropriate to make, to amend the agenda for that purpose?
Do we have to vote to amend the agenda?
Yes.
I don't have the law and the research in front of me, so as an abundance of caution
I would certainly ask an amendment if you think that it is improper, but I wouldn't
do it.
Well, at this point then we'd just be appointing one person.
If we're reorganizing the board, we have to appoint all three.
Therefore, I make a motion to amend item 9E to provide for the appointment of John McMekin,
Ashley Lunkenheimer and Scott Alberts to the Board of Elections.
Each for a two-year term ending January 1, 2028. Second, the motion to amend.
The motion was made to amend. In second, any questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor,
say aye. Aye. Those that oppose, the ayes have it.
So just to be, as a comment, just to be clear, well, I'll make that comment later. I move
that we appoint John McMeek and Ashley Lincoln Heimer and Scott Alberts to the
Board of Elections for a two-year term ending January 1, 2028. Second. Made and
seconded. Any questions or comments? The comment I want to make is I think the
reason the other two names weren't included is because there's a separate
mechanism. The election board for people who are not familiar must have
minority party representation, meaning all three members can't be of the
same party which is why members of council do not make up the election board as they
do in three commissioner counties which is the majority of Pennsylvania counties. Instead
we have a system where the majority party as determined by the last councilmatic election
gets to appoint two members of the majority party. They were not left on, they were
not here listed, those are the two people I listed, and to appoint one person out of
a list of three supplied by the chairperson of the party getting the second most votes
in the last councilmanic election, which in this case would be the Republican Party.
We did in fact get a list of three persons from Mr. Aguino, the chair of the Republican
Republican Party. One of them is the current serving Republican member, John
McMeekin, his name. He was on that list, so in effect we are re-appointing him,
along with re-appointing the two majority party members, Ashley Lincoln
Heimer and Scott Alberts. So they were left off because we didn't have to get
their name on a list from anybody, so I apologize for that. But that's the
background there.
And to be clear, we just had two votes. We had one vote
to amend and then a separate and distinct vote on we haven't had that vote yet
we've just had that we've just made the motion this is now I made the motion I
believe Michelle first seconded it right so the motion was made and seconded
any questions or comments on the motion here none all in favor say aye those
that oppose the highs have it
item 10 is a motion to approve the
controller's request for payment of current bills. Second, any questions or
comments? I was just going to note that the controller unfortunately cannot be
here this evening and the amount of their bills for the most recent period is
13,136,280 dollars and 43 cents. Thank you.
All in favor of just supporting the
Now we're going to have a communication from Executive Director, Ms. O'Malley.
Yes, just wanted to note at our last meeting there was a discussion about making our website
more easily searchable and getting information about our budget and our audits.
People were having difficulty finding that, so we did create a single button on our webpage
right in the front banner.
So immediately as soon as you see our webpage you will see a button that will lead you to
our budget going back to 2018 and all of our audits. They had always been there, but again
we just wanted to make it easier for residents to find them as that had been a request.
We also are revamping and had revamped our search. We have put things in a clear alphabetical
order, had reduced some redundancies, and we also eliminated some links that went to
pages that either no longer existed or didn't have beneficial information. We're continuing
to look at the website and find ways to make it easier for residents to get most
immediately to the information they're looking for. And again, welcome any emails at askdelco.co.dellaware.pa.us
if there's more information that people want to share with us. Thank you.
Thank you. Let's report Ms. Aubrey.
I just did want to let the public know, you know, I'm here hearing the comments.
None of us want to see anyone lose their home, and especially a vulnerable person.
And so I am looking at whether there are opportunities
from the solicitor's office to engage
around the time of tax sales.
And what I'm discovering is that we are unfortunately
have a lot of limits by the law
because we are collecting authority
on behalf of other authorities.
And once things get to a certain stage,
the law limits us.
That said, I think we all care a lot about
what has happened and we wanna look at every opportunity
to see if there are things that we can do or areas where we might be able to
intercede more and so we are dedicating the time to see if there are
opportunities there. So those words don't go unheard. Thanks.
Now I go to look to Council for Council remarks. Councilwoman Phillips.
Yeah I just have a brief from Mark. I just wanted to note I did not want to
steal Dr. Taylor's thunder of her announcement earlier but I wanted to
note that I was honored to join people at the community center at Chester City Hall
and at the first Baptist Church in Prospect Park to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's
birthday and the holiday on Monday. And a highlight of that day was reading portions
of Dr. King's letter from the Birmingham Jail, which he wrote following his arrest
for demonstrating. Dr. King's formative years really spent in the city of Chester at the
Crozier Theological Seminary, and he was just moving to tie all that together. I heard in
the letters, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and whatever affects
one directly affects all indirectly. It was moving to hear those words today and
the importance that they stand today and the value of nonviolent action.
So I urge everybody, if you haven't read the letter from a Birmingham jail for a long
time or if you've never read it at all, I would encourage you to pick it up and read
it because it's never been more important than it is today.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I just have one.
Let me see.
Yeah.
I just have one thing to say tonight
and that is this room was filled tonight
with people participating in government.
And I wanna say thank you, especially to the people
who are still here two hours later
and sat through all of that.
It really, this is what it's all about.
And all kinds of people come up and say
in all kinds of things.
And you know, it's our job to sift through it
and take the nuggets out that are meaningful
and helpful to our county.
And I really appreciate the participation that we have seen tonight.
Councilwoman Dr. Taylor.
Thank you, Chair Wilmack. I do have one comment this evening.
The Upper Darby community and all of Delaware County are reeling and searching for answers after the death in ice custody of Mr. Parity Law,
who was taken from our community and arrested on January 6th and Councilmember
Ruther mentioned this earlier for so many of us watching American cities be
invaded by their own federal government produces a complicated set of emotions
there's horror at what we see in places like Los Angeles and Minneapolis
there's fear that this will one day come to our doorsteps and terrorize
our neighbors Mr. Law's death should make one thing perfectly clear the very
Everything we dread is here, now, at our doorsteps and in our neighborhoods.
Mr. Law's life was far from easy.
Born at a refugee camp, while his family fled, Cameroonch, he came to America at age two
in 1981, becoming a lawful permanent resident a year later.
According to his family, he struggled with substance use.
According to ICE, he was a target that lost his right to remain in the country.
According to anyone with conscience, he deserved basic rights and access to medical care when
his own government held him in captivity.
I applaud our district attorney for investigating Mr. Lowe's case and with his statement that
no job in the world allows you to break the law.
The fight for answers and accountability will surely be long, especially when dealing
with a federal agency that so clearly fights against both for the sake of the law family I hope this
effort brings the answers accountability and peace and for the sake of our communities it is the
responsibility of leaders at every level of government to confront and correct actions taken
in our name that violates our values and undermines human dignity thank you I
just want to say
It
is challenging for a lot of us in local government and on school boards, particularly
for counties and school directors.
All of us, some municipalities are different, but we only have one source of revenue for
general fund expenditures, and that is the property tax.
We also have a commonwealth constitution that has a uniformity clause, which means
means that we cannot treat differently situated taxpayers differently either in assessing their
properties or in collecting their taxes. It means that we cannot distinguish people based
on their age or their infirmity. There may be some other, and that is not our issue.
That is a matter of state law and the state constitution. The people who have the best
chance to fix that are our state representatives, and I applaud, I really applaud Representative
Young for coming tonight and hearing some of this, but I think it's important for people
to understand that if there's a problem with the law that mandates tax collections,
it's not the people in the county who are doing their jobs.
There may be some things that we can do or talk more that we can do, not just
just for Ms. Gaynor, but for other people who find themselves in a tax upset sale situation.
It is something that we are looking at and evaluating to see if we can do more without
a change in state law.
But a lot of these things are things where our hands are tied.
And you know, our people are just trying to follow the law that they've been given.
And unfortunately, when the federal government and the state government decides not to fund
necessary services, and the counties are responsible for providing those services, they've got
to get paid for in some way, and that means taxes.
And while I don't like paying taxes, I don't know any if I've spent my career helping
people pay the smallest legally permissible amount of taxes.
But I also know as a person sitting up here, as a government, we have to bear bills.
So I would encourage all of you, these are perfectly legitimate points to raise in our
public comment, and we need to hear them and other people need to hear them.
But I encourage you to also reach out to your state legislators, because some of the
changes we need to make to be more equitable have to be made on their end.
Thank you.
Thank you. I just want to say tonight I want to thank everyone they
came out tonight. We heard what you had to say while we take it seriously and the
thing is we have a lot of work to do here in the county. You know when you
look at, you have four hospitals that closed in Delaware County. We need to
ask ourselves, why did they close? What can we do to make sure we get in
health care back and hospitals back for our residents? To me, that's a very
important issue. And if anyone wants to work with me or work with Council,
have some ideas, come forward. Let's work together because it affects
everyone. You know, mental health right now is a huge issue in the county. We
need to figure out what are we going to do about our mental health situation. You
know, I want to continue to do programs for our seniors, programs for our youth.
There's a lot of things that we can do instead of coming here and are you in
fighting with one another. So let's work together. Let's tackle some of
these issues because that's where I'm at and that's what I'm going to continue to do
and I want to move forward to do it and so I reach out to you, I solicit your help, solicit
your support, but that's where we're at but once again thank you and if I can do anything
with anyone in the community I'm here, I'm reachable, I'm touchable so thank you.
So is there a motion to adjourn?
So moved.
Motion was made and seconded.
The aye.
Aye.
Thank you.