Democrats
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Results of the 2008 election
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Picture of Controller Diane Morgan with Pres. Bill Clinton at Upper
Dublin High School
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Times Herald
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Posted on Fri, Jan 11, 2008
Tech funds’ drain examined
Controller’s office to determine whether or not money was given to county to penalize incoming Dem row officers
By MARGARET GIBBONS, Times Herald Staff
COURTHOUSE — The Montgomery County controller’s office is investigating decisions by two outgoing Republican county row officers to drain their technology funds in the waning days of their terms and turn those funds over to the county.
New Democratic Controller Diane Morgan Thursday said she wants to know whether the money, a combined total of $785,000, was turned over for legitimate reasons or whether it was simply mean-spirited shenanigans by two Republicans who were replaced by Democrats.
“I think they were playing games and I am glad the controller is on the job,” said new county Commissioner Joseph M. Hoeffel III, a Democrat.
“It doesn’t pass the smell test and it seems too coincidental that it happened during a changeover in administrations, but we will look into it,” said Republican Commissioners Chairman James R. Matthews, adding that he, also, has asked the county solicitor’s office to look into the matter.
Republican Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr., the county’s former top prosecutor, said he would reserve comment until more facts are known.
Former prothonotary William E. Donnelly, who was upset in last November’s election by Democrat Mark Levy, had amassed some $585,000 in his technology fund before transferring it to the county’s general fund.
Former clerk of courts Jane B. Markley, whose handpicked and GOP-endorsed candidate was defeated in the November election by Democrat Ann Thornburg Weiss, had accumulated some $200,000 in her account before transferring those funds to the county.
The revenue for these two departmental automation accounts are generated by fees charged by the two respective offices. Both the clerk of courts and the prothonotary have sole discretion over the use of those funds as long as the money is spent to enhance the automation of each department.
In the past, both of these department heads closely guarded the spending of the funds, often rebuffing suggestions by the county commissioners to spend the funds on technology that the pair had asked the county to fund.
Michael D. Marino, a former commissioners chairman, once accused Donnelly of using it as a “slush fund” to subsidize trips to conventions that the county had balked at paying. Donnelly maintained the trip expenditures were legitimate because the conventions exposed his staff to technology that they needed in the department.
Weiss and Levy, who both were sworn into office on Monday, discovered the drained accounts late Tuesday night and early Wednesday and advised Morgan of the situation.
Both Weiss and Levy Thursday said their predecessors were less than welcoming during the transition. Both said they were not advised of the automation accounts or their predecessors’ intentions to transfer the funds to the county.
Some paperwork was found referring to a plan to centralize and standardize a court management system, with Paperless Solutions Inc. of Bucks County providing the two departments, one which handles all civil court filings and the other that handles all criminal court filings, with cost estimates for this project.
The total cost of this project was $1-million plus, with the prothonotary’s share at $645,000, the clerk of courts’ share at $200,000 and the register of wills’ share at $190,000, according to that estimate.
New Democratic Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes said that the automation account in his office remains intact and that outgoing GOP Register of Wills Frances V. Pierce had been extremely helpful in the transition in that office.
County Chief Operating Officer Robert W. Graf said all bids for automation work has to go through the county’s purchasing department and controller’s office and, to the best of his knowledge, no contract was awarded to Paperless Solutions.
The centralized court systems paperwork also contained references calling for the creation of a new office to oversee this operation. Sources said that Donnelly and Markley wanted to use this new office to place long-time aides who might have been axed with Democrats taking control of their offices.
Both Weiss and Levy have asked the controller to return the automation funds to their accounts.
Morgan said she hoped to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible but that her investigation would be thorough.
In the meantime, the disputed funds will remain in an interest-bearing account and will not be spent, according to Graf, adding that he, too, did not learn of the matter until Morgan brought it to his attention.
Margaret Gibbons can be reached at mgibbons@timesherald.com or 610-272-2501, ext. 216.
Click here to see the original Times Herald page.
Click here to see the follow-up in The Morning Call.
See the 2007 recipient of the Wissahickon Democrats Good Citizen Scholarship Award.
See Letters of interest
See two articles and a video about our own
Florence Duckett of Ambler and
her project to send CD's to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Her efforts were picked up by both
the Inquirer and the Ambler Gazette, and a 6ABC spot.
Wissahickon
Democratic
Committee
Scholarship Award
Since 2005, this
award has gone to a student who has demonstrated both awareness and a willingness to act
on global issues, social/economic justice, and/or environmental
conservation. The selection of the recipient is made by a
committee of Wissahickon High
School social
studies teachers and counselors based on the criteria and acceptance at
an accredited 2 or 4 year college or university, being a student of
good character and a minimum grade-point average of about 3.0.
Our intention for this scholarship is to encourage young people to work
for positive change at the local, state, national or international
level.
2007
Our 3rd recipient is Malin Hu.
She will be attending Georgetown
University in Washington, D.C.
To see previous winners, click on Archives or here.
See Rep. Mike Gerber's web site for the CD/DVD contributions to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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