Welcome to the Coatesville Dems Blog

Public Corruption in Chester County, PA

I believe an unlikely mix of alleged drug trafficking related politicos and alleged white nationalist related politicos united to elect the infamous “Bloc of Four” in the abysmal voter turnout election of 2005. During their four year term the drug business was good again and white nationalists used Coatesville as an example on white supremacist websites like “Stormfront”. Strong community organization and support from law enforcement, in particular Chester County District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll has begun to turn our community around. The Chester County drug trafficking that I believe centers on Coatesville continues and I believe we still have public officials in place that profit from the drug sales. But the people here are amazing and continue to work against the odds to make Coatesville a good place to live.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Politics has changed since Nick Hanauer made his TED talk: “Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming” Now it’s beware plutocrats the fascists are coming.

Donald Trump and the Republican Party created a pre-fascist, racist nationalist government. 

As fascism relates to corporations something is misunderstood by US pro-fascist billionaires. Fascism does not allow corporations to run free over the environment & human beings with abandon, without restriction. 

The restrictions imposed on corporations by socialist countries (all of Europe) are by means of rule of law determined by legislative bodies elected by people. 

The restrictions imposed on corporations by fascist countries are by means of violence. Such as the assassinations ordered by Putin.

Nick Hanauer needs a new revised TED talk.


Donald Trump’s CIA awaits their orders.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

In the weeks preceding a local election in Coatesville PA my blogs are viewed by Russians. Look at the stats on my blogs. On May 16, 2018 the Russian views collapsed. This has happened since 2016.


The Russian views are obvious on my lesser viewed blogs like Riverseeker Blog. This is the "Monthly View, the preceding 30 days:


This is from Coatesville Dems Blog "Monthly View":

This is a more normal "Audience" for Riverseeker Blog on the "Daily View":


This is the more normal "Audience" for Coatesville Dems Blog on the "Daily View"


Washington Post

America is still unprepared for a Russian attack on our elections

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Threats, bullying, and revenge in Coatesville politics. Organized crime in Chester County, PA ain’t what it used to be. Mafia shoes formerly worn by Chester County Republicans don’t fit on Democrats. And they’re out of style anyway.

Chester County Democratic Chairman Brian McGinnis seems to have gone off the rails with internecine revenge politics. This can only help the Republican Party. 

Somebody tell Brian he’s not Teddy Rubino. SEE BELOW


***


Mafia style organized crime in Chester County PA was entirely Republican Party based in the past. Threats had some meat on them.

Fast forward to today and all except one of the people formerly associated with former Republican Party Area 14 Chairman Richard Legree have switched from Republican to Democrat. 

SEE:
***

The FBI made the drug business impossible for Mafia organized crime. Motorcycle clubs move drugs & money around now. 

OxyContin moved heroin to a white people's drug. 

Coatesville once was part of drug distribution. Coatesville is no longer needed to distribute drugs. We just have small time street dealers now. 

SEE:

Friday, October 19, 2012

***

The Democrats who want to play at drug dealer are like Wile E. Coyote. There is no organization with connections in Chester County politics to support them if they get caught. But they seem to think there is.

As late as the early 2000s Richard Legree could allegedly manipulate Chester County's legal system and ease the pain of a drug soldier who got caught. That's long gone.

Harvey “Bitsy” Legree made “Don’t Snitch” videos for Duron “Gotti” Peoples. Harvey has now made campaign videos for Coatesville City Councilperson Deborah Thompson. 

Monday, January 22, 2018


What is happening in Coatesville could be catastrophic for the Chester County Democratic Committee. The Chester County Democratic Committee needs to tread carefully here.

***
Theodore S.a. Rubino, Long A Power In Chesco 
March 12, 1989|By Rich Henson, Inquirer Staff Writer Staff writer Mark Fazlollah 

Theodore S. A. Rubino, 77, a self-made millionaire and the predominant power broker in Chester County Republican politics for two decades until he was convicted of extortion in 1977, died yesterday at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He had lived in Malvern. 

Mr. Rubino, who entered politics as a Malvern Borough councilman in 1955, was chairman of the Chester County Republican Party for 12 years and chairman of the county commissioners for seven. 

He rose to prominence at a time when county bosses could wield considerable power, said William Lamb, the current head of the county’s GOP….. 

Although Mr. Rubino had held no official position in the county GOP since 1977, his tight reins on the county’s political patronage system can still be felt. 

“You need only look around the courthouse today to see how many people’s careers Ted helped,” Lamb said, adding that for the last decade Mr. Rubino ”had been a friend and an adviser.” The county GOP considered him to be the party’s chairman emeritus, Lamb said. 

Senior U.S. District Judge John B. Hannum, whom Mr. Rubino succeeded as county GOP chairman in 1964, said: “He was an exceptional man and a great friend. He had been sick a long time, though, and maybe this is a blessing.”…. 

The son of an Italian immigrant quarry worker, origins that helped him maintain an easy rapport with the county’s rank-and-file voters, Mr. Rubino considered himself an anomaly among the fox-hunting gentry who controlled the county before him. 

“This is real WASP country,” he once said. “Somehow, I just never belonged.”
Despite never being fully accepted by the county’s Republican traditionalists, he did acquire power and wealth. 

And controversy frequently followed him. 

Through real estate speculation, his ownership of the Knickerbocker Landfill near Malvern and his association with a Paoli insurance firm, Mr. Rubino, a lifelong bachelor, was a millionaire by the early 1970s…..Mr. Rubino’s first public troubles began in 1970, when state officials reported that hazardous wastes had been dumped, apparently illegally, at the landfill he owned with his brother. Knickerbocker was closed for a week in 1971 but was not shut down permanently until 1979, despite efforts by local environmental groups to have it closed sooner….. 

Public controversy also swirled over the state’s $1 million purchase of part of his landfill for a stretch of the Route 202 bypass. 

Though the legal division of the state Department of Transportation cleared Mr. Rubino of any wrongdoing in the case, public outcry caused enough pressure that he decided not to seek re-election to his county commission post in 1975. 

Still, he was re-elected that same year as party chairman without opposition.
Then, in 1977, Mr. Rubino pleaded guilty to having extorted $6,400 from architects who were awarded a $130,000 contract to convert a former West Chester hospital into a county government annex…. 

As part of Mr. Rubino’s plea agreement, prosecutors read into the record statements that the FBI had taken from businessmen and politicians who had dealt with Mr. Rubino. They indicated that he had established set prices for those doing business with the county, ranging from milk supplies to the leases on court offices. Some of the money went to the county GOP. 

As vice president of the Huggler Insurance Agency of Paoli, Mr. Rubino also received commissions from county contracts that he personally directed to the agency. 

MORE AT:
in the shadow of paoli hospital

Thursday, May 10, 2018

What about Servicemaster's level of service for custodial services to schools?The Chester County Health Department found dirty rags on water fountains, moldy air vents, odors, unknown liquid…

WHAT ABOUT SERVICEMASTER'S LEVEL OF SERVICE:
https://app.box.com/s/sr0u9fgw9bcjeh9pouea30avs01xx7mj








Several years ago the Bethel Park School District in Pennsylvania voted to contract with ServiceMaster, a $1.5 billion multinational corporation, to provide custodial and maintenance services to city schools. The School Board took this step because it believed it would save money. Within days, 25% of the district's unionized janitors got pink slips from the city, only to receive job offers from ServiceMaster to do the same work at half the wages. Service-Master cut other costs as well, including preventive maintenance on expensive city equipment. By the time the ServiceMaster contract was up for renewal, Bethel Park had discovered the real costs of contracting out: dirty schools, destroyed equipment, and low morale among poorly-paid workers. The school district dropped the contract, having learned the hard way that contracting with a profit-making corporation raises costs while weakening public control over service delivery.
APRIL 12, 2011 
In my post, AB469: Forced Privatization of School Services and Free Rent for New Businesses?,  I linked to a fact sheet (pdf) regarding privatization of services within public schools and why it’s not a good idea. ServiceMaster is referenced over and over again, noting the problems the schools had with that particular company: 
  • Lee County, FL: The Lee County, FL Superintendent noted that the district had previously contracted custodial services out to ServiceMaster. The Superintendent indicated that the school district ended up losing money on the deal and bought out the contract to bring the cleaning services back into the district’s control.1
  • New Orleans, LA: New Orleans had to fire their contractor for escalating costs, uncut grass, filthy bathrooms, and dead animals in the classrooms. The school district estimated they would save about $2 million/year by bringing the work back in-house. The contractor, AME, was expected to be an improvement on the previous contractors, Nolmar and ServiceMaster, which also were plagued with very serious quality problems. 2
  •  Duval County, FL: ServiceMaster was brought on board in 1996 to get the schools cleaner, but complaints of unclean floors, unvacuumed carpets, trash not picked up, and chalkboards left dirty became an issue. Note that given the quality concerns, district officials planned to conduct monthly and weekly evaluations of schools (i.e. additional public funds spent). At one point, a large number of principals said custodial services were “as bad — if not worse — than ever.”A ServiceMaster official defended the dirty schools by stating they were only 7 months into their contract. In Duval Co, the employees remained employees of the county, but ServiceMaster was the manager and reduced the number of custodial positions by 51.
  • Washington, DC: In Washington DC, ServiceMaster (Register’s preferred contractor in Chattanooga and NC) first got a $105,000 study contract which it then expanded into a $14 million contract. In three years,they never had to compete in a bid process.ServiceMaster also became, according to the WP “one of the most powerful forces within DC public schools, supervising 1000 custodians and tradesmen and helping to decide who gets hired and who keeps his job.” ServiceMaster’s ever-growing contract “forced the schools to cut money for books, overtime, and special programs for children.” Control board analysts and the school CFO said the deal did not save the system money. Another concern: ServiceMaster purchases $ 8 million in supplies a year with virtually no oversight, and 30% to 40% of the goods come from its own subsidiaries, according to ServiceMaster. School personnel told the Post that there were delays in getting basic supplies and an overdependence on subcontractors for basic repairs.4
  • Assumption Parish, LA: In Assumption Parish, Louisiana, elementary school officials needed to treat a difficult flea problem in the school. Twenty-one months later, the school system spent $ 1 million to clean the schools of the remnants of the pesticide, is fighting a class-action lawsuit filed by parents of some of the schoolchildren, has filed suit to have its insurance company and other companies pay for the cleanup, and was sanctioned by the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry. This all happened when kids came home sick and disoriented after being in classrooms that had been sprayed with a pesticide only four hours earlier. ServiceMaster had the custodial contract in the school and supervised the spraying. The chemical used was not registered for sale in the state, was applied by a custodian untrained in pesticides, and was improperly applied inside the school and on the grounds. ServiceMaster was fined.5
  • Virginia Beach, VA: Cancelled their Servicemaster contract. The superintendent said ServiceMaster did not fulfill the district’s key goals: freeing principals to focus attention on instruction and reaping appreciable savings.6
  • Manchester, NH: a contract janitor hired by contractor WFF&A pleaded guilty in 1983 to second-degree murder. On parole, he was hired by the contractor to work as a janitor at Parkside Junior High School. The city’s custodians were replaced the previous summer with private contractors. The invitation to bid on the custodial work required that “Prior to placing an individual in City facilities all prospective cleaning personnel must receive clearance from the Manchester Police Department.” However, Police didn’t know whether all local background checks had been completed.7
  • Manchester, NH: A city health inspector found city dirty bathrooms at Memorial High School. Ad administration official said, “Memorial is dirty. It doesn’t seem there’s a problem that can’t be rectified with a good mopping and regular cleaning, but the floors are dirty, some of the bathrooms were in need of disinfecting and cleaning and I don’t know how long it will take them to catch up.” The work was supposed to be done by ServiceMaster. 8
  • Palm Beach, FL: Palm Beach dumped their contract with ServiceMaster at a cost of about $ 1.8 million. “Board members believe the company had promised to save $ 3.8 million this year in personnel costs, plus $ 1.9 million on material and supplies. And they aren’t happy with reports from principals of dirty cafeteria floors and classrooms. When they campaigned for the job, ServiceMaster officials created unrealistic expectations for their company…rincipals expected dramatically cleaner schools, and they didn’t get them.Their contract requires them to pay ServiceMaster for the equipment that the Illinois-based company brought to Palm Beach County, if the board wants to keep it, and the cost will be $ 1.2 million. Also, they will have to pay for ServiceMaster’s software, called MAXIMO, that handles work orders. It will cost $ 145,000.” 9
MORE AT:https://bluelyon.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/more-on-ab469-questions-about-quality-savings-and-monopolies/

MORE AT: https://app.box.com/s/u916ctq2eigg976nwfpsd999r54w31zo

Elwood Dixon is retired from the Coatesville School District. He was supervisor of the janitorial services at the Caln campus of CASH.

He told me he "knows where all the bodies are buried". 

Elwood believes the school district did not bargain in good faith when they negotiated with Servicemaster.

The school district stated there is a law that says they can do that. After a person on a state senator's staff researched it, no such law could be found. 

Elwood believes the janitors have grounds to re-negotiate their contract.


Servicemaster was hired several years ago to clean some schools in the Coatesville School District. They didn't last. There were complaints about dirty rooms and unpolished floors.  Elwood said a tractor went missing when Service Star left and that the Service Star supervisor smelled of alcohol.



Democrats are becoming the power-brokers in Chester County. So of course convicted former (CASD) Superintendent Richard Como gives money to the Democrats selection for state rep.

Since forever Republicans have been the power-brokers in Chester County. Teddy Rubino ran Chester County like Angelo Bruno ran Greater Philadelphia. 

If you had a nice business and didn’t want something to happen to it, you put cash in Teddy’s desk drawer. Now Democrats are becoming the power-brokers in Chester County. 

So of course Richard Como gives money to the Democrats selection for state rep. 

Maxwell hits Williams over Como donation
May 9th, 2018 · 1 CommentBy Mike McGannEditor, The Times



SEE:

Friday, October 14, 2011


How Richard Legree went from " Biggest drug pusher in Chester County" to CCRC Area 14 Chair





WEST CHESTER >> Richard Wallace Como, the former superintendent of the Coatesville Area School District, was found guilty of multiple counts of felony theft Friday for a scheme he concocted to purchase commemorative championship rings for members of the high school’s football team. 
MORE AT:
Ex-Coatesville school boss guilty
By Michael Rellahan, Daily Local News


 Angelo Bruno is played by actor Harvey Keitel in the 2019 Martin Scorsese film, The Irishman.[7]

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

In 2015 there was a question: What is it going to cost to have ServiceMaster come in?” WE NOW KNOW THAT IT’S $280,724.50, a 14 month contract. Are there kickbacks to individuals in the Coatesville Area School District?


The district is looking to outsource its custodial and groundskeeping services to Tennessee-based company, ServiceMaster. The proposed agreement with ServiceMaster would allow about 60 custodians and six groundskeepers to maintain their jobs in the district, at market wages, and to receive benefits including a 401K package, according to the district.   
Negotiations remain ongoing between the district and the Federation Union, which represents the custodial and groundskeeping staff, about the terms of the outsourcing plan. The Federation Union’s contract with the district expires on June 30.  

  During the public comment section of the meeting, Sharon Ross questioned the validity of the savings that are expected to come from the district outsourcing its custodians. ‘I know you’re hoping that the custodial contract is not renewed, and that there will be outsourcing,’ she said to the board. ‘The question is: what is it going to cost to have ServiceMaster come in? What happens in following years when they increase their charges?” 
MORE AT:  
Coatesville School Board passes budget with 2.4 percent taxhike  
By Lucas Rodgers, lrodgers@dailylocal.com   
POSTED: 05/13/15, 6:56 PM EDT | UPDATED: ON 05/13/2015











The Coatesville Area School District assumes all but the administrative costs and salaries of Servicemaster employees:








The Coatesville Area School Board budget calls the contract with Servicemaster "purchase property services:"

Ronald Kabonik answer why salaries declining & costs increasing.  Answer, because of services contracted through ServiceMaster.

TRANSCRIBED:

“Ron you highlighted the three areas that we looked at tonight and the forth area which is smaller but still the biggest one left, number 400 purchase property services. What is that?

Ok, if you recall back in January 10th i said the reason your salaries are declining but your costs of your 400 …are increasing is because of your services that we contracted through Service-master and DCA.(?)  Some of those employees are not being replaced and being replaced with contractor services…

CASD Board Committee Meeting 2-14-17 Part 6 
AT 28:07: 



“Several years ago the Bethel Park School District in Pennsylvania voted to contract with ServiceMaster, a $1.5 billion multinational corporation, to provide custodial and maintenance services to city schools. The School Board took this step because it believed it would save money. Within days, 25% of the district's unionized janitors got pink slips from the city, only to receive job offers from ServiceMaster to do the same work at half the wages. Service- Master cut other costs as well, including preventive maintenance on expensive city equipment.


By the time the ServiceMaster contract was up for renewal, Bethel Park had discovered the real costs of contracting out: dirty schools, destroyed equipment, and low morale among poorly-paid workers. The school district dropped the contract, having learned the hard way that contracting with a profit-making corporation raises costs while weakening public control over service delivery.”



MORE AT:


School District employees - $17  to  $20 per hour.

Servicemaster employees- $24.16  Servicemaster  -  Supervisors $31.88

Servicemaster employees receive a $1 increase in 2018-19

The information for the previous 14 month contract with Servicemaster was not provided by the CASD. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided the CASD / Servicemaster contract information. 

The Coatesville Area School District recently voted for a new contract with Service Master.

We don’t know what the current contract with Servicemaster is. It's difficult to obtain that information from the school district. 




Daily Local News

By Lucas Rodgers,

I think every school superintendent in PA knows there is a plethora of techniques for stealing public funds embedded into the Byzantine bureaucratic structure of educational facilities in PA. I beleive Servicemaster may have taken advantage of this.

I once had an intellectual argument with Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll. It was about a possible white collar crime. Joe said, “But it’s not enough to bring to court.” My argument is that it’s enough for a detective to look further into. A gut feeling that things are being concealed, vs. what is known in documents that can be evidence. 

Sometimes paper and digital records aren’t enough to prove a crime was committed. White collar crime requires people with interview knowledge, people with forensic accounting knowledge, people with knowledge of bureaucratic structure and other possibly scientific knowledge pertinent to the private or public entity is needed. It’s not like possession of so much narcotics equals so much prison sentence. 




I believe every school superintendent in Pennsylvania knows there is a plethora of techniques for stealing public funds embedded into the Byzantine bureaucratic structure of educational facilities in Pennsylvania. 


I think companies like Servicemaster  have taken advantage of this. I believe companies like Servicemaster could use kickbacks to persuade public officials to act against the public interest, while the Byzantine bureaucratic structure of public schools can hide their deeds.




2 Coatesville investigated by BDO 

This case is about Coatesville school district in Chester County. Accounting firm BDO (2014) investigated the Coatesville school district where two directors where suspected of fraud in the athletic department. The scope of their report is specifically limited to the application of forensic accounting procedures. As might be expected from an internal investigation conducted by an accounting firm, investigators filled the investigation report with numbers and charts. Obviously, investigators applied their forensic accounting knowledge in this investigation. While others had already revealed the fraud in the Acar case, this investigation started at an earlier stage where there was only suspicion of fraud. From a contingent perspective, forensic accounting knowledge was thus much more important in the Coatesville investigation than in the Acar investigation. 
By means of numbers, BDO (2014) tried to make a case of surprisingly low athletic department revenues and surprisingly high athletic department expenses. These surprises created suspicions of fraud directed at the superintendent Richard Como and former athletic director James Donato. If investigators had applied legal knowledge in this investigation, they would probably have looked more at organizational structure and authorities of both Como and Donato. If investigators had applied behavioral and interview knowledge, they might have succeeded in reconstructing the past by getting Como and Donato to tell them what really went on in terms of revenue collection and expenditures.


 The core message from all cases is that a contingent knowledge management approach is needed in internal investigations. The situation should determine what kind of knowledge to apply in a specific investigative challenge. Legal knowledge seems to dominate many investigations, where forensic accounting knowledge and management consulting knowledge might have been more appropriate. 
Forensic accounting knowledge, business knowledge and detective knowledge is often more appropriate for the purpose of reconstructing the past. The application of legal knowledge can easily result in a report of investigation focusing on formal procedures and bureaucratic improvements. 
Table 2 presents a comparison of the cases discussed from a knowledge management perspective. The table lists knowledge applied versus knowledge needed. It comes as no surprise that law firms as investigators mainly apply legal knowledge independent of critical issues at hand in the investigation. Similarly, auditing firms apply mainly auditing knowledge independent of critical issues in the investigation.


MORE AT:

Monday, May 7, 2018

Richard Como, convicted former Coatesville School Superintendent, backs Democrat Dan Williams in 74th Pennsylvania State House race.

Como gave to Dan Williams campaign 2 times in April:



WEST CHESTER >> Richard Wallace Como, the former superintendent of the Coatesville Area School District, was found guilty of multiple counts of felony theft Friday for a scheme he concocted to purchase commemorative championship rings for members of the high school’s football team. 
Como, who stepped down from his position in 2013 just before a scandal broke in the district over racist text messages he exchanged with a member of his administration, also was found guilty of charges that he improperly arranged to get his son a job as a custodial supervisor with the district, and manipulated the sale of an electric generator he owned to the district. 
The 71-year-old Como, who rose through the ranks of the district he called home for more than 20 years, sat stoically at the defense table between his two attorneys and showed little emotion as the jury foreman read the verdict, with its repeated intonation of the word “guilty.” Supporters in Senior Judge Thomas Gavin’s courtroom, however, appeared shocked at the verdict. When he heard the decision on the charge involving his hiring, Como’s son Matthew Como dropped his head and stared at the floor.
MORE AT: 
 Ex-Coatesville school boss guilty

By Michael Rellahan, Daily Local News