Visiting with the SWEEP program in Allentown, PA

Coatesville City Manager Ted Reed told the Coatesville City Council that he and Daimler Molina were going to Allentown to find out what they could about Allentown’s rapid ticketing program for codes offenses. It’s for codes violations that can be viewed on the outside of properties such as trash violations and weed violations.


What was not mentioned is that Weed and Seed director Allen Smith and Robert Davis allegedly went along with Mr. Reed and Mr. Molina. Allen Smith, our Weed and Seed Coordinator, has a legitimate reason to be at the meeting. What reason does former Judge Davis have to be there?


It was not Mr. Davis’s first inquiry into Allentown’s rapid ticketing program. He allegedly showed up unannounced in an Allentown Magisterial Judge’s courtroom asking about the rapid ticketing program. He allegedly was told to go and ask in Philly about the rapid ticketing program.
Magisterial Judges are employees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Magisterial Courts and Common Pleas Courts are separate organizations in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.


Mr. Davis had reached the mandatory retirement age for Pennsylvania Magistrate Judges on Dec. 30, 2008. “But Chester County President Judge Paula Francisco Ott appointed him a senior judge, which means that although he can't be re-elected to a district judge seat, he can be appointed to any judge seat in Pennsylvania.” (Daily Local News.)


The “Senor Judge” title allegedly bequeathed on Judge Davis by then Chester County President Judge Ott didn’t exactly stick. Judge Hines was sworn in on October 16, 2009, before he officially won the election. I believe that one reason for the early swearing in was that Mr. Davis did not put the required amount of time in to be a Senior Judge. And, another reason is that the authority over Magisterial Judges comes from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The authority to appoint a senior magistrate judges rests entirely with the Commonwealth Supreme Court.


Why did Judge Davis continue for several months as a “Senior” Judge? Why wasn’t a qualified senior judge or judges appointed to fill out Judge Davis’s term?


There is more in the details of this story. It seems that someone allegedly representing himself as Judge Davis from Coatesville is the person that allegedly set up the meeting with Coatesville City Manager Ted Reed, Codes Director Daimler Molina and Weed, Seed Coordinator Allen Smith and himself in Allentown with Ann Saurman Director of Allentown’s SWEEP “Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Program).


Part of that program is the rapid ticketing for codes offenses that the City of Coatesville is proposing. Coatesville would need to have an administrator for Coatesville’s version of SWEEP that is now being discussed at City Hall. Was “Judge” Davis attempting to create a position for himself as the administrator of Coatesville’s rapid ticketing program?


There is that quote from “The Little Red Book of (CCRC Area 14) Chairman Richard Legree”, “If no one knows it’s a law, the law ain’t broken”.


Hmmm, I wonder; is the Judicial Conduct Board of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania looking into all of this?


See:
Daily Local News-S. Coatesville's Hines to run for district judge

And:

Judge Davis: 'I believe I helped a lot of people'