Was there a motive besides defending the Sahas behind all of the legal motions and intimidation at Coatesville City Council PA meetings? In 2022 we know it's ending democracy & establishing a strong man autocratic government. Judge Mahon’s doing it again.

 I wrote this in 2009:

Next the council had to defend the city charter from the proposed amendments starting two years ago. Legal experts agreed that the amendments had to be fought. The creator of these costly amendments, Sellers, had to have known that these amendments would eventually be ruled illegal, but it didn’t matter to him. The point was to cause further delay (and expense), and to take the issue closer to the elections.

The fact that it took years to get a ruling that should have been open and shut was beyond the city’s control and was very costly. Why the delays in the courts?

FROM:

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Looking through some old news with the benefit of hindsight

Chester County Common Pleas Court Judge Mahon sat on obvious frivolous lawsuits for about 2 years forcing the City of Coatesville to defend the citizens of Coatesville against the frivolous lawsuits at great expense. Now Judge Mahon is doing something similar: 

“Court of Common Pleas Judge William P. Mahon vacated his order Friday removing five members of the West Chester Area School District Board of Education — but the case and the possibility that duly-elected public officials could be removed from office remains a possibility. 

So for now, Sue Tiernan, Joyce Chester, Kate Shaw, Karen Herrmann and Daryl Durnel are back on the board after an effort to remove them for voting to keep masking rules in the district as long as the Centers for Disease Control recommended them. As the case numbers dropped, per CDC guidelines, the mask rules have since been dropped. 

Let’s be clear on this: it stinks to high heaven that it ever got this far…

If lost, such suits would increase taxes to the Act 1 limit, and see cuts in services, extra curricular activities and boost class sizes. Additionally, a weakened local district means your home value could drop.  

So, the WCASD board (and pretty much every other school board in the county) moved to protect students, staff and the wider community, despite literally insane claims that masks trapped CO and impaired breathing. There was no perfect solution — masks make it harder for kids to interact and read emotion, but actually being in school as opposed to virtual class was seen as the least bad solution…

Hence, this pathetic attempt to remove school board members from various school boards around the county, all of whom are Democrats. In short, this is a coup and an open attack on democracy. 

People like Beth Ann Rosica and the political action committee that backs her — Back to School, funded by Bucks County venture capitalist Paul Martino – don’t believe in democracy or majority rule. They are seeking to destroy our public school system to enable for-profit schools.  

In the end, it is never about some “freedom” or “parental rights” effort – it is about putting more money in the pockets of fat cats at the expense of the rest of us. It is about naked greed.

But Judge Mahon also deserves heavy criticism for his handling of this case.

He clearly misinterpreted the rules on this filing, both in terms of timing and substance. And as someone who often refused to wear a mask in his courtroom when it was required under county rules, one has to wonder exactly how impartial Mahon is in this case. 

I also question why this case wasn’t rejected out of hand…

So the whole thing should be have been tossed from the get go…

Bottom line: even if Mahon rules against the school board members, it is highly likely that the Commonwealth Court would immediately issue a stay and reverse the decision – both because of law and common sense. 

If this is sustained, Republican members of school boards will be subject to the same treatment – wasting public funds and time — and creating chaos. 

If a handful of people — 10 petition signers and a judge — can overturn thousands of votes, not because of misconduct, but because of policy disagreement, we no longer have a representative democracy. 

We have mob rule. 

This must not stand.

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Move to remove WCASD board members is an attack on democracy

Apr 3rd, 2022 · 0 Comment

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times