When Chester County Democrats and Republicans go to the polls for the primary election on May 20, they won’t be able to vote on a candidate for county prothonotary.
Even though the former prothonotary, Democrat Debbie Bookman, resigned last October amid an investigation into financial irregularities, county officials somehow failed to include the prothonotary position on the primary ballot.
As a result, the two major parties — and not voters in a primary — will pick the nominees to face off in November’s general election.
A county row officer, the prothonotary serves as the chief clerk of the county’s Court of Common Pleas and is responsible for civil court documents and case filings.
County Chief Executive Officer David A. Byerman said the county legal staff had not included the prothonotary on the primary ballot.
“The error was realized well after the filing deadline and as ballot printing was getting underway,” said Byerman. “County staff brought this issue to the county commissioners (Wednesday) morning as soon as our legal research and internal deliberations confirming the error were complete.
“The commissioners unanimously agreed that the major county parties should be notified immediately. That same day, we convened a conference call with the chairs and solicitors of both the Republican and Democratic parties. We laid out the remedy, which is the same time-tested procedure we typically follow to fill unexpected municipal vacancies on the ballot.
“The major parties will determine their nominees through their own processes, and those candidates will appear on the fall general election ballot. The newly elected prothonotary will fill the remainder of Ms. Bookman’s term (two years),” Byerman said.
“Kristen Hume is currently serving as acting prothonotary and I brought her up to speed last night, well after the commissioners and party officials were notified. I have not asked her if she will be a candidate this fall.”
Chester County GOP chair Dr. Raffi Terzian confirmed the party was informed about the error.
“During a conference call yesterday with county officials, including Commissioner (Chair Josh) Maxwell, we were informed that the office of prothonotary should have been included on the ballot for this election cycle. The county acknowledged that a significant error was made by county officials and the county solicitor, who provided erroneous guidance regarding the disposition of the office of prothonotary. As a result, the position will now appear on the ballot in the upcoming municipal election in November, not on the primary ballot.
“They did not provide any information as to how this glaring error occurred, or when they first learned about it, or why they waited until yesterday to inform party representatives,” Terzian added.
Democrats control Chester County government, and the local Democratic Party was reluctant to criticize.
“A mistake was made,” Chester County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte Valyo told DV Journal.
“The Board of Elections took responsibility for the error, acted immediately to inform both parties, and provided the information we need to solve the problem. The Chester County Democratic Committee is moving forward to nominate a candidate for the office of Prothonotary and work to elect that candidate.”
Byerman added, “This was a good-faith mistake, and mistakes sometimes happen. What’s as important is what happens next. We have worked to rectify this situation with integrity and fairness, and we’re on track to have a democratically elected successor this fall.”
“I know we’ve got a tremendous increase that’s being proposed to our taxes. I know what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet and the county, the state, the federal government — everybody has to deal with that. The problem here is the county can at the stroke of a pen, just get more money. You can impose that on every citizen that’s here. Myself and every citizen that’s here can’t do that. We have to seek other means. In other words, we’ve got to tighten our belt and we’ve got to cut the fat.”
Pat Carnevale wasn’t alone. He was one of dozens of voices expressing dismay and frustration last December as Chester County was on the cusp of approving a thirteen percent real estate tax increase — three times larger than the previous four percent tax increase in 2020.
If Chester County had any grace, anything that shielded it from more wrath, perhaps it was only that weeks before, neighboring Delaware County had dropped a whopping 24 percent tax on its citizens. As bad as a thirteen percent tax increase would be, at least it wasn’t Delaware County.
Chester County’s three-person board of commissioners empathized with the frustrated crowd. But when the rhetoric, empathy, and public comment was over, the two Democrats voted ‘yes’ on the tax increase, and the lone Republican voted ‘no.’
Just before casting his ‘yes’ vote, Chairman Josh Maxwell (D) said inflation and other minor issues had nibbled at the edges of the budget, but citizens could rest assured knowing most of the thirteen percent increase was really due to two “big ticket” items: a county-wide refresh of the radios used by every law enforcement agency in the 759-square mile county, and a series of upgrades to the county prison.
The county last updated the radios in 2015, and with a ten-year lifespan, it was time to reinvest.
As for the prison, was there anyone in the county who had forgotten the saga of Danelo Cavalcante, a Brazilian national who escaped from the county prison in the fall of 2023, and remained on the loose for two weeks?
“I don’t want anyone here to think that this county is interested in expanding government tremendously or increasing annual spending in perpetuity,” Maxwell reassured the crowd that had just vented its anger at him. “Those are the two big ticket items that in addition to a little bit of inflation we absorbed this year.”
Despite Maxwell’s reasoning, a Broad + Liberty analysis of the last ten years of budgets for the county seriously undermines that rationale. The county disputes many parts of the analysis, which will be generously incorporated into the story.
The analysis shows for the millions of dollars devoted to prison upgrades, much of that up-front capital was provided by a bond sale — in other words, the county took on debt, and would be paying it off over the course of several years.
As for the radios, a sizable chunk of the money set aside for that category of spending in the budget was coming from federal and state grants.
The county’s prison spending is spread out over ten years which should have spared citizens from the need for a massive, one-year tax hike. And the county’s new law enforcement radios could have been financed to lessen the pain, but officials didn’t examine the possibility.
The Broad + Liberty analysis that follows below asserts the county’s tax increase was needed to cover years of growth in spending across numerous areas of county government, much of which was driven by salary increases and spending growth in the “human services” category.
Prison upgrades
At the December meeting, Commissioner Maxwell listed multiple improvements to the county prison, “about $6 million going towards security upgrades to that prison that hasn’t been touched in decades,” he told the angry crowd.
Those improvements included new security features like specialized fencing, and adding a K-9 unit. Furthermore, the county was investing in the core building by replacing the roof and upgrading features like the air conditioners and air handlers that provide fresh air to the interior. Increasing staff salaries was also a priority.
Before diving further into the prison spending, it’s important to understand a couple of features of large government budgets and how some of those features work in Chester County.
Large purchases or investments are generally called “capital expenditures” or “capital spending.” A good definition can be found at business-standard.com, which says, “Capital expenditure is the money spent by the government on the development of machinery, equipment, building, health facilities, education, etc. It also includes the expenditure incurred on acquiring fixed assets like land and investment by the government that gives profits” or dividends in the future.
Chester County splits its capital spending into two different funds: the Capital Improvement Fund which pays for capital expenditures by borrowing money by selling bonds, and the Capital Reserve Fund, which pays for large investments with cash.
The prison upgrades were largely placed under the Capital Improvement Fund, which, as just explained, means those purchases were financed with debt.
Page 267 of the 2025 final budget document provides a breakout of the Capital Improvement Fund, and shows $3.7 million for the prison roof replacement, and another $3.7 million for heating and air replacements. Together, the two projects total $7.4 million.
According to all of the budgets from 2016 to present, the county’s outlays for its borrowing — usually called “debt service” — was not set to be significantly greater in 2025 than in any of the previous four years. Taking all that context together, it’s correct to say the prison upgrades were expensive, but that the cost is to be spread over many years.
(Source: Chester County budget documents, 2016-2025)
With this in mind, Broad + Liberty asked why a steep increase in taxes was necessary if outlays for debt service for the prison upgrades weren’t significantly increased as well.
“The County drew down the Debt Service fund balance in 2024. The 2025 budget necessitated an increase in debt service millage to cover the budgeted [debt service] expenditures totaling $55.9 million in 2025,” said, Julie Bookheimer, the county’s chief financial officer.
The first part of the answer is incomplete without the context of how much the Debt Service fund balance should be, and where it stood at the beginning of the fiscal year. The second part of the answer merely repeats the question in the form of a statement.
When the county was asked this question again in a different way, the county replied: “While prison facility improvements are in the Capital Improvement Fund, there are more than $3 million in increased prison-related costs within the 2025 operating budget.”
In this response, the county acknowledges that most of the prison one-time improvements will be financed with bonds, and as such, the impact is spread out over many years, but that the prison line-item in the operating budget has gone up by $3 million, meaning that is new spending that will likely be recurring every year.
The county further itemized the $3 million by saying “$2.35 million [is] for medical treatment, and other items such as food and clothing supplies, repair and maintenance, training and staff development, utilities, and vehicles and general expenditures related to the addition of K9s.”
Still, that is only $3 million in “new” spending in the operating budget. The thirteen percent tax increase is set to raise an additional $26.8 million. There’s a long way to go.
Law Enforcement Radios
At the December meeting, Maxwell gave an explanation of payment for new law enforcement radios that would appeal to the fiscally conservative.
“These police radios last ten years, so we’re moving them from one side of the budget to another,” he began.
“Previously the county would take on debt for twenty years to pay for those types of work, but the radios only last ten years. So, next year you’re going to be paying for two radios for your tax bill, one that’s no longer working and one we just bought for our police officers. In eleven years, because we moved it over and now we’re paying it as you go and not taking on bonds for it — eleven years from now, we’ll only be paying for one radio. So we have to make a sacrifice today, but it’s not a choice that this board made ten years ago. But eleven years from now, we won’t be paying for things that we aren’t using anymore,” Maxwell concluded, subtly portraying his Republican predecessors as less responsible.
The undisputed cost of the radio purchase is $12 million dollars. One item left unmentioned by Maxwell, however, was that the county was splitting the purchase across a two-year period, about $6 million in 2025 and another $6 million the following year.
The purchases are listed in the budget’s “Capital Reserve Fund” which, as explained before, is a fund for capital expenditures that are not financed but are on a pay-as-you-go basis, like Maxwell said.
Maxwell’s speech about the radios could be seen as offering a false choice to residents, however. In it, he talks about financing the purchases for 20-year periods. Financing instruments, like bonds, can be issued for a variety of time periods.
Broad + Liberty directly asked why the county did not take on ten-year debt for a ten-year capital investment, or, why the county didn’t take out 20-year bonds and pay them off ahead of schedule. Either option would satisfy Maxwell’s desire to “only be paying for one radio” eleven years from now.
“At that time, the interest rates were higher than in previous years. Therefore, the cost to borrow was (and is) higher. Debt incurred over twenty years should be for assets that have an expected life of twenty or more years. This equipment has an estimated useful life of ten years or less. The County continues to manage debt in a responsible manner as attested to the Triple-A rating by all three rating agencies,” Brookheimer said.
When asked, the county said it did not do any analysis at all on financing the radios, regardless of whether over a ten-year period or otherwise. The county further said it did not shop for loan pricing from the Delaware Valley Regional Finance Authority. The authority is an agency in southeast Pennsylvania created by Philadelphia’s four collar counties to tackle problems just like this. The counties pool their money together into the DVRFA which then gives bond loans at an interest rate lower than the retail market. In essence, the four counties created their own credit union.
Finally, the Capital Reserve Fund — the capital expenditure account that does not borrow but makes investments on a pay-as-you-go basis — is substantially funded from outside sources in the 2025 budget. The county agreed that “the radios are 43.7 paid for by federal and state grants.” This, too, would seem to mitigate the impact to the taxpayer. When Maxwell and the county talk about the radios, they give the full price tag of $12 million to justify the price increase, but seldom mention that grants will pay a considerable portion.
General Growth
Setting aside the issues of the prison and radio improvements, the county has seen growth in the last five years, in population, the tax base, and in the overall size of the county government.
It is important to understand this next part of the analysis focuses exclusively on what’s called the “Operating Budget.” This is the part of the budget over which the commissioners have the most control on an annual or even day-to-day basis. This analysis excludes the “consolidated budget” which contains many items that are done in partnership with the state or federal governments, and which also remain mostly static in cost from year to year.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Chester County’s population grew from about 534,000 to 561,000 from 2020 to 2024 — a five percent increase.
The county budget has grown at least five times faster than the county’s population since Democrats took the majority on the county board of commissioners in 2020.
The county’s revenue from real estate taxes has grown from $169 million in 2020 to $212 million in the 2025 budget — a 25 percent increase. Not all of that is from tax increases. Some of that comes from new ratable: new residential or commercial developments whose taxes are incremental to the existing property tax base.
(Source: Chester County budget documents)
However, the Broad + Liberty analysis demonstrates that the incremental spending — and therefore growth in county government — does not stop at 25 percent. In addition to spending $43 million in additional real estate tax receipts, the 2025 budget uses $17 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, or ARPA.
Furthermore, the 2025 budget spends $10 million from “appropriated fund balances.” In layman’s speak, this is cash already on hand in reserve funds. It is not regularly recurring revenue, like real estate taxes that are guaranteed to come in every year. Like any savings account, it is drawn down when money is needed to cover operating expenses.
Adding all these pieces together, in order to balance the 2025 budget, the county spent $43M in additional real estate tax revenue, generated primarily from a doubt digit tax increase, $17M in federal covid relief funds, and $10M in reserves, for a total increase in $70M.
By incorporating the ARPA and fund balances, the Broad + Liberty analysis concludes the county’s overall spending has gone from $169 million to $239 million — a 41 percent increase. To put in the plainest terms, since Democrats took a majority in Chester County, county government has grown 41 percent according to our analysis.
The county disputes this analysis, especially the idea that one-time funds are going to recurring expenses.
“Taxes were raised to cover ever-increasing expenditures as well as the large ticket items discussed. Revenues have not been growing at the same rate as expenditures over the last five years despite the County’s efforts to control costs,” Brookheimer said. “Those one-time funds were used primarily for one-time expenditures as explained in previous email responses. In other words, [the] vast majority of those expenditures will end as the one-time funds end.”
What’s indisputable is that many areas of recurring spending in the county budget have seen continual increases in the last five years. Personnel costs for the county have exploded since 2020.
(Source: 2016-2025 Chester County budget documents)
The county noted that in 2023, it took over Community Transit, which added to the overall personnel costs. It should also be noted that Community Transit also came fully funded, so the county did not have to create additional revenue to pay for those employees.
However, an analysis of the county’s 2024 payroll obtained previously by a Right to Know Law request shows that Community Transit accounted for $3.9 million of payroll in 2024. Even when adjusting 2024 and 2025 payroll to exclude Community Transit, payroll is still up by roughly 21 percent when compared to 2022.
The county defended the increase in personnel spending.
“In 2022, many salaries were adjusted as a result of a salary study. The purpose of the salary study was to ensure that Chester County remains competitive with the surrounding counties so that we can maintain our workforce. Also, the cost of benefits increased by [fifteen percent] due to market demand – coming off COVID.”
The county gave two direct examples. “Correctional Officer – Base salary in 2021 – $41,939; Base salary in 2024 – $55,399. Regional Park Ranger – Base salary in 2021 – $39,472; Base salary in 2024 – $46,754,” Brookheimer said.
More changes in personnel spending may be in the offing.
“The County is currently performing a salary study with the plan to potentially implement in 2026. The County wants to continue to attract talented / qualified employees and remain somewhat competitive with surrounding counties and the private sector to continue the services expected to be provided by the County. At this time, the cost is not known since the study is not complete. However, it is not anticipated that the cost will be on the same level as the 2022 study since a study had not been done for twenty years prior to 2022,” Brookheimer said.
The Human Services category has also seen tremendous growth under the Democrats’ watch. The category’s 2020 budget was $234.3 million. By 2025, that figure had ballooned to $312.3 million — an increase of $78 million dollars, or 33 percent. (Some of that category growth could be from salary increases, and as such, could overlap with previous references to growth in personnel costs.)
SUMMARY
Like many other counties or municipal governments, Chester County also says inflation forced many of its budget increases. In an online “information sheet” the county pointed us to explaining the tax hike, the flyer led with the fact that the county was absorbing higher prices. Only after that did it tout the prison upgrades and radio refresh. The county sent similar mailers sent to citizens.
One significant element of the “big ticket” spending remains elusive: What will happen to that new revenue once the “big ticket” items are paid for? If the county raised taxes to pay $12 million in cash for new radios ($6 million in 2025, and $6 million in 2026), then what will the county do with that cash flow once the radios are paid off?
“At this point, we have not started fine tuning the 2026 and 2027 budgets to adequately determine our funding needs. However, with a County of our size, there are always projects surfacing that need immediate attention. One big ticket item paid for in the near future does not necessarily mean there are excess funds available in future years as other projects or needs surface. Inflation and rising costs continue to impact the County service and operational costs.”
If both “big ticket” items were paid for in up-front cash in the 2025 budget, they still wouldn’t add up to the total tax increase. The two “big ticket” items together totaled $18-19 million. The county’s tax increase is scheduled to bring in $26.8 million — a difference of about $8 million.
At a minimum, the county’s communications about the impact of the “big ticket” items — especially the first-year impact and how that would affect taxes and why that necessitated an immediate tax increase — seems to have been incomplete.
The county could have spread out the costs of the radios with debt that was scheduled to last the lifetime of the equipment — ten years — but did not choose even to shop those options. Additionally, state and federal grants are funding a sizable portion of the overall purchase, at least in the first year — a fact rarely, if ever, mentioned by Maxwell or other county officials.
Most of the costs of the prison upgrades are financed, which should lessen the need for an immediate infusion of new cash, but the county has rarely spoken about those projects as payments spread out over time.
The county’s overall growth, meanwhile, is undeniable. As explained above, Broad + Liberty’s assessment is that since 2020, county revenues have grown 41 percent. Although the county disputes our analysis, it concedes that the operating budget is up 29 percent over that same time — an incredible amount of growth that can’t be explained away by just inflation or incremental growth forced on the government by the Covid-19 crisis. A county budget that goes up 29 percent in five years would seem to directly contradict Maxwell’s assertion that the county wasn’t “expanding government tremendously or increasing annual spending in perpetuity.”
(For the sake of story length, Broad + Liberty obviously could not incorporate every response or answer to a question to which the county responded. In an effort to provide the county with as much voice as possible to its answers and comments, Broad + Liberty is publishing both sets of those email conversations available here: SET 1, SET 2. The questions are posed by Todd Shepherd; Chester County CFO Julie B. Bookheimer provided the answers. The 2019-2025 budgets are all available at this county website. Years prior to 2019 can be accessed here.)
Chester County was a hotbed of Abolitionist sentiment in the 1800s.
As a consequence, many Union Army soldiers came from this area, including notable officers that helped lead the campaign against slavery. On Saturday, April 5 at 10 a.m. local historian David Walters will present a public talk on 10 Chester County Civil War generals, including some of the most highly decorated officers in the campaign.
Generals Henry Guss and Galusha Pennypacker
Chester County also produced the youngest Brigadier General to ever serve in the US Army. (This general was too young to vote for the president that appointed him). This presentation will discuss the wide range of adventures experienced by the military leaders from Chester County, including Medal of Honor awards.
The talk will be given at the Westtown Township Building located at 1039 Wilmington Pike West Chester. This event is presented by the Westtown Historical Commission and is free to the public.
It will be followed by a discussion of the upcoming America 250 year-long celebration planned for America’s 250th birthday in 2026. Readers can contact the Westtown Historical Commission.
Chester County Parks and Preservation announced this week the total number of acres preserved in 2024. Through partnerships with municipalities, conservancies and the state, more than 1,240 acres were confirmed as permanent open space in 2024 and added to Chester County’s preserved land that covers more than 31 percent of the county.
Chester County’s two preservation initiatives, Open Lands and Agricultural Preservation, leverage diverse funding opportunities to help keep farmers on the land, provide safe and accessible places for children and families to play, and protect the woods and wildlife that make Chester County special.
Chester County Commissioners’ Chair Josh Maxwell said, “As the fastest growing county in Pennsylvania, it is crucial to balance land preservation with land development, ensuring the growth takes place in and around our urban areas, so that we can continue to connect parcels of protected open space.
“We have been protecting land for more than three decades, and over that time have developed a smart approach to open space preservation – be it farms or fields.”
The 2024 Open Land Preservation Partnership Program permanently saved 740 acres. This program offers grant opportunities to municipalities and non-profit land conservation organizations to preserve significant natural, recreational, agricultural, historic, and cultural land resources; enhance public access to those lands; provide public benefit; and implement county and municipal land use policies.
Notable projects funded last year through this program included the 204-acre Crebilly Preserve acquisition by Westtown Township, the156-acre Embreeville acquisition by West Bradford Township for a future park, and the 89-acre acquisition by the Willistown Conservation Trust for the soon-to-be publicly accessible Kestrel Hill Preserve.
Chester County Commissioner Marian Moskowitz noted, “Chester County was the first in the region to formally set aside funds for a rigorous open space preservation program, and that program has grown to be appreciated, not just for the green fields, preserved farms and community parks, but also for the partnerships with municipalities, farmers and conservancies that have leveraged the County’s investment in protected land many-fold.”
The Open Lands Program is currently accepting conservancy and municipal applications for funding through the Preservation Partnership Program until February 28, 2025.
Chester County’s Agricultural Land Preservation Program preserved over 500 acres of farmland through administering the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program and the Chester County Challenge Grant Program. These programs strengthen the county’s agricultural economy, protect prime farmland, and enable the county to purchase conservation easements from farmers.
“Farmland is a key aspect of Chester County’s bucolic legacy,” said Chester County Commissioner Eric Roe. “Thanks to the tremendous partnerships that have been developed with staff from our county departments, members of our Ag Land Preservation Board, our farm owners, conservancies and municipalities, we are able to add hundreds of acres of preserved farmland every year.”
The application deadline for Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program and the Chester County Challenge Grant Program is the first Friday in August. If selected, landowners should expect to hear from the County between Thanksgiving and Christmas to begin the easement process.
To date, Chester County has funded the preservation of over 65,000 acres of farmland, open space, nature preserves, and parks, in partnership with farmers, municipalities, non-profits, and landowners in all 73 municipalities.
For more information on the county’s preservation programs visit.
The Chester County treasurer’s side gig of working as an expert witness in civil trials has been dealt substantial blows in the last three years, as her testimony has been excluded from two trials in which she was presumably paid by the plaintiffs to provide expert medical testimony.
In at least one of those cases, the judge ruled that Patricia Maisano, a Democrat elected as the Chester County treasurer in 2017, didn’t have the expertise required to allow her testimony to be considered by the jury.
Those revelations come in addition to a Broad + Liberty report from 2021 showing Maisano has for years claimed she received masters and doctorate degrees from Sheffield State University, or sometimes Sheffield University. Whichever name is used, both describe a website that is really a diploma mill that sells bogus, unaccredited master’s degrees for $399 and doctorate degrees for $499.
Yet in neither case did any of the attorneys or judges appear to notice that Maisano’s masters and doctorate degrees were fake.
When reached by phone last week for comment, Maisano immediately cut off the conversation and ended the call. “I’m done now. I’m done now. Do not call me again,” she said before hanging up.
At least as early as 2017, Maisano was describing her “doctorate” degree as being conferred by Sheffield University, as seen on this Treddyfrin Democrats website.
There is, however, a Sheffield University in England, but as Broad + Liberty’s 2021 report noted, “Attempts to verify if Maisano ever attended or was awarded a degree by Sheffield University in England are ongoing, and will be updated when that information is received.”
Two weeks after that report, a spokesperson for the real, accredited Sheffield University in England said, “Our academic verification team have got back to me and said that as far as they can tell, there are no records of anyone studying here with the name Patricia Maisano.” The request for verification also used Maisano’s maiden name. If Maisano did, in fact, ever attend the Sheffield University in England, she has refused to provide any proof.
Working as an expert witness can be lucrative. Plaintiffs or defendants in civil trials often hire experts to testify in order to give the jury a better understanding of facts that require deep mastery of complex subjects, such as a doctor offering expertise on a certain kind of trauma, or forensic accountants who can explain byzantine financial transactions. Such experts are able to charge anywhere from $200 to $1,500 an hour, both in their time for preparing for trial as well as for their in-trial testimony.
Not only must the person have the qualifications to offer expert testimony, but they must also frequently understand rules and regulations of the court that govern how their testimony is offered.
In one of the court cases in which Maisano’s testimony was excluded, her credibility and expertise were called into question, and suffered a withering rebuke.
In a 2021 case from Florida, a woman plaintiff alleged she suffered physical and emotional abuse during four years of her romantic relationship with the defendant. Maisano said the woman suffered PTSD because of the relationship.
But the defendants moved to have Maisano’s conclusions removed from the trial, and the judge agreed.
“Here, the Report [authored by Maisano] contains two and a half pages of vague and conclusory assertions that Plaintiff has PTSD, and that Defendant is the direct cause of this ailment,” the judge wrote. “Nowhere in the Report does Maisano explain the criteria that she used to diagnose or confirm that Plaintiff has PTSD, nor does she explain how she came to the opinion that Defendant was the direct cause of Plaintiff’s psychological ailments.”
In another part of addressing the question of whether Maisano should be allowed as an expert, the judge ruled on a procedure which requires the expert to list other cases in which he or she has testified as an expert.
“As to the fifth requirement, the [Maisano] Report fails to list all of the cases within the past four years in which Maisano has testified as an expert,” the judge noted. “In fact, the Report does not list a single instance in which Maisano has ever testified.”
The judge was further critical of Maisano’s alleged expertise.
“However, nothing in Maisano’s credentials indicates that she has extensive or specialized experience in diagnosing or treating PTSD — let alone linking a diagnosis to its root cause. In fact, Maisano is licensed as a nurse in Delaware and Pennsylvania, both of which appear to prohibit nurses from independently offering medical diagnoses,” the judge wrote.
“Moreover, nothing within Maisano’s curriculum vitae convinces the Court that she has specialized training in diagnosing PTSD and its origins. Nor has any evidence been proffered that Maisano is in fact a specialist within this field.”
The judge’s rebuke stands in contrast to a legal experts website in which Maisano appeared to write her own testimonial about her effectiveness in medical cases.
“I have also worked with attorneys as a consultant when have been considering cases and when they have needed the medical game plan for a successful outcome,” the site reads. “My testimony has been favored over Doctors and Psychologists by the courts, with most of the cases I have been involved in hostile and lawyers combative. Although I certainly appreciate the ‘more easy’ case, in this part of the US I have a reputation for handling the ugly.”
In a separate case from North Carolina, Maisano offered her opinions for a plaintiff in a medical malpractice case against Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center based in Charlotte.
In arguing that Maisano should be excluded, Novant’s attorneys wrote, “Both Nurse Maisano and Nurse Boyer fail to qualify as an expert witness…as neither spent the majority of their professional time from the year previous to January 9, 2020 — the date of the alleged incident — in active clinical practice or the instruction of students at an accredited health professional school.”
The filing also took aim at how long Maisano had been away from actual clinical work.
“After earning her RN degree, Nurse Maisano worked as a medical-surgical unit nurse from 1972 to 1974 and later advanced into acute psychiatric work and hematology ending in 1980,” the defense attorneys wrote. “This is the last time Nurse Maisano provided care to patients in a clinical setting and concludes the extent of Nurse Maisano’s clinical experience. Moreover, Nurse Maisano has not administered medications to patients at bedside since 1984.”
(Editor’s note: The previous quote was edited for readability by removing certain legal notations.)
The subsequent December 2023 ruling by the judge excluded Maisano on technical grounds, and as such, did not go into detail on Maisano’s level of expertise — or lack thereof — as the previous judge did.
Using the federal court records database, Broad + Liberty was unable to identify any other federal cases in which Maisano was allowed to testify as an expert.
Maisano keeps a website to represent her availability as an expert witness. On that site, her curriculum vitae says she has worked as a “national patient coordinator” at “Crossroads Head Injury Center” in Pittsburgh. Broad + Liberty is unable to find any evidence of that institution.
There is a Crossroads Speech & Hearing, Inc. located in Pittsburgh and which was established in 1981, but it’s unclear if that’s the institution Maisano is referencing. A request for confirmation of her employment there is pending.
Additionally, the same CV lists her masters and a PhD, but the CV fails to list the institution or institutions from which those degrees were conferred.
Other elements of Maisano’s resume check out.
She was involved in the creation of a company called IKOR that provided senior care and senior care consulting, and eventually sold regional franchise units. At some unknown date, IKOR was sold to RiseMark Brands. In 2016, Investors Management Corporation, a Raleigh, North Carolina, private investment firm, absorbed IKOR as part of its acquisition of RiseMark.
Business records available online at the Pennsylvania Department of State show an IKOR registered in 1993 with Patricia Maisano as president.
A request for comment sent to a senior manager at RiseMark was not returned.
Various IKOR franchises can still occasionally be found, mostly in the northeast.
Sheffield State University’s diploma-mill website, meanwhile, barely conceals its true purpose.
“Sheffield State University offers a wide range of Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate/PhD in a broad variety of fields. It’s easy: just complete our free, no obligation, evaluation form and submit it to us, risk free,” the site says.
How can someone apply to Sheffield State? The website’s answer is riddled with grammatical, punctuation, and style errors that would embarrass a middle school student.
“You just have to proceed to the Apply Now, select your desired major in which you have experience and want to grow your career. But it is essential that you provide your complete detail regarding your work or life experiences,” the website says. “Also personal information is required for us to provide accreditation to your degree. As our experts will evaluate your experience for applied degree standards and give you credit as per your evaluation so you can meet industry standards set my Unites Sates Educational Department.
“After that your payment will be verified once we will receive your payment confirmation your order will be proceed to dispatch level. This way you will receive your doctorate degree within 7 days’ time frame with proper process and evaluation so you don’t have any issue when you provide it your employer or experts of your industry. Our aim is to provide growth to your skills and career not to play with it.”
A 2015 report by the Hartford Courant published one of the first news reports to alert the public to Sheffield State’s deceptions, the kind of which had become more common in the internet era.
In 2023, the Irish news outlet RTÉ caught a psychologist widely using the honorific of “Dr.” even though her doctorate was from Sheffield State. She apologized after the report aired.
Chester County Commissioners Chairman Josh Maxwell posted on X that the Chester County government services center was evacuated Tuesday evening because of a bomb threat.
Voters who vote at the two polling places there were diverted to other locations nearby by where they can cast provisional ballots and those locations well stay open until 10 p.m. for those displaced voters only.
Bomb sniffing dogs are searching the government services center and if no bomb is found it will be back in use soon, Maxwell said.
Later Maxwell posted, “In Chester County, PA about half our our election work was delayed about an hour and half due to the bomb threat. Our team is back to full throttle to count in person and mail in ballots.”
Chester County DA Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe said they are working with the FBI and the bomb threat appeared to have originated overseas.
“This is part of a consistent coordinated attempt to call in bomb threats to swing states to disrupt the election,” said de Barrena-Sarobe.
At a press conference, Gov. Josh Shapiro said there have been multiple bomb threats to polling places but there is “no credible threat to the public.”
“Millions of legal eligible voters made their voices heard,” said Shapiro.
Chester County Government’s focus on ending homelessness recently received an $800,000 boost with a grant awarded by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA). PHFA’s Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement – or PHARE – funds will expand the County’s current effort to support those who are experiencing homelessness, with the goal of helping them to become safely and permanently housed.
“This grant is great news for Chester County, and it is a testament to the staff in our Department of Community Development who, every day, seek to find homes for those who do not have them, and help those who have homes keep them,” said Chester County Commissioners’ Chair Josh Maxwell.
“The team prepared a compelling application for the funding, noting the effective programs and strategies that we have in place, and how the additional funding will be effective and measurable.”
The activities that will be funded under the PHARE grant include support for Chester County’s 211 Call Center, expansion of the County’s Street Outreach Team, emergency housing coordination and strategic plan effort for Chester County’s Partnership to End Homelessness initiative.
Chester County Commissioner Marian Moskowitz said, “A large portion of this grant will contribute to the 211 Call Center – located right here in Chester County – which is the single point of entry for people experiencing a housing crisis or who need emergency housing resources. Calling 211 helps to determine the housing need, which can lead to connections with Chester County’s Street Outreach Team – another service that will be expanded thanks to this PHARE funding.”
Since the PHARE funding began in 2018, Chester County’s Department of Community Development has received a total of $3.1 million to enhance and expand efforts to prevent and end homelessness.
“One of the greatest benefits of the PHARE program is that the funds are provided to meet locally identified needs,” said Chester County Commissioner Eric Roe. “Our application explains how the grant can best support our strategies, programs and efforts to prevent and end homelessness right here in Chester County, which leads to real impact.”
In addition to Chester County’s Department of Community Development, 14 other county organizations received PHARE grants totaling more than $3 million. Many of these organizations are part of the Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness network.
Funding for the PHARE awards comes from two main sources. Since 2012, the program has received a portion of the impact fees collected from natural gas companies operating in Pennsylvaniawith a goal of addressing the housing shortage caused by the impact of drilling. That is supplemented with funding provided by a portion of the realty transfer tax.
Josh Maxwell, chair of the Chester County Board of Commissioners, has been elected Chairman of the Board of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the Greater Philadelphia region’s federally-designated metropolitan planning organization.
Maxwell, 40, was elected as DVRPC Board Chair to serve for fiscal year 2025, and in this role, will oversee an 18-member board that represents the nine-county Greater Philadelphia region. In addition to defining the duties of the Office of the DVRPC Executive Director and DVRPC committees, the Board establishes regional transportation policies, and determines transportation priorities and the allocation of transportation funds to meet those priorities.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Commissioner Maxwell, and I look forward to his leadership as we work together to realize our vision for a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable region,” said DVRPC Executive Director Ariella Maron. “As DVRPC Board Chair, Commissioner Maxwell will continue to foster cross-county and bi-state collaboration to address the myriad transportation, environmental, and economic challenges facing us and move our region forward.”
“It’s my firm commitment to ensure that Southeast PA, Pennsylvania’s economic driver, receives its fair share of transportation funding,” said Maxwell. “Equally important is our responsibility to spend this funding in the most efficient way possible.
“I am honored to be elected as DVRPC Chair for the coming year and look forward to working with staff and fellow board members to advance transportation projects and attract Federal funds for public transportation projects that are crucial to our region,” he added.
Tim Philps, Executive Director of the Transportation Management Association of Chester County (TMACC) said, “The Board of Directors of TMACC are excited that Commissioner Maxwell has been elected Chair of DVRPC. He brings to this role a broad perspective of public policy knowledge, especially in health and human services. As we address the multimodal needs of residents, nonprofit service organizations and employers, we are able to have deeper conversations about the needs of people to improve the quality of life.
“Josh has been a staunch supporter of access to public transportation and trails, bicycle and pedestrian safety, and well-informed land-use planning, while recognizing the need for highway improvement to support regional economic growth,” added Phelps. “His leadership and vision as a TMACC board member have been invaluable to us, and we look forward to his continued impact in our region as chair of DVRPC,” he said.
The DVRPC was formed in 1965 to provide comprehensive, coordinated planning for the orderly growth and development of, initially, southeastern Pennsylvania and, later, southern New Jersey. The region includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania, and Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Mercer counties in New Jersey. An interstate, intercounty and intercity agency, DVRPC is an advisory agency focusing on regional policy and capital funding issues for transportation, economic development, and environment and land use.
The nonprofit trying to persuade local governments to sue “Big Oil” producers for damages allegedly caused by climate change has been making steady advances to Chester and Delaware counties, according to an email provided to Broad + Liberty.
The revelation comes just two months after the Bucks County Board of Commissioners announced it would sue major oil producers like BP, Chevron, Exxon, and others, arguing that the companies knew for decades that their products would cause climate change yet took no action. Several days after the announcement, the only Republican on the three-person board, Gene DiGirolamo, withdrew his support for the suit.
Indeed, it appears as if the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) was eager to use its success with Bucks County as a springboard.
Bucks County became the first local government in the commonwealth to take up the kind of suit that first began to sprout up about a decade ago. For example, in 2016, San Francisco and some other California municipalities sued longtime oil producers. Bucks County is being represented by the law firm DiCello Levitt on a contingency basis, meaning the county does not pay the lawyers unless the lawyers win the case.
In an email sent March 18, 2024, a senior political associate for CCI emailed Delaware County Councilmember Christine Reuther, and cc’d Bucks Commissioner Bob Harvie, both Democrats.
“My name is David Zeballos and I’m with the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit that helps elected officials and their communities hold oil and gas corporations accountable for the massive costs of climate change. I’ve met with a number of folks who have told me about the southeast PA regional call that you are now leading! That includes Council Member Elaine Schaefer, Commissioner Bob Harvie, Commissioner Josh Maxwell, and Commissioner Marian Moskowitz, who all expressed support about the work CCI does,” Zeballos wrote.
“Do you have any availability for a 30 min Zoom meeting to talk about our work in Pennsylvania and areas for collaboration?” Zeballos wrote later in the email.
The Center for Climate Integrity is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that says its mission is to “educate communities and elected officials about the role of polluters in causing climate change and the need to hold polluters accountable for their actions.”
A spokesperson for Chester County said no action is imminent, but noted that could change.
“Chester County is not considering a similar lawsuit at this time,” spokesperson Michelle Bjork said. “However, we will continue to monitor any developments in Bucks County’s case and will reevaluate as needed.”
“Chester County’s commitment to protecting the environment and our residents is demonstrated by our efforts to preserve more than 30 percent of the County as permanently protected open space and we will continue to explore all avenues to safeguard our community,” Bjork said.
Requests for comment to Delaware and Bucks counties were not returned. A request for comment to CCI was also not returned.
Delaware County already has something of an established relationship with CCI. County Council Chair Monica Taylor (D) is listed as a member of CCI’s “leaders network” and recently participated in the press roll out of a major CCI study.
In November, Taylor rattled her rhetorical sword about the need to punish oil producers in a Politicoarticle.
“I agree that it’s not fair for this burden of addressing climate change to fall only on our residents,” Taylor said. “Polluters should and must pay.”
Yet the politics of oil are very different between Bucks and Delaware counties. In Delaware, thousands of people are employed in the industry at places like the Marcus Hook LNG terminal.
Counties do receive annual payouts from Pennsylvania’s “Act 13” of 2012, commonly known as the “impact fee” imposed on “unconventional” gas wells and distributed to counties and municipalities to help them maintain the environment, or to offset the wear on infrastructure from oil and gas drilling.
For example, for the five years from 2019 to 2023, Bucks County received $2.76 million from the impact fee, even though there are no active wells in the county. Delaware County took in $2.45 million over the same period, according to a state website devoted to Act 13 revenues and disbursements.
The impact fee delivered $179 million across all governments in the commonwealth in 2023.
In Western Pennsylvania, CCI gave a presentation in April on “climate accountability” to an environmental subcommittee of the Allegheny County Council. At the time, a council member said it would be premature to assume the county would sue oil producers.
Some of the initial lawsuits against Big Oil have already failed. In 2019, a New York judge ruled in Exxon’s favor, but as is often the case, the message of the ruling was nuanced, with Justice Barry Ostrager of the New York State Supreme Court writing, “this is a securities fraud case, not a climate change case.”
Other cases remain in progress, and, “[t]he number of climate-related cases against Exxon continues to grow,” the Wall Street Journal recently reported.
“In February, the city of Chicago sued Exxon and other major oil companies alleging they deceived Chicagoans about climate change. In March, Bucks County, Penn., filed a similar suit. The Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental group the Rockefeller charities helped create, swayed officials in both places to bring the suits.”
IRS filings show CCI is predominantly funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, the philanthropic endeavor established by the legendary New York family whose business pursuits in the earliest parts of the 20th century produced Standard Oil, the petroleum monopoly whose most prominent corporate successor is Exxon.
The Journal also reported that the Rockefeller Family Fund “influenced President Biden’s decision in January to pause approval of new liquefied natural gas exports,” — a decision that touched off bipartisan condemnations in Pennsylvania, the nation’s largest LNG exporter.
“While the immediate impacts on Pennsylvania remain to be seen, we have concerns about the long-term impacts that this pause will have on the thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry,” Democratic U.S. Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman said in a joint statement. “If this decision puts Pennsylvania energy jobs at risk, we will push the Biden Administration to reverse this decision.”
Numerous other politicians, including many Republicans, and associations also heavily criticized the Biden LNG “pause” — something that could easily become an issue in the presidential election this year if circumstances continue to make Pennsylvania a crucial battleground state.
The email cited in this story was obtained via the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law by the nonprofit organization Government Accountability and Oversight. A database search of nonprofit tax filings did not reveal any significant grant donations to GAO in order to be able to characterize its funding.
The Chester County Sheriff’s Office is excited to announce the hiring of five new deputies and the promotion of a Deputy to Corporal
The office welcomed Deputy Nicholas Fernandez (recipient of the Police Academy’s Physical Conditioning Award), Deputy Angel Chimal Rodrigues (recipient of the Police Academy’s Academic Achievement Award) and Deputy Ernesto Pinda, who have completed their training at the Delaware County Community College’s Police Academy and have demonstrated exceptional skills and dedication to law enforcement. Also, we are pleased to announce the hiring of Deputy Brett Popiny, who joins us from Telford Borough Police Department with over a decade of experience in law enforcement and Kiri Burgos, who has been with the agency for two years, being promoted from Security Operator to Deputy.
Kelly McGonigal, who has been with us for four years, has been promoted from Deputy to Corporal. Their promotions reflect their dedication and contributions to the mission and vision of the Sheriff’s Office.
Since the new administration took office, we have hired 20 new staff members. Furthermore, the office has implemented an aggressive recruitment and retention plan to continue attracting the best deputies in the county, as well as expanding our digital presence to recruit via social media, ensuring we continue to reach a broader and more diverse pool of candidates.
Added Sheriff Kevin Dykes, “In spite of the challenges we face both locally and nationally with law enforcement hiring, I am extremely proud of our agency’s commitment to staffing the best deputies in Chester County. I am delighted to welcome our new deputies and look forward to seeing the positive impact they will make in ensuring public safety throughout the county.”
