DV Journal

Residents have been giving the Delaware County Council an earful since it voted to raise county real estate taxes by 23 percent.

At the Jan. 8 meeting, Council Chair Monica Taylor, Ph.D., announced there would be only one public  comment period starting with that meeting.

Traditionally, council meetings had two public comment periods, one at the beginning for agenda items and one at the end for general questions and comments. People could speak for three minutes each time for a total of six minutes. Now, their speaking time is half that.

Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties have two sessions at their boards of commissioner meetings, with three minutes of public speaking per person at each session.

“This is a meeting of council, not a public forum or town hall,” Taylor said. She told people they “will be given the chance to comment, but please do not raise your hand or shout out comments during the meeting. The county website lists all of our emails and office numbers. We each will be happy to respond directly to your questions or concerns outside of the meeting.

“Beginning with this meeting, we are combining the agenda comment and public comment period (s). This will allow residents to speak on any topic of interest at the beginning of the meeting,” said Taylor. “This will eliminate the confusion of whether a topic is germane to county business or on the agenda. Residents will no longer have to identify the topic that they’re speaking on and do not need to wait until the end of the meeting to address concerns that are not on the agenda. We hope this modification will make it simple and more convenient for our residents.”

Resident Charles Alexander, who said he’s running for one of the two council seats on the ballot this year, called the council members “out-of-touch Marxists” and “commie tyrants.” He complained about the tax increase and said county officials have been wasting money, including leaving windows open while the heat is on in county buildings.

“They took away the second three minutes [of speaking time]. That’s what communists do. They want to shut you up and stop you from speaking…A 23 percent tax increase hurts everybody in this county. And that’s their fault. They spent the money, and they’re just wasting it more and more,” said Alexander.

Another man told the council, “It served a good purpose to have comments in two different areas, to address the issues on the agenda and comments at the end for general purposes. It’s very unfair to change that, unless you want to make it six minutes. It’s not fair to take our right to speak away. You changed a six-minute opportunity to speak to a three-minute opportunity to speak…I don’t think it’s fair.”

“Although I disagree with the term ‘commie tyrants,’ I understand what they’re trying to say,” he added. The previous situation was sometimes “a little raucous,” but “it gives everybody an opportunity,” he said.

Jim Nicholson, who said he was a retired physician and a Quaker, called the rules on public comment “reasonable and fair.” He suggested further rules for speakers to be “reasonable and fair” and “civil in both content and tone.” That increases the probability that “their message is heard and considered by others.” Also, they should be factual, and their questions should be “inquiries, not accusatory.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Senior Program Officer Stephanie Jablonsky said, “While the council’s actions may be legally permissible, FIRE always encourages public officials to promote more speech, not less. Reducing public comment periods undermines the trust of constituents and may have consequences at the ballot box.

“The Delaware County Council should note what is transpiring in Edison, N.J. Public outrage over its shortened public comment period and unconstitutional public comment policy created a highly publicized controversy. FIRE’s involvement and public pressure ultimately led to revocation of the policy and talks about reversing the original decision to cut public comment time.”

Media Republican Committee Chair Michael Straw told DVJournal, “Delaware County Council clearly wants to make sure it hears the bare minimum from its constituents. They don’t want to hear from people after they voted to raise our taxes by 23 percent last month. It’s shameful.”

Joy Schwartz, a Republican who ran for council in 2023, said, “It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the Delco Council has decided to muzzle its constituents. Have they have figured out that the people are not buying into their counter-narratives?”

After years of anti-pipeline activism across the Delaware Valley, local citizens lined up on a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) public comment call Wednesday to plead: Please build this pipeline.

Developed by Transco and Williams, the Regional Energy Access Expansion Project is a natural gas expansion project that would extend across several Pennsylvania counties including Bucks, Chester, and Delaware. The idea from Williams is to “enhance existing energy infrastructure and increase Northeast consumer access to clean, affordable natural gas.”

Doing so “will help ease supply constraints affecting customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, providing enough natural gas supply to serve approximately 3 million homes,” the company added.

On Wednesday’s “Virtual Public Hearing” call with DEP, John DeSantis, a retired New York City schoolteacher living in Philadelphia, said inflation is hammering his budget.

“They say inflation is nearing 10 percent, but our electric bills are up around 25 (percent),” said DeSantis. “Vitamins cost more, Cheerios cost more, and we’ve had to make hard choices such as cutting out cable TV and sacrificing trips to our family in New York.”

Part of the reason why DeSantis said he moved to Philadelphia was because of the lower cost of living compared to New York City.

“We said to ourselves ‘things are much better here, what we’re saving in New York taxes and different costs.’ But that’s all been eaten away by everything that’s happened over the last year and a half,” said DeSantis. “So the approval and expansion of the pipeline will increase jobs, lower inflation, and restore prosperity to many, (which is why) I urge the DEP to support its continuation of the pipeline.”

A food distribution center operator named Corrine told DEP that people are choosing between paying bills and buying food.

“I’d like to see them be able to make the right choices and not have to spend their money on gas bills and high energy costs,” said Corrine. “It’s so hard to see people pull up to a food distribution and you realize they’re living out of their vehicle because they can’t afford a home and they can’t afford gas and heat.” The DEP’s approval of the pipeline would be a win/win for everyone, said Corrine. “Fuels will help everybody. The more money coming into the system, the more people who are able to benefit from lower costs of these fuels.”

Not everyone is a fan of the pipeline project. Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for example, told DEP it “does not support this project” because of potential negative impacts it may have on the environment. Critics of pipelines point to the recently-completed Mariner East pipeline, which encountered multiple problems during its construction.

Marion Davis with the International Teamsters pushed back, telling DEP that safety is a priority. If not, Davis said, “we would not have work for our members to work on.” Jason Hayes of the International Union of Operating Engineers also spoke about what he described as the “sometimes over-the-top safety procedures and environmental protections” with pipelines. “I’ve personally seen over the years, the safety and environmental protections of the number one priority of Transco and the contractors building these projects,” said Hayes.

Multiple studies have found pipelines are the safest way to move liquified fuels.

Industry groups and think tanks also urged DEP to approve the project. Stephanie Catarino Wissman of the American Petroleum Institute (API) Pennsylvania testified about the “importance of pipeline infrastructure construction and expansion” in the state.

“Pipelines are the safe connection between consumers and America’s abundant, reliable, cleaner energy,” Wissman said. “Additional infrastructure is needed so that no matter where people live, they can be better served – expanding the benefit of domestic energy abundance.”

And, Wissman added, API establishes and maintains over 700 industry standards and recommended practices.

Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, says the current energy crunch is a reminder that “affordable natural gas is not getting to markets that need it because of pipeline capacity limitations. Keep in mind that a portion of this pipeline in eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania is in the same area where PennEast was proposed but pulled. Opponents cheered that setback, but these constraints weaken our economy, hurt consumers, and deny skilled laborers good-paying jobs.

“The resurgence of pipeline work here is encouraging, demonstrating just how important it is for us to continue investments in energy infrastructure projects that are essential to our economy and security,” Knaus added.

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