It’s certain if you have lived in, or near, Pottstown for any length of time and you were around this neck of the woods back in the 80’s, late 90’s – up to the present – that there’s a lot that you believe you know, and a lot that hasn’t been substantiated about what you believe, regarding the cronyism and incompetence in borough hall.
Pottstown government is usually the talk of the town and the brunt of many a joke in social circles here. There are different points of view, assorted recollections of incidents over the years that, in the eyes of the observers, were decidedly turning points in the downhill spiral of local government. Nobody disputes it has been a downhill spiral.
I don’t have a long history with Pottstown, and I find people here more than eager to share their observations and experiences. For my part, I soak it all in and look for evidence.
The population here has become less educated over the years, replaced by the very poor, the drug and alcohol addicted who are sent here for treatment or find their way here to feed their addictions, aided by a fragile economy that has lead to increased levels of poverty and less opportunities to get out of poverty. Ironically…
Poverty is a known factor that encourages corruption in local governments.
“In municipalities with an undeveloped or underdeveloped political culture, accountability and legitimacy is usually low and principles of ethics in government are not established. This can encourage corruption to take hold in the local government because citizens do not know what is considered corrupt, and local officials are not afraid to be corrupt because of the low accountability.” wikipedia
There’s an air of smug, “cocky assuredness” among some of the people who work for us in borough hall, and on council, engendered by the recent seating of police chief Mark Flanders as borough manager. Obviously, some people feel they’ve risen above the need to explain lapses in good judgement or justify…. anything, really. Accountability…
Teflon ethics and faux morals are common traits found in local government.
Over the past couple months I’ve alluded to the conduct of Michelle Borzick Fry, the zoning work leader in the codes department. Hell no, I haven’t just alluded to it, I’ve….
s p e l l e d
it out a number of times recently on this blog:
One more time, to be succinct: In 2008 MICHELLE BORZICK FRY ACCEPTED A CHECK FOR $5,000 FROM RENTAL PROPERTY INVESTOR FRANK MCLAUGHLIN. From that time on she personally handled all of Frank’s business with the borough codes department, according to sources within borough hall. Michelle was not shy, boasting about the money to her friends and co-workers, it’s never been a secret.
Apparently, management and council were and still are O.K. with this - all in a days work, eh?
The dial on my Official Universal Truth-O-Meter points to bribery, a form of corruption, an activity usually frowned on where there are standards and codes of conduct.
It’s not my sole mission to skewer Michelle, (I’ll get around to others eventually), but her choices and her work ethics have become a prime example - Exhibit A - if you will, of how comfortable the borough managers have become with biting the hand that feeds them… our hands – the taxpayers.
Michelle and Jerry Stick were, at one time, the best of buddies, they enjoyed a very close friendship. Family vacations were spent together and Michelle even had a key to Jerry and his wife’s home. Jerry worked for the borough finance department in the late 90’s and that’s how they met, he describes it as friendship at first sight.
In 2007 Jerry’s employment with the borough came to an end, a federal lawsuit ensued, that was ultimately settled out of court. The details are kept under lock and key as per the settlement agreement. If you’ve ever heard a council person or some employees refer to Jerry, they like to tell you that Jerry is a vile, vindictive person all because of what happened surrounding this case.
Why would they say that? Because he knows an awful lot about what’s gone on there over the years? He knows how the taxpayers are being screwed? Perhaps that’s why they speak badly of him, it’s a smoke screen. Ironically, he knows so much about borough hall because of all the information given to him by Michelle Borzick.
People in the community, who have spoken to me about this time in history, remember Jerry being persecuted and treated very badly by the borough.
I haven’t known Jerry for a very long time, but in the time I have known him I find him to be credible, likable, and a compassionate person. I can understand why Michelle could consider him a very close, trustworthy friend.
What Jerry has endeavored to do, and what I hope I am able to help him do is to tell you the truth about what’s really going on at borough hall. I believe, because I’ve been given evidence of it, and I’ll be sharing that with you too…
When, finally, I began to comprehend, (a long and arduous process) - I’m certain I have tested Jerry’s patience and commitment to this mission, but he has never complained once about having to repeat things over and over so I could understand. Not having a history here made that very challenging for me, and oh what a tangled web….
I am going to share some documents that were taken out of borough hall by Michelle Borzick. They were carefully copied at the borough, on borough paper, during work hours and hand delivered to Jerry between 2007- 2009, prior to the end of their friendship. Of course, once the friendship was over so was the secreting of documents.
Until that time, Michelle delivered documents from various employees, including former borough manager, Ray Lopez, (as you will see in future posts), they wanted Jerry to see and understand the debacle that was then, and remains, Pottstown local government – in hopes of…
OPENING THE EYES OF THE REMAINING TAXPAYERS.
Many people, who’ve worked or work for the borough have sent out an S.O.S., for many years – to no avail – in an effort to counter the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, to over come the aura of secrecy that has become the benchmark of local government.
This benchmark has been proliferated, again, by councils refusal to hire outside their “circle of trust” for the position of borough manager.
Very few residents have been paying attention, probably because Pottstownians are resigned to the idea that since the borough has been policing itself, identifying and prosecuting white collar crimes has been optional.
I don’t know if the IRS or the FBI would get involved for a $5,000 indiscretion, that remains to be seen, but the Feds went after Rick Mariano in Philly for less and sent him into the sunset.
Flanders? He wants to promote Michelle to the Grant Writer position, according to sources at borough hall.
Nothing much has changed in local government, except that Jerry fell out of grace with Michelle. She became unhappy about his continued friendship with her ex-husband and her ex-lover, (both former employees of the borough). The latter lost his job because of his affair with Michelle, he was her boss.
Having sex with a subordinate is a - NO NO – but only for some men and, not for others. The good ol’ boys are not concerned with protocol, there isn’t any really, only what’s convenient at the time. So, If you’re not one of them, you’ll probably get fired for sleeping with your secretary. (I’ll talk more about that in a future blog)…
Due to the volume of information I want to share with you, I’ll be posting several blogs over the course of the next couple weeks about the indiscretions and corruption…stay tuned.
Following are a few of the documents Michelle secreted out of borough hall. The first one is a letter form Ray Lopez acknowledging that Michelle could keep her job even after she submitted a letter of resignation, in 2008. The reason Michelle wanted to quit, as told to her friend at the time Jerry Stick, is that she was tired of the way “they” treat people who work for the borough.
IMAGINE THAT.
The other two memos are from Mark Flanders to employees of borough hall.
CLARIFICATION: The content of the memo’s is not at issue. Employees trusted Jerry as a person who had stood up for himself against the borough culture, and could be trusted with information that could possibly bring real and meaningful change to the conditions there.
Through the years there have always been some employees who have endeavored to expose the “underdeveloped political culture” of borough government. It’s a culture that often rewards unacceptable behavior, meters out inconsistent discipline and places co-workers at odds with one another and management, resulting in stress and confusion for employees and,…
Marginal to non-existent services for the community are evidenced by the conditions of the deteriorated housing, trash and garbage strewn streetscapes, poverty, increased crime, drug treatment facilities, halfway houses and nearly abandoned districts of commerce.
Look no further than N.J. for reasons that we must demand better from our local government – NOW – as we teeter on the cusp of becoming Camden, N.J.: Camden pays $3.5 million to settle police corruption cases
“Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it’s broken, but you can still see the crack in that m*r f*r’s reflection.”
― Lady Gaga
Click on the pages below to enlarge them.
Has an attitude problem too. You ever have to do business with her at the window or on the phone you know what I mean Snotty B***H they need to can her ass not promote it.
The writing is pretty small…..I like this……and yes…..from all I read and remember about Jerrys case….they really did him dirty!!!!
Virginia, thanks for your comment!! I’ll enlarge the writing but you can click on the documents to enlarge them!!!