Scoop: What Happened to Dave Bashore?

To the ongoing chagrin of Radnor officials, the conflict with disgraced former township manager Dave Bashore remains unresolved almost three years after he was fired for racking up nearly a million dollars in unapproved expenditures on the taxpayer dime.

Current manager Bob Zienkowski told Patch that the township has so far recouped $500,000 from its liability policy with the Hartford Insurance Company and $55,331 from Bashore himself after a Dec. 2010 ruling from the state Ethics Commission.

According to Radnor solicitor John Rice, the township collected an additional $29,000 from Bashore—a settlement on the remaining balance of a home loan it had made him—and is also awaiting resolution on a $300,000 judgment it filed against the former manager in Dec. 2009 in Delaware County Court.

"I don’t have any comment on that," Rice said when asked when he expects the judgment to be resolved and how much he ultimately expects the township to collect. "It’s been ongoing for two years, our effort to recoup as much money as we can for the taxpayers of Radnor township, and so far we’ve recouped over $600,000," he added.

Reparation isn’t the only consequence the former manager has dodged. Despite Bashore’s transgressions, and the prodding of Radnor Township, he wasn’t charged criminally. Rice said many in the township were and are frustrated by the refusal of the county and the FBI to prosecute.

"The township made repeated requests of the DA’s office and the Feds who were looking at this [to file]—we provided all the information we had—and they chose not to file any criminal charges…I’m surprised that they didn’t do anything, but that’s out of the township’s hands."

Delaware County assistant district attorney Erica Parham confirmed that her office took the case under review and ultimately found no criminal activity, but declined to comment on the specifics of their interpretation of the former manager’s behavior.

FBI media coordination agent J.J. Klaver told Patch the bureau has no comment on the case.

"The township officials and I are disappointed," the solicitor added.

With good cause. In addition to the $355,730 hit the township said it took in legal expenses in the litigation-intense 14 month period after his firing, a forensic audit performed in late 2009 by Marcum LLP revealed that Bashore spent $377,762 in "inappropriate, unauthorized or undocumented expenditures" during his tenure as manager, and, according to Radnor special counsel Neil Morris, rang up an additional $600,000 in lump sum bonuses to township employees he made without board approval—$180,000 of which he awarded to himself.

During this time, according to the Marcum audit, Bashore made $165,470 in "questionable or insufficiently" documented charges to the township’s credit card, including $6,000 at Wine & Spirit Shops and thousands more on Phillies, 76ers, and Villanova basketball tickets.

Bashore always maintained his innocence.

Watch the meeting in which Bashore makes his case to the Board of Commissioners, to no avail.

Former commissioner Jim Pierce told Patch that he saw Bashore, since his April ’09 termination, at a Villanova basketball game.

"I heard he was working at Home Depot," Pierce said.

Repeated attempts to reach Bashore through his attorney, Ron Surkin, were unsuccessful.