Radnor’s Commissioners have a long and storied history of failure at managing stormwater from one end of the township to the other. Millions of dollars have been squandered, resulting in little or no benefit to the community. Similarly, they have demonstrated they cannot be trusted to responsibly manage large capital projects, or a dedicated funding stream such as the proposed stormwater fee.
In a rare moment of candor and introspection, 6th Ward Commissioner Don Curley illustrated why it is prudent for the public to be highly skeptical of the BoC. “Mr. Bashore clearly affected us, but there are a lot of other aspects, like the township building, like some bad open space purchases, using debt to purchase noncapital items. . . The commissioners have to be held accountable for those decisions.”
Past behavior is Radnor taxpayers' best indicator of the BoC’s future behavior.
OPEN SPACE: Radnor uniquely has a ¼ of 1% Real Estate Transfer Tax that is dedicated to open space and controlled by the BoC. Largely these funds have been used to pay debt service on the $10 million Park Improvement and Open Space Bond Fund, and not the direct acquisition of open space.
The $10 million Park Improvement and Open Space Bond Fund has been drained acquiring many questionable parcels of land. The Radnor Township Citizens Budget and Finance Advisory Committee Final Report recommends: "Sell Selected Parcels of Township-owned Land, which either serve no or minimal marginal public purpose, or are small yet would return high sales value." These nine properties total 39 acres that represent the majority of the land the BoC purchased with its dedicated open space funding.
TOWNSHIP BUILDING: This large capital project was approved by the Board of Commissioners and then a subcommittee of commissioners was tasked to provide additional oversight of the building project. The costs were originally projected to be $9 million, the result was predictable. As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/05/10, “In 2008, Radnor Township opened its new municipal building, a 50,000-square-foot, three-story glass atrium that cost $16 million. Nearly three years later the building stands as a symbol of better times, Now, like a family that bought a house it couldn’t afford, Radnor is renting out a section of the building to bring in $40,000. It needs every penny it can find.”
Additionally, when surveyed, Radnor residents were 62% supportive, or didn’t care, of selling the new township building and moving to a smaller facility; 25.5% were “very supportive of selling.”
Now we are told that we should trust the Commissioners with an annual multimillion dollar Stormwater Management Fund with a site selection and evaluation process yet to be determined.
Clearly, there is a need for the township to start addressing stormwater management using proven structural, and importantly, nonstructural Best Management Practices. In that context, a dedicated Stormwater Management Fee makes sense. But a fair process and criteria for determining worthwhile projects and evaluating their actual versus projected costs and benefits, free from political influence, meddling, and micromanaging must be developed before Radnor’s taxpayers should even consider supporting the new Stormwater Management Fee.
Radnor taxpayers are right to be concerned about the BoC failure at managing stormwater, large capital projects, and dedicated funding streams like the proposed stormwater fee. Lacking an equitable site selection criteria, a rigorous pre and post project evaluation, the benefits of the Commissioners' latest stormwater management scheme will be small, but the costs will be huge and never ending.
