The Politic Bizarre

Well, the Primary is over. And what an experience it was. After a year of advocating that everyone get more involved and run for office, I decided it was time to put up or shut up and run myself.

I am happy to say that I came in first on the Democratic ballot and even received 50% of the Republican votes. That is a pretty good place to be as a total newcomer and the only non-incumbent running.

It was definitely a learning experience. I found myself unaware of internal procedures and unprepared for the nastiness in even a local school board election. One former member of the Phoenixville CDC even went so far as to write a very nasty blog about me, but it is good to see that his words and lies are totally irrelevant. This guy has been spreading lies about me for years, and all because I said he was ineffective as the “Main Street Manager”, a feeling shared by many.

Here are the facts: Earth Mart paid $7,000 per month rent for years, the highest rent of any retail store on Bridge Street. After years of struggling to keep people coming to town, there was a decision by the Borough to start charging for parking. I was very vocal that this was a bad idea and would be bad for business. I was even asked to appear on a local TV show and “debate” the issue with the then head of the Parking Commission.

Shortly after this the economy crashed. It was particularly devastating for Earth Mart. Construction stopped, and without our remodeling supply sales we could not support our overhead. We renegotiated the rent to a lower amount and I did my best to keep the store open, but our sales went from over $20,000 per month to less than $5,000. Our biggest investor pulled out owing us about $200,000. We scrambled to get a loan. American Express shut down all Lines of Credit to small business including ours. I had to use my personal credit cards and borrowed money personally to keep Earth Mart open. I paid our staff and bills out of my savings. But eventually I realized I could not work seven days a week and try to run both Earth Mart and my consulting business. It was time to shut down Earth Mart.

I went to the landlords and told them we would not be renewing our lease in March. In retaliation they locked us out in February. They said for non-payment of rent. But people can say anything they want. What they said to me was they felt they could get more rent elsewhere. The rumor is that people, including those who started spreading the lie that I was not paying rent, had told the landlords they could get someone in there to pay more rent than I was. So I started making plans to move out of our beautiful space on Bridge Street.

That space sat there empty for at least two years after I left.  

It still makes me sad to see the space, even now that someone else is there, we were trying to build something really new and different, and we were the only space that offered a free community meeting area. People tell me all the time how much they miss Earth Mart, and I assure them all, I miss it too. Earth Mart was a labor of love for me and it broke my heart to close, but it was the right thing to do.

It was time for me to move on. Which is how I got here, to running for school board. When I decided to run I knew there would be some opposition, but I had no idea just how far the local GoP would go to try to keep me off school board.

They went to all the incumbents, including two Democrats, and paid for signs listing the four of them. So think about how funny that is, the Republicans endorsing two Democrats, just to try to keep me off school board. They also invited the four incumbents to meet with the Republican committee and speak, but not me. Which I thought was a bit rude. And very short-sighted of them, because actually, when it comes to balancing a budget there are few people who can do it better than an accountant.

Before the election I spent hours giving out information and speaking to voters. I have been very clear, this is not a party election, it is about what is best for our schools and our students.

Despite that, my signs mysteriously went missing and every effort was made to make it seem that I was some extreme radical. The reality is I am just a concerned parent who wants to ensure our schools are the best they can be.

Here are a few of my ideas:

Budget – let’s see where we can save money, and I start in three places: energy, transportation & food service. As we move forward with building new schools I would like to see us build smarter, make sure that our investments are the most efficient they can be.

Energy – I’d like to build schools that utilize natural light as much as possible and include renewable energy. Why are we spending taxpayer dollars on buildings that require further expenditures for lights when schools are mostly used during the day? I would like to develop a 5 year plan to study and develop a strategy to cut the district energy cost by 50%.

Transportation – There are plans to build two new schools and I think one factor that we must take into account is the cost of transportation. There are several large empty facilities on the North Side, could one be refitted as an Elementary School? Would that save us money? How many children are being transported?  Are we utilizing the most efficient methods of transportation?

Food Service – I’d like to see a return to cooked lunches. Our children deserve better than processed and frozen food. It is up to us to insist that our children be served a freshly prepared healthy selection of food every day. They don’t need pizza and French fries every day. They don’t need pizza dippers and junk food. They need us to stand up for them and provide real food cooked by real people. And it is always cheaper to cook from scratch than to buy prepared and frozen food.

These are just a few of my ideas, I would also like to see some policy changes, several I am already discussing with our Administration.  Hardly radical, mostly common sense. Which just goes to show how totally bizarre politics has become when you have a democrat writing lies and republicans supporting democrats just to try to keep me off the ballot. But as more than one person told me when I decided to do this, it was going to take a thick skin, and be prepared for the opposition.

Well, I am learning. And getting prepared. Because literally, this has become the politic bizarre.