Compilation Error
POTTSTOWN, PA – Election season must be right around the corner. One of our SavePottstown!! staffers recently alerted us to the new fangled “Web site” at Pottstown Citizens for Responsible Government, the fringe political activist committee headed up by Pottstown School Board member Thomas Hylton and chaired by Pottstown School Board Vice President Dennis Wausnock. Hmmm. Can a Mercury article promoting the site be far behind??
Pottstown Citizens for Responsible Government Chairman (and Pottstown School Board Vice President) Dennis Wausnock has no email address and only receives hard copies of board meeting packets, so why is he shown in this image using a laptop??
One of the more laughable images on the “Web site” is the one with Hylton and Wausnock peering onto the screen of a laptop. It’s funny. Dennis Wausnock has no email address (as noted on the Pottstown School District’s Board Member website page). And everyone knows that Dennis is the only board member to receive hard copies of all school district correspondence because he refuses to embrace technology (and this is the guy who sits on the board’s Technology Committee???). So, the image of Hylton and Wausnock trying their best to look tech-saavy is total BS.
One of our staffers was interested in running for office. So, they selected the Contact Us link on the “Web site”….and this is what they saw:
Ooopsie!
And we noticed a couple of other glaring errors. On the About Us page, Hylton claims that “Pottstown Citizens for Responsible Government is a registered political committee created to encourage Pottstown Borough and the Pottstown School District to conduct their business in an open and professional manner.” Well…that’s not exactly a truthful statement…is it Mr. “I’m Pretty Familiar with the Sunshine Law”?
The “Web site” also claims that: “We have already posted a great deal of factual information”. Not true. Opinion doesn’t equate to fact. It’s opinion. Don’t put lipstick on that pig.
And we highly disagree with this statement: “We believe these columns are necessary to promote good government and preseve Pottstown’s core values, which include walkable neighborhood schools.”
First off…we’re not exactly sure what preseve means. Maybe it’s some kind of fancy French planning and design term. And since when are “walkable neighborhood schools” considered a core value of Pottstown?? Show us Tom all the families that have moved to Pottstown because they “value” “walkable neighborhood schools”. Are they the folks who move to Pottstown in the middle of the semester and then move out before school lets out for summer?
Now we all know that the neighborhood schools myth is a core value of Tom Hylton’s (even though he has never had any children to send to those so-called neighborhood schools)…but for Pottstown residents to consider the tax-gouging system of too many crumbling schools for too few students a core value actually makes us pretty darn angry. It is not our shared core value to be taxed out of our homes to prove Tom Hylton’s erroneous mad scientist theories.
So, the new PCFRG “Web site” is now supposed to look like a blog…even though it’s still a static site…with zero dialogue. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Maybe PCFRG’s “Web site editor” can clean things up and start sharing some real factual information based on 2010 facts and figures…instead of opinion and outdated information masquerading as “factual information”.
Tom Hylton is nearing the end of his rope and knows it. Someone on an earlier post suggested his ties to several groups in Pottstown. FYI – he is Persona Non Grata at Borough Council. He has lost nearly all his support on the School Board thanks to Rick Huss and most of the other members – in many cases being the only “no” vote on some very important issues. His grip on the Tree Commission is tenuous as is his status on the Planning Commission, or so I’ve been told. The Republican Party in town is still hanging on, but I have heard from many of those members that he is becoming a HUGE thorn under their saddles.
Thanks to Save Pottstown, Code Blue, Roy’s Rants and others (notice I didn’t mention The Mercury?)the people of Pottstown are having their collective eyes opened to the dangers this one person represents to the whole of this Borough! In my mind he is the modern personification of the proverbial Snake Oil Salesman. Eventually people got wise to those hucksters too.
WALKABLE? That gets my goat every time. Unwrap your sticky old fingers from around the moola, ($92,810.91), in Trees, Inc. Mr. Hylton. Put your money where your mouth is and make our neighborhoods WALKABLE for everyone. And while your are at it fix the friggin’ trees that are suffering from soil compaction and have become structurally weakened and a dangerous liability for property owners.
I believe that Mr. Hylton like his trees has long ago become structurally weakened and is a dangerous liability to Pottstown. Therefore, I crown you Persona Non Grata of the Century, and your reward?
A trip overseas! Go spread some joy around the European tree parks or, better yet, Mr. Hylton, volunteer to plant trees in Haiti, they have used up all of their trees for fuel. I personally think it’s time for you to retire and call it a day, but if you must remain “useful” to the bitter end then Haiti is my recommendation.
Oh, but please leave the money on the table before you go, we aren’t receiving charitable donations to help in the aftermath of the “tomquake” that has contributed to the devastation of our borough.
Thank you and bye bye now!
One thing that stands out to me on the ‘About Us’ tab is the claim that Tom’s “columns are used as a forum to promote the best aspects of Pottstown.” By definition, a forum is a medium for open discussion. Nowhere do I see any open discussion allowed to take place on that website.
In fact, let’s not forget that at the 3/18/10 School Board meeting, both Tom and Dennis (and Nat) voted to not allow citizens the right to speak at the Committee of the Whole meetings. They are your elected officials, but they don’t want to hear from you. Open discussion, it seems, is a one way street when it comes to these guys.
Hi Save Pottstown. Long time reader, first time poster. Great site. I’m a little confused. The Pottstown Citizens website says that it “was established by Tom Hylton with his longtime colleague, Dennis Wausnock”.
If you’re saying that Dennis Wausnock doesn’t know how to use a computer, how could he have “established a web site”. Am I missing something here?
Also. Why does Mr. Hylton always talk about wanting other people’s opinions, but he doesn’t really want other people’s opinions. From what I’ve read in the local newspaper, it seems that he really can’t stand other people at all. Does anyone else get this feeling?
On the PCRFG site they refer to themselves as a registered political committee so what are we to believe about their ‘real’ purpose? I tend to think that as a political committee their views are slanted toward a certain way of thinking which aligns with a certain political party. If that is true then they are presenting facts to support that party/way of thinking and I see little encouragement to run for local offices UNLESS you believe what they say. Where does a person go for help that reads that site and walks away disgusted?
The introduction to the site gives the reader the impression that this group is about information sharing and being open-minded. As a person digs deeper into the ‘meat’ of material you’ll find so much data it’ll make your head spin but what’s it all trying to say? Clearly, these citizens are good at gathering data and envious of other municipalities and their choices to report information and would like the readers to believe our systems in Pottstown are hiding something – is this inspirational or does it fracture our belief in people working for us/our town? After viewing the many links I feel like this committee sees many good public employees as nothing short of inept and wasteful and wants the readers to be outraged and contact them to put a stop to a massive conspiracy theory.
That makes me want to run the other way. By asserting that all systems and people are FUBAR you get people to come out of the woodwork wanting to reinvent the whole system – rather than those wiling to focus on the good things and alter the things no longer working or instituting things we don’t have and could benefit from. The money isn’t there and that’s a problem but projecting blame and mismanagement by detailing expenses and putting salaries and contracts on display borders on violating personal information, in my opinion.
I get outraged when I think of eroding someone’s credibility by creating an association to the fact that they are overpaid and a major component of all of Pottstown’s misery. I think individuals employed in the public sector should not be ‘paraded’ around as leverage against a town’s hardship. I find it ironic that part of our problems stem from a statewide problem regarding the PSERs crisis and the solution man is not challenging that at the state level, directly benefitting from his spouse’s retirement. Speaking to the fact that others should give up benefits and are ‘getting fat’ off us poor townspeople what is he doing, personally, other than ensuring we make a budget that can absorb those dollars by cutting positions and, if necessary, programs and services. Ironic, huh?
No anonymity here – other than Wausnock and Hylton who makes up this committee? At one time there was a list of founding members on the site – are they still members. It is clear Mr. Hylton pens all commentary and analysis so what is a person to believe other than theses are all opinions of a ‘committee’ or ONE? I’d like to believe there are more people in this committee but it just doesn’t present that way. One thing I don’t see is a listing of people ‘they’ support and why; is it because there are so few people in local gov’t they can ‘get behind’? That kinda seems all sorts of anonymous (and ambiguous) to me. Further, will ‘they’ rescind their support of people (as they have done in the past) when they change their opinions or beliefs based on facts? Sounds like pawns on a chessboard to me!
I’d like nothing more than to believe that the intentions were pure and that being open meant examining things in an objective manner to better the staus quo; alas, I think not.
I see reference to ‘core values’ many times – how was that determination reached? I am a resident and my core values aren’t the same and I think I have a “right to know” where that piece of ‘fact’ came from! Speaking of “right to know” I’d like to know why Mr. Hylton admits he can’t do his job? He claims he doesn’t have enough information to make informed choices and decisions and it is plain to see that he has SO much data at his fingertips it just confuses me. Similarly, he wants to know so many things and offers little in terms of what choices he’d make with different information. The only thing we ever hear is the same plan(s) time and time again – this doesn’t display the adaptable nature needed to govern an evolving town. Static is a great way to describe the site, despite all the new photos and additions.
“A” for effort, “F” for content (no growth).
Seriously, I could go on but others deserve an opportunity, too!
luis..think website developer.
One more thing I can’t get outta my head is…
“…the assessed value of all real estate in Pottstown has scarcely budged in the last 10 years. This is despite employing an economic development director from 2000 through 2008.”
Do the homework, the last county assessment was ’97-’98. I’m gonna go and appeal my assessment so I can pay higher taxes with a mileage rate continually on the rise. People are appealing for lower assessments all the time, with home values on the decline. This is NOT the fault of the former economic development director. It is a product of both the times and the roadblocks currently in place to promote economic growth in town. You won’t find this anywhere on PFCRG, though since the treasurer and website editor is the author of those, sometimes limiting, ordinances. Hmmm. Curious, isn’t it?
Again, eroding an employee’s credibility since they are made to seem inept and potentially overpaid. Yet, the site doesn’t “mock or denigrate others”. Sounds like without naming names they still manage to assassinate character.
The soapbox is weak, at best, in my eyes!!
To me it looks like a rehash of old articles. Just a new cover on an old book.
Monkeybusness said…
“It is a product of both the times and the roadblocks currently in place to promote economic growth in town. You won’t find this anywhere on PFCRG, though since the treasurer and website editor is the author of those, sometimes limiting, ordinances. Hmmm. Curious, isn’t it?”
Precisely! Mr. Hylton himself bears a lot of the blame for the declining economic state of Pottstown. He has relentlessly and vehemently fought every single effort to improve our town’s economic balance that has been attempted by anyone other than himself. He does this by using every bit of influence he can muster, whether it be through his position on the Planning Commission, his writings in the newspaper, his use of printed flyers, his use of out-of-town friends who support his strange ideology, his silly one-man “Pottstown Citizens” web site, or his influence over local public officials (which is thankfully wanning). That’s the plain and simple truth.
I know, I’m not saying anything new here that hasn’t been written a hundred times on these pages. But it just so #@&%$! frustrating.
First, welcome luis!!
How he (Dennis) could have established a website? Good question, I guess by funding it or just lending his name and image to Mr. Hylton so that it looked like there was more than one person sharing the same views?
Yes to the question about the feeling he doesn’t seem to tollerate other people (or their opinions) very well. So why contact him/them? He seems to like a ‘captive’ audience to listen, mostly. I have never sent an email to the site but I have heard that you don’t get an email answer to a question, your reply consists of ‘call to discuss’.
I fail to see how that is practicing what they are promoting but it’s not my website. For a person that urges people to ‘put it in writing’ I am unclear why that doesn’t apply to him, too.
The plot gets stranger, the more it plays out.
Again, luis, welocme to the world of commenting!!
What’s up with this? How can it be a PAC when all the money comes from one person and one person only? More smoke and mirrors from Mr. “Let the Sun Shine In.”
Could Hylton be paranoid about knowing every detail of everyone else’s business because he practices subterfuge so adeptly himself??? Just wondering…. because this so-called PAC seems to be just one individual trying to inflate his influence by calling himself a group.
Tom Hylton gave more than $20,000 to his “PAC” in 2009… maybe closer to $25,000. Federal law prohibits any one individual from donating more than $5,000 to a PAC in a given year. I guess PA must not have any such limits???
I wonder why this guy can’t just admit that he is a lone agent. It does not appear there is anyone offering any financial support of his plans for Pottstown at all. And it looks like he has just one supporter “in name only” (not willing to put his money where his mouth is).
It’s just plain weird. I guess strange is as strange does.
Ok, I’ll bite.
If the law states only $5,000 a year can be contributed to a PAC from an individual, how can he give upwards of $20,000? It’s clear he has done so, since the financial reports for the PAC show this. I’m no law expert, but I wasn’t aware of any state rules that supercede the federal campaign contribution limit rules.
Is there anyone out there a tad more knowledgeable that can share some insight on this?
Here is a link to the FEC chart on limits:
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/contriblimits.shtml
It sure reads to me as if a PAC can only give up to $5,000 per calendar year to any candidate or committee per election. So I’m not sure how he managed to spend all of that money getting himself elected…. There must be some kind of a loop hole for things that are not direct expenses – like literature drops and ads….. Maybe “newsletter” drops and “advertorials” escape by the skins of their teeth being designated as campaign expenses. But it seems to be another example of smoke and mirrors being used by the guy who wants everyone to believe he is squeeky clean.
The thing is, he can probably spend as much of his own money as he wants getting himself elected. It is just this obsession with creating the false impression that there is some kind of force or public mandate behind him that makes the whole thing suspect.