The Public Is Worn Down By Hylton
POTTSTOWN, PA – We see that Mr. Excessive Spender is excessively spending again (and spinning!) with yet another inflammatory and misleading paid advertisement attempting to derail the President’s Task Force in today’s print edition of his personal public relations kissing cousin The Fishwrap.
What dinosaur media sticks and stones are Pottstown School Board member Thomas Hylton hurling this time? At least we know who he’s targeting with his demagogic paid commentary…the task force and the administration (what else is new?). What’s wrong Tom, couldn’t you find space in today’s ad to take a swing at Terri Lampe too? (Nah – he’ll leave that job to his political Sound Off toadies).
The topic of Tom Hylton and his continual undermining of Pottstown’s elementary school configuration for his own personal financial gain is getting old and the public is becoming weary of it all.
Tom Hylton would much rather keep the status quo…the status quo which is costing Pottstown taxpayers millions of dollars each year in the form of five 40+ year old elementary schools. It’s no wonder that Pottstown taxes are the seventh highest of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania. You can thank Tom Hylton and his 20 year crusade to keep our five elementary schools up and running for that ranking.
But let’s look at some facts that Tom conveniently omitted from today’s advertisement.
Voter Exploitation
We simply can’t believe that Tom Hylton has the cojones to again bring up the 2007 “Neighborhood Schools Team” fiasco which he himself commandeered with the help of his Friends of Montgomery County. He makes it seem like the “team” sent out those postcards and mailers themselves. Absolutely not true. Tom Hylton was behind all of those mailers …just like the several pieces of junk mail Hylton paid for through his Pottstown Citizens political action committee in the days leading up to last month’s primary election. It just goes to show that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
In 2007 Hylton spent close to $10,000 to get his hand-picked “Neighborhood Schools Team” elected to the Pottstown School Board…all because the then current board refused to endorse Hylton’s concept of a sixth elementary school at the corner of High and Evans Streets (and the fact that the board was about to dismantle the antiquated so-called “neighborhood schools” system in Pottstown).
And what are those “Neighborhood Schools Team” members up to now? Only one of the five team members is running for another board term – Dennis “Sleepy” Wausnock. Hylton wore down the other four members of the team (which is why he had to find and recruit four new insightful candidates this year to take their place).
2009 Election
What a total joke! Hylton claims that he and his running mate Valerie Harris won two thirds of the vote to win in the 2009 election. Hylton was voted into office by a scant 8% of Pottstown’s 22,000+ population. Hardly a mandate as Hylton wants you to believe. Just another example of Tom Hylton’s funny numbering system that never quite adds up.
Task Force Appointed
Speaking of funny…isn’t it funny how Rick Huss, who was a hand-picked member of Tom Hylton’s 2007 “Neighborhood Schools Team”, is now the bad guy. Gee…now that Rick has nothing left to offer Tom (in the term of another board term – or votes), as with every other citizen who has crossed Tom, it’s time for Tom to throw Rick under the wheels of his Schwinn. Wasn’t it only March of last year when Tom and Rick held those secret school board meetings at Rick’s home (that Hylton himself admitted to)? Hylton’s running mate Valerie Harris and lame duck board member Nat White also attended those secret meetings. Why is Tom Hylton always involved in secret meetings? But yet, he continues to point fingers at others for the same issue he himself is guilty of.
Those are just a few of the many contradictory statements offered up in today’s paid advertisement.
We have to admit that Tom Hylton has been successful in one endeavor.
And that is his tireless effort to wear down the public…which is why apathy is rampant throughout Pottstown and folks are just fed up with Tom. That’s exactly what Tom wants…so folks will allow him to get his way and continue in his efforts to bring happiness and joy to Pottstown in the way that only Tom Hylton knows best.
Look around Pottstown. Look at all of the success and financial growth Tom Hylton has brought to Pottstown in his 30+ year residency.
He really has done wonders for Pottstown, hasn’t he?
You’d think by this point the old timers who keep voting for him and his candidates would get wise to his winning streak of failures.
Hell, I think that the daily Fishwrap ought to be called the “HYLTON PRESS” – delivering “All the Worn Out, Tired Old News All the Time”.
Not long ago I recall Evan Brandt claiming that the days of investigative reporting were long gone for most local news organizations and especially the Fishwrap, far too costly, he said. Out of the blue now here they are providing their own brand of investigative news based on the RTK’s from their favorite Dead Fish and drawing conclusions, in their opinion pieces, that stink so bad nobody will touch them.
Nary a mention, ever, of the unanswered RTK’s that have been filed to enlighten residents about the expenditures of tax payers money from Trees, Inc. or other RTK’s that may have been filed to learn about the Political Action Committee’s endless supply of the green stuff that keeps the Fishwrap afloat.
No doubt about it, this rag has no pulse let alone having a finger on the pulse of this community. About the only thing Old Dead Fish, (and the paper they are wrapped in), are good for is burying alongside the vegetable garden. And well, it is planting season.
Again, Mr. Hylton seems driven to create a wedge between community and Administration. I fail to understand why he chides people for using their best judgement to work toward a solution.
Data can be selected to support any number of arguments. Why can’t Mr. Hylton acknowledge he does just as he accuses with regard to presentation of information? Lack of transparency?
Frankly, I think Pottstown is running out of options and time. I wish people would not act out of fear and/or haste and work together to resolve this issue. If a ‘leap of faith’ has to be taken, it would seem to me that the Administration might have an edge – despite what Mr. Hylton would like people to believe. Perhaps this is why he attacks them, given any opportunity – they makes sense but it is contrary to his vision.
There is still one question, for me, that has never been answered (& likely will never be answered). Why does Mr. Hylton feel a need to paint anything contrary to what he believes as negative or bad and why is he willing to fund all these attempts to prove a point?
If I was sitting on that kind of money I wouldn’t be paying to just be heard – I think I’d be enjoying life a bit more!!
The greatest hypocrasy of them all is that mantra… “pledge to provide necessary renovations without lavish facilities our town can’t afford.” Fact of the matter is, the town can’t afford what Hylton is pedaling: the current system, the status quo that is failing our children and our taxpayers both.
But The Mercury will never, ever in a million years hold Tom Hylton accountable for one word of what he says or writes. Hylton owns The Mercury and therefore owns public perception. And the feeble excuses for reporters and editors who do his bidding rally themselves to Tom’s cause every day. Although I imagine they do so after staring in the mirror for hours in search of their lost righteousness or a glimpse of their old self-esteem.
Is JRC stock public? Who owns some, if it is?
There’s ownership and then there’s ownership…