Are You Partisan, Bipartisan, or Dual-Partisan?

Stefan Roots

Politics encourages party allegiances. Like most people, I’m registered to a particular party. But I’m far from partisan. As an individual, I can’t be bipartisan. So I’m adopting the term “dual-partisan” to describe my willingness to take the best of either major party and throw my support behind it.

I’m at my best when I can hear issues discussed from both sides of the aisle. I have no problems with CNN or Fox, the New York Times or Breitbart, the BBC or Al Jazeera, NPR or Rush Limbaugh. They all bring a perspective that makes sense some days and seems off the wall on others. There’s something to be learned from them all.

When two parties are represented, you get to hear alternative views. This has been the situation recently here in Delaware County, where since 2018 we’ve had three Republicans and two Democrats on the council. Should we raise taxes or not? Should we maintain the general fund at a certain level, or just use it to balance the budget? Should we cut expenses? Should we raise the cost of living for pensions? Should we leave vacant positions unfilled or eliminate them altogether?

Having both Republicans and Democrats on County Council doubtless resulted in a couple of changes that otherwise would not have occurred: the videotaping of council meetings and the transformation of the Board of Prison Inspectors into the Jail Oversight Board. Both of these reforms were introduced by Democrats, but they got at least one Republican vote, or they wouldn’t have passed.

The City of Chester has a single-party city council, just as the Delaware County Council did for decades before the 2017 election, and will again after January 6 when three newly elected Democrats will be sworn in. Whatever one-party councils come up with can get approved without an alternative point of view even being aired.

As reported in the Delaware County Daily Times (December 15), we’ve recently begun to learn a lot about the details of Delaware County budgets. I wish we could get that type of detail in Chester City. Mayor Kirkland brags about Chester’s four years with a balanced budget, and the Daily Times always notes it. What’s not reported is how Chester’s general fund has been depleted to near $0. As recently as 2008, it was at $5 million. Furthermore, a lot of vendors are upset with Chester for being late paying bills — or for not paying them at all. Some now refuse to do business with the city.

Anyone can balance a budget if they refuse to pay bills. If Chester were in such great financial shape, the city wouldn’t be trying to sell the Chester Water Authority for what they hope will be $300 million. (That ain’t gonna happen.)

Here’s an example of what results from Chester’s practices. At a recent Delaware County Council meeting, a loan to fund LED streetlights for Chester was discussed but never came to a vote despite Democratic council member Kevin Madden’s objection. One of the Republicans in the majority argued long and hard that Chester shouldn’t get into the loan program that would have funded the lights because of the city’s outstanding debt and history of late payment.

These last two years of the bipartisan Delaware County Council have been so refreshing. It should be required that no council is made up of all one party, ever.