Rambo incident underscores lack of supervision of supervisors by voters; you can fix that
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
The good news, I guess, is that Ron Rambo is finally out of a job.
That it took his resignation, rather than his firing, should give all involved, especially voters in West Brandywine Township, some pause.
In case you missed it, Rambo was the long-time township manager who was arrested last month and charged with stealing nearly $500 from the township, by allegedly falsifying health insurance reimbursements and pilfering movie tickets, among other things.
And maybe the most stunning thing about it was that Rambo was able to keep his job — in an incident that apparently was not the first time he had been confronted about misappropriating funds from the township. The first time, he quietly repaid the township and was allowed to go on running things. That, upon being charged again, he wasn’t immediately shown the door seems, well, ridiculous.
A large number of township residents seemed to agree, packing the township’s meeting room asking, why exactly, Rambo remained an employee of the township.
It’s a good question, and one that should be repeated until a cogent answer emerges — even with him finally out the door.
Put simply, you cannot have a township official who steals. That’s not one of those gray areas — wrong is wrong. And frankly, morality aside, do you really want someone making decisions about the future of your township who is willing to toss away a pretty high paying job for a few hundred bucks?
From here it looks a lot like the members of the board of supervisors — well, at least two — weren’t doing much in the way supervising. Newcomer to the board of Supervisors Bill Webb at least had the good sense to report what was going on to Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan, whose office began to investigate Rambo. What his colleagues, Joe Obernier and Tom McCaffrey were thinking is beyond me.
But maybe the key word is “supervisor.” Generally speaking, I think having township manager is a good thing — at $1,800 a year, supervisors can’t fairly be expected to spend all their time running their respective township’s business. There are more than a few neighboring townships where the lack of a manager allows things to run fairly out of control — especially if the supervisors don’t keep a close watch on things, or some cases, do much of anything at all.
Either way, we count on our elected officials to pay attention on our behalf and that clearly didn’t happen in West Brandywine.
So, if maybe, you think voting tomorrow in your primary election doesn’t matter — consider that in a number of communities dominated by one party or the other, decision of who is going to be “supervising” at the township building, the Borough Hall or City Hall, could well be a done deal by Wednesday. The same is true for those supervising your local school district, and your kids’ education, for that matter.
If you can’t be bothered and don’t show up and vote, why should any elected official be concerned about paying attention?
Show ‘em you’re watching: vote tomorrow.
