By Wayne Braffman, Member, Kennett Square Borough Council
Wayne Braffman
“Party politics has no place on Borough Council.”
As Chair of the Kennett Area Democrats AND a member of the Kennett Square Borough Council, I probably appreciate more than anyone else that there is no more need to say this than there is to announce ‘THE SKY IS BLUE!’ on a sunny day.
Two years ago, Doug Doerfler, Jamie Mallon and I ran as a ticket with support from the Kennett Area Democrats (KAD) and we won. Anyone who has attended a Borough Council meeting in the last 21 months can tell you that we don’t vote as a bloc or along party lines.
There are 3 reasons for this:
1) KAD does not take positions on municipal issues, so as KAD Chair, it’s impossible for me to ask Council members to ‘vote the Party line’ because no party line exists.
2) As members of Borough Council, it would be a violation of the Sunshine Act for us to deliberate like that outside of a public meeting.
3) Finally, my colleagues on Council would laugh at the Kennett Area Democrats if KAD tried to tell them how to vote! We are all fiercely independent decision-makers. We do our homework, participate in the public debate, and then vote our conscience as we try our best to make life better for everyone in the Borough. And that’s the way it should be.
So the fact is that party politics plays NO part in conducting Borough business. Any candidate who implies that it does inflicts great damage on the institution of Borough Council and erodes the trust of the residents in their elected officials.
For that reason, I am calling on all candidates and their campaigns to publicly pledge to (1) refrain from statements that imply party politics influences decision-making and (2) correct the false impression that party politics does have an impact whenever and wherever they encounter it.
Together, we can and will move forward as a community, with mutual respect for and trust in each other.
Finally, no matter what your party politics, PLEASE VOTE ON NOVEMBER 7TH!
Wayne Braffman is a member of the Kennett Square Borough Council as well as Chair of the Kennett Area Democrats.
