{"id":5153,"date":"2014-04-03T09:04:43","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T13:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=5153"},"modified":"2014-04-04T09:19:22","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T13:19:22","slug":"dague-appointed-to-borough-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=5153","title":{"rendered":"Dague appointed to Downingtown Borough Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feldman argues process was rushed, secretive<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Correction:<\/strong> vote of Nick Winkler was ‘yes.’<\/em><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"PhilDague\"<\/a>

Phil Dague, who lost election to Ann Feldman by one vote in 2013, was appointed Wednesday night to an open Dowingtown East Ward Borough Council seat.<\/p><\/div>\n

DOWNINGTOWN \u2014 This time, Phil Dague won by two votes.<\/p>\n

Moments after formally accepting the resignation of Borough Council member Cara DeStefano, Dague was appointed to council for the remainder of DeStefano\u2019s term by a 4-1 vote, taking many, including the newest council member, by surprise, Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

While Dague, who lost in 2013 to Ann Feldman by one vote in 2013 elections, was surprised but happy, Feldman was most assuredly not amused by events.<\/p>\n

Although she made it clear that she had no specific issue with Daque \u2014 and made a point to congratulate him following the meeting \u2014 she objected as what appeared to be a multi-week process initially, become a done deal in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n

As the conversation about replacing DeStefano evolved, it initially appeared that members of council would submit lists of possible candidates \u2014 Feldman specifically said she had someone in mind but that she wanted to speak to the individual in question before putting their name up. There was also discussion about reaching out to the public on the opening. The Council had until April 23 to name an East Ward replacement for DeStefano, who resigned March 24.<\/p>\n

But events appeared to suddenly gain a momentum of their own, and Council member Pat McGlone placed Dague\u2019s name in nomination with Alex Rakoff\u2019s second, after Council President Anthony Gazzerro noted that he had spoken with Dague and that he remained interested in serving on council.<\/p>\n

With a motion on the table, the council was compelled to vote \u2013 and Feldman said she thought that a deal had been worked out in advance without her \u2014 or that of colleague Nick Winkler \u2014 knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI object to this,\u201d she said. \u201cI think this was done behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That led to verbal sparring with Mayor Josh Maxwell, who suggested Feldman\u2019s tone was inappropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s very accusatory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

She disagreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears to me that this was done ahead of time,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we should be voting tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, the council voted, with McGlone, Rakoff, Winkler and Gazzerro as yes votes for Dague.\u00a0He will formally take his seat April 16.<\/p>\n

Dague, who said he was surprised by the timing, said his primary mission would be to foster economic development in the borough. He currently is a board member for the Downingtown Main Street Association \u2014 although he speculated that he\u2019d probably need to resign that post now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to help foster economic development,\u201d he said, following the council meeting, acknowledging the challenges the borough faces, ranging from infrastructure to the local tax base.<\/p>\n

Still, he says he sees a bright future for the borough, between the residents \u2014 he\u2019s lived in the borough virtually all of his life \u2014 a tightly knit business community and a lot of local assets. He said he thinks the borough can overcome its challenges in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe in Downingtown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feldman argues process was rushed, secretive Correction: vote of Nick Winkler was ‘yes.’ By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times DOWNINGTOWN \u2014 This time, Phil Dague won by two votes. Moments after formally accepting the resignation of Borough Council member Cara DeStefano, Dague was appointed to council for the remainder of DeStefano\u2019s term by a 4-1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[3331,969,240,2081,2268,3332],"class_list":["post-5153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-ann-feldman","tag-borough-council","tag-downingtown","tag-election-2013","tag-josh-maxwell","tag-phil-dague"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}