My spotters tell me that once and future candidate for Township Supervisor, Bill Kasper and his wife, Lori, have been in attendance at four of the five Upper Providence Township Supervisors Meetings this year.  Not that you’d know, because, like ghosts, they have been both silent and invisible to the cameras at these meetings.

Given their vocal criticism of the Township regarding fire services, in particular, the Township’s new fire funding formula implemented last year, it’s curious that neither one of these individuals have had anything to say at the last few Board meetings. This is especially puzzling since not only did the Black Rock Volunteer Fire Company actively engage in adversarial politics during Bill Kasper’s candidacy in the 2017 primary, but following the primary, the Democrats co-opted the false message that the Township “cut” fire funding.  Indeed, it was a cornerstone issue of their campaign.

This raises two questions:

• The newly elected Democrats have not only the majority on the Board, but the Chairmanship.  Why didn’t they re-open the Budget within the first 30 days of their term, as is their right, and restore Black Rock’s funding?
• Given the 2017 politicization of the BRVFC organization (in service to member Bill Kasper’s political ambitions…?), why hasn’t anyone from the Black Rock organization confronted the new Board about holding them to their campaign rhetoric, if not at a public meeting, then maybe during Quizzo night at the Fitz?

For reference, the details of the funding formula can be found HERE.

Readers don’t need to take my word for this.  I’ll let the players’ own rhetoric speak for itself.  Read on, Gentle Reader, and come to your own conclusions.

BRVFC Newsletter

Below is the Black Rock Volunteer Fire Company Newsletter published on the BRVFC website on May 11, 2017, just five days prior to the May 16, 2017 primary in which Bill Kasper was running for Towsnhip Supervisor:

“Fresh Perspectives???”

The repeated usage of the term “Fresh Perspective” in Bill Kasper’s campaign mailer (below, left) and facebook posts (below right) is curious given that this is the name that the Democrats gave their campaign and Bill Kasper ran, at least nominally, as a Republican.  Why would Kasper co-opt the Democrats’ branding?  Especially at the end of the campaign?

 

The Campaign Cheerleader

Mrs. Kasper posted many campaign-related facebook posts, most of which have been recently deleted.   This one is from her own page right before the primary.  She appears to speak for the Fire Company until it becomes uncomfortable.

The bi-partisan partisans

The post below was posted on the faux-community page, Upper Providence First, which is run by Upper Providence’s Tax Collector, Julie Mullin, and now-former Upper Providence Republican Committeeman Jim White, with John Pearson rounding out the core of the Upper Providence First PAC. The group and their facebook page were created to promote the expansion of our Board of Supervisors from three to five members and then get their hand-selected candidates elected.  Bill Kasper was actively involved in this initiative by collecting signatures and notarizing John Pearson’s petitions for the expansion.  Obviously, Bill had a personal interest in the Board expansion, given his candidacy immediately following it’s passage.

Then Bill Kasper lost the election.  His wife was not happy about it….

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The Democrats Campaign in the General Election

So once the primary votes were tallied, there was not much left for anyone to say.  That is, until the Democrats began campaigning in earnest.  The Democrats only sent out two Township-wide mailers and both of them focused on politicizing public safety by misrepresenting the Township’s fire funding formula and implying that the previous Board was mis-allocating funds from the newly implemented fire and EMS tax (for an explanation of the fire funding formula, which the new Board now apparently agrees with, please see here.)

Where did the money go?  The money was reallocated to the other three fire companies that cover the other 40% of the Township.  John Pearson, Laurie Higgins, Bill and Lori Kasper all knew this; they were IN THE AUDIENCE when the funding formula was passed, yet none of them ever said a word during the meeting.

The Silence of the Friendly Ghosts

A couple weeks ago, I raised my questions on facebook page, linking a post from Mrs. Kasper’s facebook page, since she was the most vocal resident about this issue.  She was surpisingly incurious as to why the Democrats did not change the fire funding formula, and was instead more interested in…. well, you can read the exchange below.  Another conversation, in which I offered to meet to discuss her issues with me, someone whom she admittedly does not know,  took place on her own facebook page subsequent to this, but that post has also been taken down.

The campaign videos that Pearson, Higgins and Calci posted,  where they demagogue the fire funding issue (including the one I link on my facebook page below), have also been taken down.

But read it all and judge for yourself.  After politicizing Fire services in the Township for their own ends, is the silence from certain individuals troubling?  Or is it just the result of a Fresh Perspective?