The Borough manager of West Chester has many important responsibilities in executing the business affairs of our town. The core duties of the manager's job are described in the ordinances in the Borough's Charter. Under the heading of Office of Manager there are listed fifteen powers and duties of the manager's office. Of the fifteen items listed, numbers 7, 8 and 12 are significant in how they relate to the parking garage plan.
Item number 7 describes how the manager has to prepare the agenda for public meetings of Council and supply the facts therein. The agendas for three different public meetings in the month of June in 2006 list the Borough solicitor as the lawyer who drafted the parking garage agreement between the Borough and West Chester University.

The Borough solicitor did not in fact draft the contract, or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as it is called. In an e-mail responding to a question as to what the solicitor's role was in executing the land development deal, the solicitor states, "Our firm did not draft the MOU nor did we urge Council to sign it." Perhaps this accounts for the lack of an escape clause in the agreement, an essential part of most contracts.

Who did write the MOU?  Surprisingly, to me, the lawyers for WCU wrote the agreement for the cooperative partnership. If the proposed parking garage is a Municipal Use project, and the Borough is financing and managing the garage why didn't the Borough solicitor draft the agreement as stated in the agendas written by Borough management? Residents and and Council members who read the listed garage items in the agendas would have been given the impression that our Borough solicitor was looking after our town's interests by drafting the contract. Regrettably, that was not the case.

Item number 8 in the Borough Charter states that the Borough manager shall keep Council members informed of the conduct of Borough affairs. That duty is echoed in a set of ethics listed by a municipal government association called ICMA. The Borough's manager is a credentialed member of this association and has been since 2002. Keeping Council and residents duly informed about the business affairs of the Borough is obviously an important part of the concept of an effective, democratic local government.

Do the residents of the Borough deserve to be informed of the pertinent facts of multi-million dollar land development deal?  In 2005 a Borough bulletin was sent to about a 1/3 of the Borough residents. In the bulletin the issue of the proposed parking garage was addressed with some, but not all significant facts. Left out of this "sufficient" notification was the issue that the Borough was financing (six million dollars or so) the WCU garage using municipal bonds, a public financial resource. Also absent in the bulletin was the fact that the proposed project incorporated a major zoning issue related to a "Municipal Use" enactment that was necessary in order to override existing residential zoning. Money and zoning, two major subjects missing from a newsletter that was intended as due notice for the residents that surrounded the proposed garage site. No one can make an informed commitment to a subject they know little about. Disseminating relevant information as a means to an end to keep Borough residents knowledgeable about the affairs of the borough should be considered a major priority for local officials and the employees who support them.

As stated in the fore mentioned list of ethics in the ICMA website, Tenet 4, "Recognize that the chief function of local government at all times is to serve the best interest of all the people."