November 2011 - Leadership Making a Difference

Leadership Making a Difference for Media Borough In November 2011, Media residents will have an opportunity to express who they want to lead their town for the next several years.  It is important to understand the issues and differences being proposed by the candidates, which we will do with this political overview of the 2011 election and the events over the last year.

You are going to hear and read many different opinions about the achievements over the last year that has allowed Media council to settle some of its most vexing issues it has been facing for over a decade.  We will try and explain how we settled the issues and what our position was. The purpose of this overview is to provide you the background and facts to fully understand what the impact has been to the tax payers of Media. We hope that by clearly explaining the issues voters will be able to fully understand who has the ability to lead the Borough for the coming years. Many of these issues have been played out in public for many years. In fact, the accomplishments can be viewed on All Things Media under the “Seven Major Achievements in the Last Year“ tab.
First, however, it is important to understand what the Media Democrats see as the most “critical” issue of this campaign – trust in the leadership of your local government. According to the Media Democrats “Trust is essential to good leadership”, let us examine the trust you have entrusted through the records of the two camps. Over the past twelve years, Council President Pete Alyanakian, has worked hard to earn your trust by representing the best interests of the residents. He has earned your trust by leading Media in several major initiatives including developing the Solar Energy for Media Initiative, settling the 3rd St Dam lawsuit, applying and receiving over $750,000 in grants, sold One West State to the highest bidder, creating the Media Community Service Award, and developing an economic development initiative that includes all major committees working together on behalf of a more vibrant business district. We have done this in just 12 months, and more will be done to position Media as the economic hub of Delaware County. Council needs to manage resources to continuously reinvent itself to remain a vibrant retail and residential destination. Media voters have entrusted Pete with this responsibility by electing him 3 times making him the longest serving and most experienced member of council. Much will be made of the council president change that occurred in July 2010 when two Democrats and two Republicans decided, that in the best interests of the Borough, a change was needed in leadership to better address major issues impacting the boroughs ability to govern. This change has been called many things, but what it did was prioritize agenda items that needed to be resolved.  In fact, newly appointed Council President Pete Alyanakian recognizing the need to better serve the residents, utilized the skills of all members of council making committee assignments based on experience and skill sets, not on political affiliation.   The accomplishments by this revamped council has saved taxpayers over $750,000 in direct funds, replenished a depleted Capital Reserve Fund and has positioned the borough to better manage its resources in the future.  The Democratic Candidates will go door to door and focus on the way the change was made, not on the results that have been accomplished. They will talk about how the public was betrayed by the change when in fact the taxpayers have been better served by the changes by decisively settling long term issues through pragmatic approaches to problem solving. You deserve better than Democratic candidates who claim to be ‘trained problem solvers,” but then were given 4 years on council and ignored the problems which they were elected to address!

In fact, all three of the Democratic candidates are on record as opposing the 3rd Street Dam settlement after previously supporting it.    This policy flip flop would have cost Media taxpayers over $750,000 plus additional legal and consulting fees. In fact, the Democratic leadership has stalled and delayed the settlement for 13 years. The Republican candidates running for Council, including Pete Alyanakian, Tedman O’Hara and Toni Cavanagh DiMonte would like to invite you to compare our records to our opponents and cast your vote accordingly. We have been responsive to the issues that have been ignored for far too long. You can bet our opponents will try and down play what has been done this year or take credit for these achievements like they try and take credit for “Saving Media School” when 2 of their candidates did not even live in the area during that time.  Leadership is earned by working hard for the best interests of the residents, it is not a right of a political party to rule without doing what they promised to do.
Please consider voting for our committed, hometown team of long time Media residents dedicated to community service.  Watch for future updates on the campaign and position papers that will clearly spell out the differences in our agenda and approaches to leading Media Borough. Thank you, Pete Alyanakian