One Montgomery Debacle

Wait, the actual name is One Montgomery Plaza. It is a debacle though.
I know we've written about this before, but now the entire building is wrapped in gauze because the county is afraid the public is going to be pelted with bricks falling from the facade.
Who is responsible for purchasing this piece of petrifying property?
We can go all the way back to the Matthews, Ellis Damsker regime.
The Scoop has to wonder if any of them ever heard the phrase due diligence.
The parking garage was falling apart at the time of the purchase, and yet they said, sure, let's buy it.
What really needs to come to light, though, is the building inspection that must have taken place before the county signed the check to buy the building. And who was the former owner?
Follow the money my friends, follow the money.

The Great Escape

Not only a great movie, but also it seems, the new motto of former Montco commissioner Jim Matthews.  When will the average Joe and Jane wake up and understand they're being bamboozled by our elected officials? 

The Scoop is waiting for the final outcome, which most likely will be a walk through the park for Matthews and no jail time what-so-ever, but Matthews has indeed pulled off the great escape. 

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap in Montco

Well, well, well. What a fine mess the richest county in the state has gotten itself into. Being $40 million off the mark is one thing, but how they're planning on making it up is quite another.
So, here's the Scoop.
Commissioners elect Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards have pledged no new taxes. Hell of a thing for a team of Democrats to pledge, but they did. So, with a county that is coming up more than $40 million shy, what are they supposed to do? That's an awful lot of social services no self respecting Democrat would dare touch. We hear they're making a deal with Republican turned Democrat turned turncoat Jim "I've been a lame duck for three years" Matthews. Matthews will raise taxes for them now in exchange for Richards and Shapiro keeping all of Matthews cronies in their high paying positions.
There is one fly in the ointment, though. What if Joe "I never met a tax hike I didn't like" Hoeffel won't go for it?

Election PostMortem

Now that it's finally here, and finally leaving as the rest of this night wears on, The Scoop would like to make a few predictions. First, the Montgomery County District Attorney, Risa Ferman, running against no one, will finally have to step up and file charges against outgoing county commissioner James Matthews. There's enough for an indictment, and if one isn't forthcoming, Ferman doesn't make it to another election. The second is that Norristown does absolutely nothing to those responsible for the unbelievable shame and sham that was perpetrated on the residents of the condominium complex on Sandy St. That's just a couple for you. We'll be back in the next couple of weeks to keep the ball bouncing.