Upper Darby government feuds over ARPA funds and lawsuits

Pointing to the wave of gun violence facing the country — and Upper Darby –  Hayman highlighted that the administration’s plan is to put $1 million of the ARPA funds towards gun violence prevention.

The plan also includes millions of dollars for a community center to provide programs to kids. From new fire trucks and police vehicles, Hayman said that “everything is on the line.”

“Every day that we wait to spend this money, inflation takes a chunk out of it. The cost of materials increases — everything, from tools, to supplies, to payroll. And every day we wait, that money becomes less valuable. That means less work that we can get done,” Hayman said.

Keffer hosted a town hall on Tuesday to discuss the ARPA funding, and gave residents a chance to hear from the administration and community stakeholders on the specific initiatives and plans as well as provided a space to ask questions. The town hall was well-received by several residents who came to the podium during Wednesday’s council meeting.

Hayman believes that the refusal to accept the findings of the Marcum report is one part political and one part personal.

“Council voted to find that Vince Rongione, our CAO had forfeited his job on June 1. But on February 10, Laura Wentz, vice president of council offered his job to a Democratic Party candidate for office and activism. So that’s almost four months of lag time. So clearly this was the plan back in early February,” Hayman said.

When asked if she had looked into finding a replacement for Rongione in February, Wentz said that it was true. She said that she didn’t run again to be council president, because she had a “very bad experience” working with Rongione and Keffer.

“I actually was not aware that there was a way that I could complain about it. I’m an elected official and we’re supposed to take a lot of crap and I didn’t expect to take it from people who were supposed to be on my own team,” Wentz said.

She said that her inquiry into a new CAO was limited to a “safe space conversation” with a friend.

“I personally was looking for, if the need arised at some point in time and so that was the reason for me asking her. I did not realize that she would break the safe space conversation,” Wentz said.

Councilmember Billups echoed the sentiment of Hayman. She feels as though there are some “personal” and “misguided” motivations behind the continued withholding of the ARPA funds.

“They say ‘oh, believe me, we care for the community.’ Yeah, I don’t think so. Because you could still allocate the money so things can get done, while this investigation is still going on, and then figure it out on the back end. That’s not what they did,” Billups said.

She said that she didn’t have an answer as to why her colleagues did not take that approach.

More than just ARPA funds are at issue

While Councilmember Tunis Jr. believes that Upper Darby is in a “state of contending” to be a better community, he thinks that the actions of council have had a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

“We have a township council led by a township council president and his slim majority of six white council members that have a concentrated effort into marginalizing communities of color and their representation,” Tunis Jr. said. “They’re willing to hurt 90,000 people to get back at one man — Vince Rongione.”

According to Tunis Jr., who is Black, council members of color do not get any updates to the investigation unless they go out of their way to obtain it. He also said that there is a lack of diversity in council leadership in important committees like zoning and finance. He called the behavior of Burke and some of the other council members “juvenile.”

“They have had the majority for several months and they have not passed any quality of life issues,” Tunis Jr. said.

The area that he grew up in is the neighborhood that would benefit from the new community center. There are no parks or recreational activities for kids nearby.

“As a young Black man, I grew up in Upper Darby and I thought it was going to be the most diverse place ever. And now we have people in control of council that wouldn’t even come to 69th street outside of a township council meeting,” Tunis Jr. said.

Burke did not respond to multiple requests for comment from WHYY News.

Wentz said that when she was council president, the administration refused to work with Faraglia when she served as chair of a committee. She acknowledged that there is a lack of racial diversity in council leadership but also said that there is a diversity of political affiliation and gender.

“As far as the zoning and finance committee. It’s still diverse. They’re still diverse to me. They’re just not racially diverse, but I’m not the president, it’s not my decision. We have talked about ways of diversifying it,” Wentz said.

‘This is not anything I expected to happen’: Council members are shocked

Several council members on both sides of the issue expressed disbelief that this situation has lasted for this long.

Reflecting back on their longtime relationships with their colleagues that have since soured, some of the council members were upset with how this has transpired. Silva has known Keffer and Rongione for a long time.

“This is not anything I expected to happen like three, four years ago. If you would have told me this would have happened three, four years ago, I probably wouldn’t have believed you, but I don’t know what’s going on,” Silva said.

Andruszko said that he had no ill-will going into this process and he didn’t expect it to take this long. He added that he hopes that the behavior of all of the council members improves.

“The actions people stand for, I’m fine with. People believe we were elected to serve our residents. If everybody’s acting in the manner they think is best to serve them, I’m fine with that. I just hope that the relationships and behaviors could improve,” Andruszko said.

Hawley, the resident from Drexel Hill who spoke on Wednesday night, said that council’s tone of “hostility and arrogance” needs to stop.

“You’re all Democrats — most of you. [You’re supposed] to work together. I don’t get it,” Hawley said.