{"id":25264,"date":"2019-10-01T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=25264"},"modified":"2019-09-30T10:57:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T14:57:44","slug":"op-ed-the-importance-of-a-good-deed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=25264","title":{"rendered":"Op\/Ed: The importance of a good deed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chris Pielli<\/strong>, Special to The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chris Pielli<\/p><\/div>\n

Why do people run for political office?\u00a0 Ideally, it should be to serve the public and put the public\u2019s interest above all other interests, including your own.\u00a0\u00a0 I think of Sophocles\u2019 famous quote \u2013\u201cTo be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.\u201d\u00a0 I have always tried to keep this in mind.\u00a0 As a veteran, I have served my country. As a Township Supervisor, I have served my township. As a lawyer, I served my clients and local nonprofits. Now I would like to offer my entire skill set to serve Chester County as your next Recorder of Deeds.<\/p>\n

Unless you have experienced certain events in your life \u2013 military discharge, purchasing a home, recording a power of attorney — you probably have not interacted with the Recorder of Deeds office. But I have. Being an attorney, I often work with this office and I strongly believe it\u2019s time we have an open and honest conversation about how it has been run.<\/p>\n

I believe full time taxpayers deserve a full time Recorder of Deeds. There is no way to lay the foundation for future success in this office without being there full time. Unfortunately, records recently obtained from Right to Know<\/em> requests initiated in April 2019, seem to indicate that this is not the case with your current Recorder and Republican County Chairman Rick Loughery.<\/p>\n

From my own personal experience as a lawyer, every time I would file a deed or conduct a transaction, Mr. Loughery was not present. This was disturbing to me because I feel strongly that a public servant should be available to serve his\/her constituents and lead the department on a full-time basis.\u00a0\u00a0 After all, the salary is approximately $75,000 a year with full benefits. For the average working citizen, this is a considerable income and therefore deserves a substantial commitment.\u00a0 This is a commitment I look forward to making.<\/p>\n

The title of Recorder of Deeds\u00a0is preceded by the term \u201cHonorable\u201d as in the Honorable Jane Doe\u2013Recorder of Deeds. Truthfully, it is an honor to be elected and to serve in a position of public trust. As a West Goshen Township Supervisor, it is an honor to have worked with Republicans and Democrats to balance budgets every year I served. Moreover, I had the honor to serve my country in the U.S. Army and my County as a Correctional officer and Court appointed attorney.<\/p>\n

If given the opportunity to be elected this November as your next Recorder of Deeds, it will be an honor to innovate and improve the office\u2019s accessibility, affordability, and efficiency for every taxpayer. At the same time, it will be an honor to implement stronger protections for our most vulnerable seniors from theft and fraud and improve our Veteran\u2019s ID discount program.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it seems that\u00a0Mr. Loughery doesn\u2019t think getting paid a full time; taxpayer-based salary deserves his full attention. In fact, his entry and exit logs into the Recorder of Deeds\u00a0office, produced by his employee badge swipes, seem to indicate that he has been absent approximately 287 days since June 2018 (The Chester County Solicitor\u2019s Office states that records do not exist before June 2018).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an astounding 37 days of work out of 324 calendar workdays<\/strong>. Even worse, according to Right to Know documents<\/em>, he has no record of entry and exits from the Recorder of Deeds\u00a0office from June 12, 2019 to September 16, 2019. \u00a0This is inexcusable and you deserve better leadership.<\/p>\n

Where has he been during these absences? Ask him, if you can find him. You as a taxpayer shouldn\u2019t have to track down your elected officials to see if they are showing up to work while collecting a County salary on your dime. Honestly, who is serving whom here? This isn\u2019t a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. This is a common sense issue of fairness and decency \u2026 and doing good deeds.\u00a0You deserve someone who works to earn the title \u201cHonorable\u201d. That is why I am asking for your vote on November 5 as Recorder of Deeds.<\/p>\n

Chris Pielli is a Chester County attorney, member of the West Goshen Board of Supervisors and the Democratic candidate for Recorder of Deeds.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chris Pielli, Special to The Times Why do people run for political office?\u00a0 Ideally, it should be to serve the public and put the public\u2019s interest above all other interests, including your own.\u00a0\u00a0 I think of Sophocles\u2019 famous quote \u2013\u201cTo be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.\u201d\u00a0 I have always tried to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9195,8484,3912],"class_list":["post-25264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-chris-pielli","tag-election-2019","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25265,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25264\/revisions\/25265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}