Neil Young Challenging Dem Bosses In Swarthmore, My My Hey Hey
By Bob Small
For the first time in at least a decade, Swarthmore Democratic voters will have a choice when they vote for Borough Council in the May 16 primary election. Two incumbents, David Boonin and Jill Gaieski, are running for re-election. The third, Council President (and Delaware County Solicitor of Wills) Mary Walk, is not running for re-election. The Democratic Party-endorsed candidate is Steven Carp. However, there is also an independent Democrat with an easy-to-remember name, one Neil Young.
If you’ve attended recent Borough Council meetings, or read about them in The Swarthmorean, you are familiar with Young’s viewpoints.
“I would say a primary election which offers Swarthmore Democrats a choice of candidates is a sign of a healthy democracy,” said Young in an online interview. “Incumbents have to defend their record in office, and challenger candidates can offer an alternative . . . A long history of contested primaries, in my view, leads to a cozy complacency that has not served our borough well”
Young enjoyed his signature-gathering, during which he spent time “in the busiest points in town” meeting people and asking for their support. He hopes to use both legacy and online media and in-person meetings to get his message out.
He has worked for FMC Corp., and feels what he has learned there would be valuable assets for serving on the Borough Council. Young explains that he always tries “to seek the best outcome while avoiding personal conflict. I feel many of those skills have been missing from our council the last few years.”
“While Swarthmore has many fine qualities, it also faces significant challenges … it is clear to me there are many areas where the best interests of the entire community are not being represented,” Young said. “A lack of long-range planning, coupled with years of budget deficits and declining capital reserves, creates real doubt around whether the Swarthmore people know today will be financially viable, or affordable, tomorrow. It is my view that difficult conversations have been ignored, deferred, or delayed for many years” (my italics).
“Two thirds of the finance committee did not vote for the budget they worked on producing,” Young said.
Young ended by saying “worse that this though, and over many years, council meetings have been characterized by a lack of civility and decorum, with many meetings descending into unpleasant personal disputes.”
