Ward 13 Candidates Draw Contrasts

In a free-ranging roundtable forum Thursday night at , incumbent Democrat Brian McGuire called himself the candidate of the "status quo" while Republican Louis Barson positioned himself as a pragmatic, bean-counting alternative in the race for the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners Ward 13 seat.

McGuire, a Kansas City transplant who filled the vacancy left by Bruce Reed's resignation, began by addressing the perceived largess of the board he joined 10 months ago.

He signaled support for its controversial library renovations—"I think it's great we have six libraries here," he said, before admitting the Ludington Library fix might be excessive—and acknowledged that while they and the other capital improvement projects were expensive, the "cycle [of borrowing] is ending." He said debt went down this fiscal year, will do the same the next, and, despite concern about its debt load, the township's bonds are rated AAA by Moody's and Standard & Poor's.

And taken as a whole, he said, Lower Merion's services and infrastructure justify their cost.

"The typical homeowner pays $120 a month [for township services] and I think it's a very good deal."

Barson, a graduate and owner of in Merion Station, thinks the deal could be better. He characterized the present board as well-intentioned but indulgent.

"The status quo last year was a 10.8 percent tax increase on our real estate dollars," he said, turning to McGuire. "I understand that costs go up, I'm a businessman...but I will tell you, we just ratified the Worker's Association agreement and we left in 60 paid sick days a year...and our township debt is 15.4 percent of what we spend out."

He also called McGuire's talk about the budget disingenuous, suggesting the board's stated intention not to raise taxes this year, an election year, is politically motivated.

McGuire didn't address that specific charge, but countered that the tax increases the predominantly Democratic board approved in the last decade were all but necessitated by the fact that the preceding Republican-led board hadn't been raising them. And he called the increases themselves, which he put at 4.5 percent a year on average, "modest."

McGuire also took issue with Barson's criticism of the . While he acknowledged that under the new agreement 60 sick days are allowed for certain workers, the average worker, he said, only takes 14 of them. Furthermore, he added, total sick days are a red herring: in the deal the board ratified, the total cost to the township will increase only one percent over the next four years. (An increase in income for the workers was effectively cancelled out by a decrease in health care benefits.)

"It's a good deal," he said.

Barson still called the deal negotiated by township manager Doug Cleland overly generous. "Three weeks [of sick days] is a lot of weeks," he said. "Tighten the reins, guys. If they only use 14 sick days, put 15 in the contract."

He also argued that the rosy picture McGuire paints of the township's finances is misleading—pointing out, for instance, that the township has $280,000 in unpaid liabilities in its equipment replacement fund.

"Everything isn't hunky-dory," he said.

And with a few bad breaks in the market, he added, things could get worse. While the state currently pays the pensions of township employees, Lower Merion is the backstop, the effective guarantor of the deal. In the event of a shortfall in Harrisburg, the township is on the hook for the every penny.

When the state recently hit such a shortfall, Barson said, it cost the township a $52,000 check to the police pension account. "With markets going down and the state going broke...this could be the rain drops before the tsunami," he said.

McGuire said Barson overstated the township's exposure, that the $52,000 payment was the tsunami. "That is the worst case scenario," he said.

The candidates also discussed at length a proposed rezoning in Bala Cynwyd that would allow substantial commercial development on Presidential Boulevard. Barson said that, absent a comprehensive plan, the township would be unwise to approve it.

"We're talking about 3 million to 11.5 million square feet," he said. "Without a master plan, it's putting the cart before the horse."

He stopped short of saying he would oppose it, though.

McGuire seemed generally supportive of the project, but said that while he saw the need for changes in the area, he was neither for it or against, but rather just looking for common ground.