For those of us with memories that stretch back five years, the following headline and opening paragraph from the Intelligencer Journal / New Era come across as bitterly ironic:
“Conestoga View set to kick off expansion: In its biggest upgrade since becoming privately owned, Conestoga View next week will embark on a $2.3 million expansion and renovation. The project will double the nursing home’s rehabilitation treatment area, replace its bathing area and expand its dining room.”
We also learn from the news report: “It also will install flat-screen 19-inch LCD televisions for each resident. ‘We tried to concentrate on improvements that would have the highest impacts on our residents,’ administrator Jennifer Zufall said.’”
We recall how three commissioners were driven out of office because of the decision to sell the county nursing home to the private company that had been managing it for years, allegedly in violation of the Sunshine Act.
Former mayor Art Morris headed the parade in deploring the sale, endeavoring to convince one and all that the poor would suffer as a result of the change of ownership. It hasn’t happened! We know this not only through word of mouth, but because the facility continues to score just as high in state inspections.
The then district attorney Donald Totaro was rewarded with a judgeship in part for the witch hunt he conducted, finally settling a year-long ‘circus’ of groundless allegations with an agreement to minor violations with $100 fines. A close reading of the Grand Jury Report raises serious questions that any violation actually occurred. In fact, the commissioners had been bludgeoned into making a concession to get the investigation off their backs.
The Lancaster newspapers ran headlines that would not have been larger had the three commissioner been arrested on the Pennsylvania Turnpike fleeing with the county treasury in the trunk of their vehicle!
These were the dark days when the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. lost its integrity and conceivably may have become involved in a conspiracy. (More on that later.)
Let us recognize the courage and honorable service of Dick Shellenberger and Molly Henderson.
Concerning Morris, let us take note that the best of leaders can be both impassioned and wrong on an issue (none of us bat a thousand).
Let us not forget that the newspapers were capable of going astray when their financial interests were involved.
And let us remember what private company benefited most from the development and construction of the convention center.
Lastly, let’s resolve to do better in the future.
If only Art Morris, former D.A. Totaro, and Lancaster Newspapers had applied the same exact standards to the downtown Lancaster hotel and convention center project that they did to the sale of Conestoga View. There are still many more unanswered questions about how the hotel and convention center dealings came about than there ever were about Conestoga View.
Note that John Espenshade of Stevens & Lee was a key player in both the sale of Conestoga View and in the agreements which bind the Lancaster County Convention Center.
“Lastly, let us resolve to do better in the future”
No. I do not agree. Before we come to this last item of a resolution for the future, before we can move on, the damage done to the reputations and leadership positions of two very good and honest people needs to be restored. If we do not, we teach a horrible lesson to any future office holder which is to forget the public interest, forget your fiduciary responsibility, forget your personal integrity, when very powerful private interests oppose you. Some would say that most everyone has learned that cynical lesson already and which is the reason for the corruption that is so rampant in our entire political system. If that is the history we want for Lancaster county, if that is the legacy the power players want to leave behind, then Lancaster County will be disgraced.
It may very well be that all the players were well meaning and wanting what they felt was best for the entire community, but the game was rigged from the beginning and rigged against the elected representatives of the people by nothing less than the combined power of money and media pursuing, by definition, their own private interests. You can pursue both but you cannot, by definition, have a private, vested interest, then deny that it exists and claim that you only have an interest in the public good. You cannot smash the elected representatives of the public using the leverage of money and media power, then claim, that you did so only to serve the public interest and not your own, clearly apparent self interest. It is not credible. It is incredible.
We can either restore these good people, Molly Henderson and Dick Shellenberger, to the respected positions they once held and deserved, or we may as well burn the hotel and convention center to the ground and begin all over again. Buildings and money can be replaced. A person’s right to their good name cannot be replaced, . . .but it might be restored.
(Note: I have never met Dick Shellenberger, and I met Ms. Henderson only once in a grocery store for less than 5 minutes. I have no hotel interests nor any personal involvement in the county, city, SDL or any other entity affected by the Hotel and Convention center. I wish that new facility every promise anyone has ever held out for it, but not under the history that now stands.