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Dear Fellow Democrats,

On May 10^th registered voters in our Party received a letter drafted by Republican council candidate, Trisha Mezzacappa. She, along with Democrat Councilman Tom Nodoline are attempting to influence the Democrat Primary with misinformation, disinformation and outright lies in order to better their chances in the November election.

I personally believe that as many as 80% of voters don’t have a true picture of the issues being addressed by your Council, what the 2016 Council faced in problems left us after Kelly Gross was removed from office, or the problems we still face with someone like Mezzacappa now controlling Councilman Tom Nodoline.

Both are intent on seeing the Council elected for 2016 fail and quite frankly, have few issues based in fact to run a legitimate campaign. Neither have offered any vision or plan to improve West Easton.

What I do believe is that most of you have seen the positive changes that have taken place following the last election, when Kelly Gross was removed from office by voters during the Primary of 2015. When Kelly left office in January 2016, Tom Nodoline, her strong-arm, also lost power over the 2016 Council.

Nodoline simply switched alliances to Mezzacappa, hoping that she can generate enough Republican votes for him,  as a Republican write-in, to see him on to November. Nodoline in return, is assisting Mezzacappa in suing our Borough for alleged wrong doing that she claims occurred when Kelly Gross and Tom Nodoline controlled the Council and the Borough. Once bitter enemies, they now follow the philosophy of, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The Royal “We” Mezzacappa Uses

It is only Mezzacappa and Tom Nodoline. Candidates Lake, Breidinger, and Bonners have made it clear that they are not part of the “Mezzacappa-Nodoline” Team. Jeff Breidinger, Jr. and Desiree Lake had specifically requested that she not include them in their literature. They do not accept their support in this election. Jeff is especially upset that his wishes have been ignored and that Mezzacappa has again included him as part of her “We” letter you all received. In fact, Jeff is planning on addressing the possibility of a part-time police force working in conjunction with PSP.

Part-Time Police

As has been discussed at many Council meetings, a part-time police force is not the same as a full-time force. Mayor Gross, Kelly Gross, and Tom Nodoline lightly investigated the possibility of a full-time police force, not a part-time force. A part-time force is not eligible for a pension package, 401K, or all the benefits that are required for a full-time police force. It is these costs that make it cost prohibitive for small boroughs to run a full-time force.

West Easton would have a part-time force. They would be active during the most likely hours that problems might arise and when off-duty, PSP would assume coverage. Stockertown uses this system of a part-time police force and they run it on a budget of $132,000/yr (2016).

Residents have made it clear that they aren’t satisfied with only PSP for protection. Their response time for “low-level” complaints is long. They are stretched thin among communities that have chosen to depend solely on them for protection. PSP also does not handle violations of local ordinances. They do not tow abandoned cars, or issue citations for other violations that are not State violations.

While Mezzacappa may try the scare tactic of a West Easton police force writing tickets against residents because there would be little else to do is simply asinine. I would suspect that they would likely be more inclined to give warnings to residents, unless the residents are continually caught speeding, or running stop signs after being warned.

Computers and Computer Programs

It was the 2016 Council that purchased computers, hardware, and technical support to upgrade the refurbished and outdated garbage that Kelly Gross previously purchased at an inflated price

The Caselle Program was bought by Kelly Gross in August of 2015 without Council approval of the contract she signed with Dallas Data. The money budgeted (not the actual contract) for the purchase of a new program was under the false representation by Kelly Gross and Tom Nodoline that the existing software, AMS, was “unsupported” and obsolete. By March of 2016, after Caselle began being used, it was quickly realized that the program was intended for a large community, didn’t perform as expected, and wasn’t needed by a community with only 1250 residents and less than a half dozen employees. It was also discovered that our previous software was supported, received updates as needed, and performed all the things the public was told it could not do. I would point out this was all discussed at a Council meeting, in public.

We were all lied to and Tom Nodoline was part of that lie.

*There was also a price tag every year if we kept Caselle. A $9,600/yr maintenance fee. The fee for AMS is only $2200/yr. In addition, the AMS program would have had to be retained in order to access the complete financial history of the Borough, as that information could not be downloaded to the Caselle program, according to Dallas Data.

*Council voted to cut our losses and rid the Borough of a highly suspicious purchase of a program that West Easton never needed, avoiding the additional expenditure of $9,600/yr from the budget to maintain a buggy software program.

*These paragraphs updated to include additional information and reflect more accurate costs

Quality of Life Ordinance

As had been explained to Tricia Mezzacappa at length, the “Ordinance” she refers to is one from another community that is still in Committee. It has yet to be proposed for acceptance by Council. While in Committee it is being reviewed. It is being reviewed to see if we want to use some of what it contains, change some of the wording, revise it, remove sections, and conform it to our own community. There is no proposal in front of Council to accept it. It may actually remain in Committee and die there. If it should come out of Committee, Council will then review it and seek public input (again). It may end up in front of Council reading totally different than how it went into Committee. Maybe one of you can explain it to Mezzacappa. God knows our Solictor tried.

Adamson Street

The Council took responsibility for the delay in completing the project. Trolley rails believed to have been torn out and buried in a deep trench when Adamson Street was redone and drainage lines were laid, those many decades ago. This is what we were told. It is what we expected when the project went out for bid. Nobody anticipated finding them in place, secured in concrete, running the length of the entire road.

The project had to be halted while engineers figured out an alternative to complete the road properly -without spending a fortune removing the rails from the concrete. This was accomplished and even with the delay and added expense of materials required for the road surface, it was more than $200,000 less than the Kelly Gross Council had planned on spending for rebuilding the road.

Engineering/Legal Fees

Yes, we incur engineering and legal fees as a Borough. It’s a part of doing business and doing it right. Some of her quoted figure was money the 2016 Council had to make good on to the previous engineering firm and Solicitor, from bills that were never paid the previous years. And if Mezzacappa wasn’t so intent on her promise to continue suing our Borough through every Appeals Court when she loses a case, we wouldn’t have as high a legal bill, either.

If we didn’t require a Solicitor to help straighten out the mess Tom Nodoline and Kelly Gross created for the 2016 Council, that also would have reduced the legal expenses.

Dan DePaul

I won’t speak for Dan, other than to say that I think he should sue Mezzacappa personally for defamation. She claims he has a “criminal history” when he does not. She obtained a police report from a complainant. She didn’t show his complaints against her. A case was heard in settling a landlord-tenant dispute. It was not a criminal case.

Dan DePaul has notified his attorney.

It’s surprising Mezzacappa would want to roll around in mud, considering her own history of Harassment, Disorderly Conduct, and Defamation that had her paying fines.

The Big Picture

Look through the smoke of Mezzacappa and Nodoline.

In 2016 you had 6 working Councilmembers that got things done and one other that did nothing (Nodoline voted against most of it when he bothered showing up at meetings). We came in $175K UNDER BUDGET with $60K more in cash than we started with. Do you want progress to continue? If so, Do NOT vote for Tom Nodoline.

VOTE FOR: LAKE – JAMES – DEES – BREIDINGER, JR

UPDATE 1/9/19

At the request of Mezzacappa made on 1/8/19, a snippet that referenced a legal settlement against her mother, that related to Mezzacappa transferring property to her, has been removed. Mezzacappa claims that information is delaying the settling of her mother’s estate and her moving out of “this horribly disgusting town.”