{"id":14519,"date":"2013-03-16T11:02:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-16T15:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14519"},"modified":"2013-03-16T11:03:21","modified_gmt":"2013-03-16T15:03:21","slug":"duck-the-sequester-hits-unionville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14519","title":{"rendered":"Duck! The sequester hits Unionville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Banning row office elections, and, gulp, a sensible discussion about guns<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"CoupDeVille\"<\/a>Lots of little things this week \u2014 from the dreaded \u201csequester\u201d hitting home in Unionville, to the fate of some county row offices, a start toward impeachment for a state Supreme Court Justice and, sigh, guns.<\/p>\n

While so far the \u201cSequester\u201d has been more non-news than news, the \u2014 you know, I just don\u2019t even know what to call it, as it seems the sort of policy that would be initiated by a pouty five year old rather than grown up elected Democrats and Republicans \u2014 pox has hit home:<\/p>\n

The U.S. Air Force Band was forced to cancel an anticipated concert at Unionville High School in April.
\n
\nNo, it\u2019s not life and death by any means. And maybe when or if people get laid off or forced to take days off from government jobs and it all ripples through the economy, we\u2019ll see it as little but a bump in the road.<\/p>\n

But this just doesn\u2019t seem like the way grown ups are supposed to govern.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, local music lovers can look forward to a concert of the Chester County Pops and the Westminster Presbyterian\u00a0 Church Chancel Choir, May 4.<\/p>\n

Although there likely won\u2019t be any shortage of events this spring in Unionville, one hates to be down one, especially one that a lot of folks seemed to be looking forward to.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which: the state Supreme Court could also be down a member \u2014 Justice Joan Orie Melvin.<\/p>\n

Set aside the fact that if Melvin had a shred of decency, she\u2019d have resigned upon being convicted of various criminal counts in February. But she didn\u2019t, so now the state legislature has to start the process of impeaching her. All the more interesting, as her sister was a powerful state Senator, who herself was convicted of 14 counts of fun crimes ranging from forgery and theft of services.<\/p>\n

She should quit \u2014 but as we\u2019ve seen with the various local district justices who\u2019ve run afoul of the law \u2014 there\u2019s no downside to sticking it out, and as we\u2019ve seen, elected judges can do lots of fun illegal stuff and still not lose their jobs.<\/p>\n

Under any system, we see judges who think they\u2019re above the law, but it just seems to be magnified when we elect our judges, adding a mix of money and power politics to an already tempting tableau were a judge have an inclination to drift from the straight and narrow.<\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t be electing judges at all. Having them be appointments would take a whole level of electoral corruption out of the system.<\/p>\n

And speaking of people serving in positions that shouldn\u2019t be elective: the state Supreme Court (minus Orie Melvin who remains on administrative leave \u2014 time out for misbehaving elected officials) ruled that a law passed in 2011 allowing counties to abolish the positions of jury commissioner was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

No, not because those positions should or have to be elected, but because the law focused on too many subjects to comply with Pennsylvania\u2019s quaint \u201ceach law must pertain to one subject\u201d provision in the state Constitution.<\/p>\n

I am routinely amazed at how often this simple provision trips up our state legislators, they of copious and expensive staffs.<\/p>\n

Still, that we as counties elect various sundry row offices is little more than a remnant of the 19th Century. Jury Commissioner, Register of Wills and so on should no more be elected than local militia officers. Hired professional managers (which we already have) would be cheaper, more effective and would take an entire level politics out of county government.<\/p>\n

We should look at trimming the list of elected officials in Chester County to Commissioner, Sheriff and Controller.<\/p>\n

Having covered government in three states, all with wildly differing systems of governance, I\u2019d be okay with electing a County Executive and\/or more commissioners, but electing these row office positions needs to come to an end. A county legislature \u2014 as I saw in my days working in Orange County, N.Y. \u2014 would be entertaining and fill up news pages (imagine 30 or so county legislators!), but would likely be an operational mess.<\/p>\n

I guess it might be ironic as someone who ran for an elected row office to call for their abolition, but facts are facts. It\u2019s time for them to go.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been conspicuously quiet about the gun debate, I guess.<\/p>\n

While I was horrified by the events in Newtown, Conn., the shock is a little tempered by the ongoing and equally tragic, and yet underreported gun violence that happens regularly, right here in Chester County.<\/p>\n

As typically happens, all the noise in the discussion comes from those with extreme positions \u2014 on one side, a claim that any attempt to regulate guns will lead to confiscation, on the other side a demand to ban certain fuzzy types of weapons and magazines because they are too dangerous.<\/p>\n

And to be sure, guns are dangerous \u2014 especially in the hands of those untrained and those who lack the mental stability to use them safely.<\/p>\n

I see the argument from both sides: I have a friend who manufactures AR-15s \u2014 quite literally mechanical works of art \u2014 and I edit and write about the tide of gun violence in Coatesville, last week, writing about charges filed in an incident when a man walked into another man\u2019s home and shot him dead.<\/p>\n

And some guns are more deadly than others, to be sure. The events in Newtown and Aurora, Colo. have to, at minimum, force us to pause and ask questions. But, let\u2019s be honest, the AR-15 gets the headlines, but it is not the most dangerous weapon in the U.S.<\/p>\n

That would be the Glock 9mm (or various knockoffs). It is widely available, often the weapon of choice of police, and costs about $600 new. Now, don\u2019t have a coronary: I\u2019d never call for a ban on 9mm handguns. That\u2019s patently silly (not that so much else in the gun discussion isn\u2019t).<\/p>\n

Frankly, it\u2019s not the weapons, as much as who has them. A Fiat 500 in the wrong hands on the highway is a death trap, whereas a 1000-HP supercar in the hands of skilled driver can be a thing of beauty.<\/p>\n

If you pop down to your local Bass Pro Shops, WalMart or even TargetMaster, you, me \u2014 anyone \u2014 has to go through a background check. A guy buying one off the back of a pickup truck or at a gun show, not so much.<\/p>\n

Guess which weapon is more likely to end up involved in a shooting in a place like Coatesville? I’d like to think some of those will be turned in today during the city’s Gun Giveback \u2014 but my guess is that most will actually be legally and safely owned weapons bought at WalMart and the like.<\/p>\n

And why don\u2019t we have one set of rules for everyone buying a gun, all of the time?<\/p>\n

And why is it easier to buy a gun \u2014 sometimes \u2014 than to vote?<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t we have a common sense discussion about this?<\/p>\n

Your opinion, as always, is welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Banning row office elections, and, gulp, a sensible discussion about guns By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Lots of little things this week \u2014 from the dreaded \u201csequester\u201d hitting home in Unionville, to the fate of some county row offices, a start toward impeachment for a state Supreme Court Justice and, sigh, guns. While so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,7],"tags":[3008,3009,3007,3005,3004,3006,3002,3003,24],"class_list":["post-14519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-ar-15s","tag-glock-9-mm","tag-gun-debate","tag-jury-commissioner","tag-justice-joan-orie-melvin","tag-row-offices","tag-sequester","tag-u-s-air-force-band","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}