Who I’m endorsing for West Chester Trustee Election
West Chester Oh Election
While I could compile a list of all the “pro’s and con’s” for all of the people running in the West Chester Township Trustee election, I feel it would be a waste of bandwidth as well as a waste of my time and the readers time. For this resident, it became glaringly obvious in April 2012 that the “Trust” in Trustee for two of elected officials had lost all meaning.
Trustee (or the holding of a Trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another.Although the strictest sense of the term is the holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary, the more expansive sense encompasses persons who serve, for example, on the Board of Trustees for an institution that operates for the benefit of the general public.
Like many people, my life is rather hectic. With a child in elementary school, working two jobs, I rarely have the time to attend the bi-weekly Trustee meetings. In fact, until late 2012, I wasn’t really concerned all that much with Township politics. It seemed the Township trucks were always out cutting grass or cleaning up our public areas. The Police and Fire departments were responding to calls….everything seemed as it should. Besides, the real problems as far as politics went were in Columbus or Washington. “Those guys”, the state and national politicians, they were the ones that were wrecking everything. That’s where all the worst of politics went on…..or so I thought.
My Epiphany
I won’t go into the reasons I became focused on Township politics (in this article) but sometime in late 2012, I found myself right in the middle of it and what I discovered was that scheming, pandering and political trickery wasn’t invented in the State Capital or Washington DC. It made sense, and in late 2012 I had a sort of epiphany, the realization that “those guys” in Columbus and Washington DC started their political careers (and education) at the local level (John Boehner began as a Trustee of Union Township). I began watching past Township Trustee meetings, initially for research as I dealt with my own personal issue with West Chester Township. It was in that period of researching, watching our Trustees in action on their video channel that I stumbled across what I feel was political scheming worthy of Washington DC. In fact, if what I watched in the April and May Trustee meetings had happened in Washington DC, their would be congressional hearings!
What Happened
There are several articles on the subject as well as the original meeting videos and I will link them but for this article I’ll just summarize, you can research further to verify my points.
Eagleridge Crosswalk
On April 24th, two Beckett Ridge neighbors of Trustee Lee Wong arrived late to the Trustee meeting. One was escorted by Mr Wong’s wife (Terri McGill Wong) who was a board member of the Beckett Ridge HOA. They were there to speak to the Trustee’s during the “citizens comments” period of the meeting but arrived late. This late arrival played a huge part in exposing a preplanned scheme that went back at least 5 weeks and possibly more. The neighbors asked the Trustees to build a crosswalk on their street of 57 homes where it (Eaglet Dr) meets Eagle Ridge Dr (the street Mr Wong happens to live on, in the HOA his wife is a board member of). Later, it would be discovered that Mr Wong attended a Beckett Ridge HOA meeting 1 week prior to the April 24th Trustee meeting and had “presented a proposal from the township” for the crosswalk. It was also discovered that the Township Administrator had contacted the Butler County Engineers Office 5 WEEKS prior on the exact same crosswalk at the exact same location. There is little doubt that our Administrator, Judith Boyko, and Trustee Wong were involved in the scam and given the actions and comments, as well as the past history of using both Mrs Boyko and Mr Wong to manipulate her agenda, I have little doubt that Trustee Stoker was also involved. Trustee Catherine Stoker is as cunning as any politician we’ve seen on the national stage and while there isn’t the same “smoking gun” proof we see with the other two, Trustee Stoker was “all in” from the minute Mrs Wong arrived with their neighbors to hatch the plan. You can watch the video below to see the events unfold.
What happened in April and May of 2012 was nothing more than a vote pandering scheme and while the costs of the crosswalk were not huge, the people of West Chester deserve better government. The willingness to use children, a handicapped man and public money to manipulate our local government is despicable.
It’s time to change things in politics. The November 2013 West Chester Oh Election won’t fix all the problems our country is facing…..but it’s a good place to start.
Join me in endorsing “Anyone But Stoker & Wong”
I realize this video is a bit long but it’s a lot quicker than researching the entire subject….
Here is a larger image of the email from Judith Boyko, sent 5 weeks before she was supposed to have ever heard about the the Eagleridge crosswalk issue.
Here are a couple of links for further reading:
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