Cedar Street to Chief: No Means No

Council Meeting Report for January 2025

This month’s agenda item that drew a crowd was the motion to advertise Chief Tom Scott’s parking plan for the borough, which included the extension of the ParkMobile system onto Leedom and Cedar streets. About a dozen people from the 400 block of Cedar showed up to voice their concerns and outright opposition. 

The proposed ordinance brings ParkMobile to Cedar allowing anyone to park on either side of the 400 block for up to 10 hours. 

To a person, the residents all questioned the need for ParkMobile on their street. Current law provides residents two free parking passes. Their main problem, they asserted, was Borough’s lack of enforcement of laws already on the books. 

Residents described their own self-regulating system to ensure fair use of available spots, which they’ve successfully managed since resident parking was established. They didn’t want the chief to complicate matters with ParkMobile. 

Current ordinance restricts the east (even) side of Cedar to residents, who may also park on the odd side without restriction. Overlaying ParkMobile means that residents, most of whom have no off-street parking, would then have to compete for spaces with non-residents on both sides of Cedar. 

Chief Goes Into Tantrum Mode

Chief Scott’s self-aggrandizing attempt to justify all his good works only managed to set off the fireworks that Council President Jay Conners struggled to control. 

The Chief tried to claim that the three-hour free parking limit on the odd side is unenforceable. “You cannot mark tires anymore,” he said. “That was a thing that you could do in the past. It was struck down by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.”

While parking enforcement officers can no longer chalk the tires, no doubt they have smart phones with cameras that time-stamp their photos. There’s probably even an app for that. Problem solved.

But residents weren’t buying it, which subjected them to yet another one of the Chief’s now-trademark tantrums. With voice raised and fingers pointing, he levied accusations that Cedar Street residents were attacking his character on social media, calling it “disgusting.” 

When one of the residents, an elderly woman, objected to his characterization, even Jay Conners saw fit to back him up. 

The chief conflates job performance with character. Our issue has always focused on Chief Scott’s job performance, not his character. However, one could question the character of an employer who fosters a toxic workplace that compels people to leave. Gotta give the chief some credit here. We never figured he’d resort to induced attrition to gut our police force.

Council Votes to Further Curtail Speech

Last week, DelcoNow reported that Upper Darby Township has shown Sean Kilkenny the door. With the loss of Democrat seats undermining his support, Kilkenny resigned the position of Township solicitor. 

Upper Darby was paying Kilkenny’s firm a $22,500 per month retainer and cited poor performance and resident resistance to an ordinance he drafted to restrict public comment time to five minutes. Residents sued, citing First Amendment violations and prevailed. 

Meanwhile, in Jenkintown, Kilkenny’s office had already drafted ordinances to limit our comment time to three minutes, potentially reduced to two minutes depending on the mood of Council President. 

At this month’s meeting, council voted to reaffirm its limits on our speech while officially delineating the boundaries between the public area and the Council area for the purposes of public recording. 

Council Applies for Bridge Loan

Since 2020, Borough Council saw the need to borrow to cover what has become annual early-year revenue shortfalls. This year, they voted to authorize $350,000 in additional debt. Council did not explain why this these short-term, higher interest loans weren’t necessary before 2020.