BREAKING: Brandon Toole Says No To Developers–Bundling/Bribery Fest At The Tarabicos Law Firm Canceled!!

Several reliable sources have told me that Brandon Toole dis-invited himself from this blatant attempt to bribe new Council members, and that the Tarabicos firm that was to serve as the bundlers for Toole and Valerie George subsequently canceled the event.  No word yet on Valerie George, though the early campaign finance returns are not promising.

Let’s pause for a MAJOR SHOUTOUT TO BRANDON TOOLE!  It now looks like he’s poised to join Dave Carter and Dee Durham as council members who will not be corrupted by developer dollars.

If nothing else, shining a light on the chronic bribing of elected county officials by developers, lawyers and their assorted hangers-on is beginning to have an impact.

Meaning, this is as good a time as any to issue a clarion call to all current Council members, with the exception of Bill Bell, who is owned by the developers, and Janet Kilpatrick, who Meyer employs as his dominatrix to Council:  While you can’t undo the past, you CAN become born-again virgins moving forward.  All you need to do is to swear off accepting future campaign contributions from developers.  We’ll give you shout-outs here, I promise. (Speaking of born-again virgins, is it really true that a certain development bigwig in NCC was caught humming the ‘Bewitched’ theme song circa 2010?)  But, I digress.

Two points of much-needed clarification:

1.  The mere fact of accepting developer money does not make one corrupt.  Especially if it represents a relatively small portion of your contributions.  We know, for example, that Jea Street has taken some principled and, on occasion, some lonely, stands on behalf of people w/o much access to power.  We do know, however, that developers contribute in order to try to influence the approval process for their projects.  They do it the way that the Tarabicos firm and the developer community tried to influence Brandon Toole. With campaign checks less than a month after the election.  Most (but not all) elected officials don’t start off with the intention of cashing in.  But, absent anyone to warn them otherwise, the casual corruption of the Delaware Way washes over them before they even figure out what is happening. Like with a bundling party right after the election.  If nothing else, I hope this series of articles serves to overturn the rocks to reveal the cockroaches who peddle their casual corruption.

2.  This is not in any way an ‘anti-development’ screed.  It’s an ‘anti-corruption’ piece designed to bring accountability to the development process in NCC. Who will join with Carter, Durham–and Toole in bringing integrity to that process?