Letter: Angelichio Wants to Bring 'True Fiscal Responsibility' to Lansdale

Hello Lansdale.  My name is Leon Angelichio and I am running as a candidate for borough council in Ward 3.  I want to serve you.

As an introduction, I would like to tell you that I was born and raised in the North Penn area, have owned a home in the borough for the last 12 years, raised my children here, centered my business here, and continue to be an active member of the Lansdale Democratic Committee as its elected vice-chairman.  I can bring to council my experience of running a successful service business that is driven by customer satisfaction and the knowledge of the financial world that has made my business successful.  I promise that I will work hard to serve you, the public, to the best of my ability and to listen to and work on your concerns as homeowners, residents, and taxpayers of the borough of Lansdale.

Over the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of meeting many people in Ward 3 while walking through the borough.  I have had the opportunity to hear some fantastic stories about Lansdale’s neighborhoods, seen some beautiful homes, and was able to see the results of some of our repaving and infrastructure projects.  Now I can reaffirm that my choice to make my home and raise my family here was the RIGHT choice.

It is very easy to outline my goals for the borough as a councilperson.  Unlike the current administration that has increased our property taxes by 68%, our sewer customer charges by 100%, and our electric rates and customer charges by 100%, I will fight to keep our taxes in check, provide the means for our police force to keep us safe, give the tools to our department heads to maintain our parks, electric services, waste water treatment, public works, and continue to attract quality sustainable businesses to our town.  I will strive to provide, through an equitable balance of grant acquisition and responsible bond borrowing, financial stability within the walls of borough hall.  These are goals that I feel benefit us all. 

What I will also bring to council is a new perspective and, hopefully, some fresh ideas.  We need some change in the borough.  My opponents in the upcoming election have often criticized me because I have agreed with certain members of Council on a few issues.  This does not make me beholden to them or their “puppet” as they purport. 

My opponents have openly stated that they agree with the direction that the current administration has gone in the Borough and that they intend on continuing in this same direction. 

Although they claim that they have ended the deficit spending of past administrations, this simply is not true.  Since the CABL Party, which is now branding itself as Lansdale First, took control of Council four years ago, they have borrowed more than $40,000,000, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on countless consultants, and have given away millions of dollars of Lansdale taxpayer owned property to private individuals and huge corporations.

I am a True Blue Democrat, and am proud to be so, and I firmly stand for the democratic principals and values with which my party identifies.  I am honored to be one of the two candidates that have been endorsed by the Lansdale Democratic Party to serve Ward 3 and I appreciate the opportunity to provide you with some insight into who I am and my motives for running for council.  I look forward to meeting more of the residents of Ward 3 as I continue to walk the neighborhoods and to seeing you at the polls. 

On Tuesday, May 21^st, you will have the opportunity to make a choice.  You can vote for those that have vowed to continue the tax, borrow, spend policies of the current administration or you can vote to bring true fiscal responsibility to our Borough. 

While I too will work to continue to strengthen our Borough by improving its infrastructure and providing the resources to allow our various departments, especially our Police Department, to provide improved services to our residents I will work to secure additional grant funding to help us accomplish many of these tasks instead of simply putting them “on the borough taxpayers’ credit card” as the current administration has done.

Respectfully, I ask for your vote for me and my running mate, Liz Troy, the Endorsed Democrats on the ballot.

Warmest Regards,

Leon Angelichio
Lansdale Ward 3 Democratic Candidate