Qualifications for this office

By Susanna E. "Sue" (Wakeling) Vinciguerra

My educational background, experience and volunteer work have served and provided me with a myriad of experiences and an important toolbox of skills I can transfer and use now as a Council member, to provide service to the people of Oxford Borough.

Now to the important business at hand. It is my understanding, on June 15th, the County Press newspaper depicted me as merely a frequent "fixture" at the Oxford Borough Council meetings over the past four years. In reality nothing could be further from the truth and I have in fact--although never previously quoted(?) been a contiguous advocate "for the People of Oxford". During the very limited public discussion time-lines, I ask Council the hard questions on spending issues and frequently question the answers I'm given. The usual response is a "pat" answer. The result being, I usually leave Council meetings knowing no more about the agenda matters than I did when I walked in. It's no wonder why only a few people EVER come regularly to Council meetings!

Undaunted by all this, I've continued to press on--faithfully attending these meetings--watching and listening. And even though I don't have the option of seeing the documentation that outlines and describes the issues being considered and voted on, I have been able to glean enough information to piece together and asses--through the actions and votes by council members and sometimes through the press what has transpired. The important thing to note here is this seeming exercise in futility over time has enabled me to "hone-in" on what Council is doing correctly or no. In addition these meetings have allowed me to develop strategy and actions that need to be taken to best serve all of us who are taxpayers toward achieving the concerted goal of helping to eliminate our current fiscal dilemma.

First and foremost, understanding that we are the highest taxed community in Chester County, I think it is imperative for us to return to the old way of budgeting and that means taking the time and doing the hard work necessary to look at all expenditures on a "line-item-cost-basis". In addition to this, I believe the best method to reach the important goal of balancing our budget and regaining fiscal solvency, is through the careful and considered implementation of the following measures:

1. To use public advertisement and seek and encourage competitive bids for all goods and services provided to the Borough. Important to note as well, if these goods and services are no longer needed or are not working, they should be eliminated. What I witness on a contiguous basis in council meetings is a "business as usual mind-set"--the contracts are presented to council by the Borough manager and everybody just says "aye" in agreement with very little if any questioning. The "rubber-stamping" has got to stop! If elected I will request that Council implement measures to have all contracts for each service reviewed and an adequate time-line be given for council to review the contract provisions before we are asked to vote on them. Haste is way too wasteful.

2. Looking at creative ways to reduce budgets for all Borough uniformed and non-uniformed employees through mitigation of new or their renewed or annual contracts.

3. To promote transparency regarding the issues that are being discussed at council meetings via various mass-media sources--television, regular mail, email, facebook, borough website etc. Personally, I plan to provide my voters with all the above and my telephone number so that they can speak with me about Borough Council issues directly, as needed. I don't just want to be transparent on the issues, I want to be responsive to and responsible for meeting the needs of my voters and to serve the will of the majority of the people--whenever or however possible.

4. Last but certainly not least discuss and implement creative ways of attracting new business through making our Borough an attractive and inviting environment for new business to start and flourish. New businesses will assist in reducing the cost-share and tax assessment for residential properties and hopefully, hold the line on any new tax increases year-over-year.