Castor Bitch Slaps Hoeffel With Facts, Hoeffel Admits He’s Stupid

The strained relationship between the commissioners is becoming more and more contentious as time goes on. The latest issue to cause a ruckus at the commissioner's meetings has been ethics.

Latest? Check that. Castor has been calling for ethics reform since he was sworn in back in January of 2008. In April of last year, it was a hot topic (see PA Watercooler article), again in August, as reported by your humble blogger here.

It's only recently, as a matter of fact, that Mr. Potato Head himself, Joe Hoeffel, has been calling for Castor's head as a result of a few emails that circulated well over 5 years ago.

The latest came with Hoeffel, once again, pointing out that Castor had allegedly "directed" an underling to conuct political work on county time. Castor admits to sending a few emails and some passing conversation concerning politics, but is adamant that no political activity was going on that violated any ethics code.

The ethics code that Hoeffel put in place during his former (1993) administration did not specifically include electronic messaging between county employees.

Republican Commissioner, Bruce L. Castor, Jr. responded in a way that Hoeffel wasn't prepared for.

He "bitch slapped" Hoeffel with his own rhetoric.

From the Philadelphia newspaper, "The Bulletin":

Mr. Castor then raised the matter of a letter Mr. Hoeffel wrote in March 1993 after first taking office as commissioner which said the Democrat found himself “’in the loop’ of policy and personnel decisions affecting county government.”

He took that occasion to advertise to associates familiar with his work at the Murphy & Oliver law firm that he remained with the firm and that they should keep in touch with him. The former district attorney said that letter amounted to influence peddling.

The county ought, Mr. Castor said, to “endow an entire wing in the hypocrites hall of fame” in recognition of Mr. Hoeffel who he said has “the dirtiest hands of anyone who has ever held the commissioners’ post.”

Hoeffel, it was reported by a source in the meeting room, was flabbergasted. His reply? Admission of stupidity:

Mr. Hoeffel said [...] the letter was “the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in public life.”

Brad Vasoli, reporter extrodinaire at the Bulletin has an excellent article on this issue:

Hoeffel, Castor Continue Ethics Duel

B.




And here is the rest of it.