It's Clarification Time
I have since spoken with Democrat Carol Cannon (and Penn Delco school boarder) who also attended the meeting and she told me she has a different recollection of what Landau said.
She believes that when Landau was speaking about getting into Fair Acres he meant as an employee, not as a patient.
Laura Goodrich, a Republican, has a different recollection of what Landau said.
For the record, I sought to talk to Cannon about this Tuesday but she was unavailable due to a death in the family. I called her again Wednesday to get her recollection of the event.
I had been told in response to what Landau asserted Cannon announced she had to speak to her State Rep, Steve Barrar, to get a relative into Fair Acres.
But this was not because she needed his approval or connections to get her in, only to find out the "process" of getting someone admitted.
Yesterday, Cannon agreed that party affiliation played no role in who gets admitted to the county nursing home.
On other hand, Cannon told me she thinks it helps a great deal to be an active Republican when it comes to getting a management position at the facility. I would be the last one to disagree with her on that.
I spoke with Fair Acres Administrator Joe Dougherty about the perception that you had to be Republican to be admitted there and he said that was a perception that he and his team has been fighting for a number of years.
What they want to do, he said, is fill beds and they don't hold them open for weeks waiting for a registered Republican to apply. (If they did that they wouldn't get paid for them, you see.)
On Tuesday, he said, they had five open beds that they were looking to fill as soon as possible -- presumably even with space aliens if Medicaid would cover them.
As it happens, Dougherty is Upper Darby GOP Chairman John McNichol's son-in-law. Despite that curse, he is by most accounts, an excellent administrator, even if he does have a hard time finding qualified Democrats to fill upper level management positions at the facility. I'm sure he could if he looked a little harder. But, for obvious reasons, I don't see that happening.
Oh, and here is another clarification: My son, Jake Spencer, who works on average five hours a week at Fair Acres, doesn't take home $51 and change a week.
He takes home $51 and change every TWO weeks.