Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. has had to put up with a great deal of ignominy at the hands of fellow Commissioners Jim Matthews and Joe Hoeffel over the past four years.

Castor was the top vote-getter in the 2007 election and was expecting to play a major role in leading Montgomery County government. Instead, Matthews stabbed Castor (and county taxpayers) in the back by entering into a back-room, power-sharing deal with liberal Democrat Joe Hoeffel.

The Matthews-Hoeffel regime has nearly bankrupted what was once one of the most fiscally-sound counties in Pennsylvania.

The Montgomery County Republican Committee censured Matthews for his betrayal and told him not to bother running for another term because the party would not support him. The Democratic Party also had enough of Hoeffel and told the career politician he would not be endorsed for re-election in 2011.

On Tuesday came the bombshell news that Matthews is facing criminal charges for a variety of alleged improprieties during his tenure as a county commissioner.

From a story by reporter Jenny DeHuff of the Norristown Times Herald

Alleging that Matthews repeatedly lied to jurors "with impunity," District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman unsealed a 69-page grand jury report detailing charges of perjury and giving false statements during a press conference Tuesday morning.

The presentment was the culmination of an 18-month investigation into the inner workings of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. The allegations are extensive, from no-bid contracts with a Matthews-affiliated title insurance company to allegations surrounding his violations of the state's open meetings laws during repeated breakfast meetings at an East Norriton diner.

Ferman identified five areas outlined in the grand jury report, including the alleged use of campaign funds for personal expenses, the county's competitive (or non-competitive) bidding process, allegations of Sunshine Law violations by two of the county commissioners, matters of expenditures through the county's open space program, and a potential conflict of interest involving Matthews and a company called Certified Abstract, which had been given the county’s contract for title insurance.

So what does Bruce Castor, a former two-term county district attorney, think of all this?

DeHuff contacted the only commissioner who will be returning in January and this is what Castor had to say about Matthews, whom he described as a "very arrogant man" -

"Jim Matthews lied to the voters, to his supporters, to his contributors, to the party – those things don't surprise me, but when he lies to a grand jury, that is a crime. My experience is that perjury cases before a grand jury are almost always successful for prosecutors. I cannot recall a perjury charge in any court that I've ever worked in or around that did not result in a guilty verdict, because it's such a rarely used charge. A prosecutor only uses it when they're sure they're going to win."

It appears Bruce Castor will get the last laugh.

Nothing has gone right for Republican Jim Matthews since he turned his back on voters and made a power-sharing deal with Democrat Joe Hoeffel four years ago.

Matthews' back-room deal led to deficit spending at the hands of Hoeffel, censure for Matthews from the county Republican Committee, which eventually forced Matthews from the GOP ticket.

The Matthews-Hoeffel deal also caused the defeat of the Republican majority on the commissioners' board for the first time in 140 years.

Now Matthews is facing criminal charges.

When you make a deal with the devil ...

Grand Jury: Montco commissioner lied while giving testimony - pottsmerc.com

Thorns to Joe Hoeffel, Jim Matthews for wasting taxpayer time and money on ethics appeals - pottsmerc.com

Incumbent Commissioner Bruce L. Castor and newcomer Jenny Brown are the endorsed Republican candidates for Montgomery County Commissioner.

Lame-duck Jim Matthews, who betrayed the GOP four years ago by turning over control of county government to Democrat Joe Hoeffel, is cleaning out his desk.

Brown, Castor endorsed by GOP for Montco commissioner (video) - pottsmerc.com

Veteran Montgomery County political observer Margaret Gibbons writes about the jockeying for next year's race for Montgomery County commissioner.

Incumbent Bruce L. Castor Jr. will be one of the Republican nominees, but forget about Turncoat Jim Matthews for other spot. Matthews has maneuvered himself into Arlen Specter territory. He's a man without a party and will be tossed away by both parties.

From Gibbons' column:

The jockeying for the county Republican Committee's two county commissioner endorsements in next year's elections is already under way.

GOP incumbents Bruce L. Castor Jr. and James R. Matthews, former running mates who do not like each other one bit, have said they will be running for re-election next year. No surprise there.
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However, there are others who believe that Matthews, who was censured by party leaders for his unprecedented alliance with Democratic Commissioner Joseph M. Hoeffel III, cannot win that second GOP endorsement and they want it for themselves. And, to date, these believers are all women.

The three women who have expressed an interest in that second endorsement include county jury commissioner Marie N. Cavanaugh of North Wales, Lower Merion commissioner Jenny Brown and Lower Merion GOPer Jill Govberg, who sought the endorsement four years ago but bowed out when she did not secure enough votes. Govberg has been attending the commissioners' meetings regularly for more than a year. It will be interesting to watch this play out.

PhillyBurbs.com: Above, beyond call of caring

Reporter Keith Phucas recaps the political soap opera otherwise known as the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in a year-end roundup story published in The Norristown Times-Herald.

The problem began when Republican Commissioner Jim Matthews, reelected with the help of fellow Republican Bruce Castor, stabbed the former district attorney in the back and made a pact with Democratic Commissioner Joe Hoeffel.

Almost every vote taken by the commissioners in 2008 was 2-1 with Matthews/Hoeffel getting the advantage over Castor.

Don't expect things to change in 2009, Phucas says.

From his story:

Based on what has transpired, expect the two Republicans to remain at odds and occasionally butt heads on policy issues going forward.

What political fallout will result long term from the rift is anyone's guess.

Read the full story, "As Montgomery County turns," at the newspaper's Web site.

The Montgomery County Republican Committee has adopted a unanimous resolution censuring renegade county Commissioner Jim Matthews.

"Since I was elected chairman and even while I was campaigning, everywhere I went, I was asked 'What are we going to do about Jim Matthews'?," county GOP Chairman Bob Kerns said in a press release announcing the censure.

"The voters I talk to feel betrayed and the Republican committee members are just devastated by Jim's actions. The voters placed their trust in Jim Matthews and Bruce Castor and the committee members put their hearts into the campaign to elect the Matthews-Castor team last year. This has been a difficult year for everyone," Kerns said.

Matthews rode Bruce Castor's coattails to re-election last November, but on Dec. 18, he announced that he had negotiated a power-sharing agreement with the lone Democrat on the three-member commissioners board. The deal made Democrat Joe Hoeffel vice chairman of the commissioners. Hoeffel then proceeded to hire all sorts of political cronies to lucrative county jobs.

Most votes taken by the board have been 2-1, with Matthews and Hoeffel getting their way over the objections of Castor.

More from Kerns' release:

"Montgomery County's voters pick the person, not the party. It's been that way for two decades and Jim Matthews and Bruce Castor campaigned on a set of priorities that are not being implemented. Instead, we're implementing the major priorities outlined by Joe Hoeffel and Ruth Damsker, but that agenda was rejected by voters in favor of a Matthews-Castor agenda. The voters have to know we don’t condone what’s happening in Norristown."

As an example Kerns cited the Hoeffel promises of hiring a Chief Financial Officer, enacting a $50 million economic development plan, and Hoeffel's record in the 1990s of running up debt and paying for budget items with bond issues.

"When Hoeffel left the Board of Commissioners in 1998 he left us with hundreds of millions in debt and just $12 million in the bank. Our AAA bond rating was threatened. It was a disaster. Hoeffel and Matthews are pursuing policies that will put us right back in the same hole. This year alone they are looking to raid the county’s dwindling savings to pay for their programs. It's not the way Republicans would run this government. Jim Matthews got elected in 1999 and again in 2007 by pointing out what a disaster Hoeffel was as a commissioner in the 1990's. Now he's forming a government with him and implementing Hoeffel's agenda? It makes no sense and our committee and the voters are confused and hurt,” Kerns said.

Since taking over control of the county party in the spring, Kerns said he attempted to "bring Matthews back to the table."

"I did meet with him in early summer in the hopes of bridging the divide between he and his Republican colleagues in county government. He made it clear that he was not interested in any kind of reconciliation. I continued to pursue the matter through intermediaries throughout the fall," Kerns said in the release.

“At some point, we have to decide to move on and accept that, based on his actions, he is not a Republican anymore. No matter how often Jim insists he is a Republican, you are ultimately judged by how you govern and your record, not your words," Kerns said.

Kerns said on Election Day many committee members reported incidents where voters stopped to express their disgust with Matthews on their way into the polls.

"In the end, Jim's actions are the actions of an individual, not the Party. That is the message I hope people take away from this resolution. The party is standing up and making its position clear. We don't agree with Jim, we don't condone what he's doing as a Commissioner and he's not representative of our Party as long as he's engaging in this behavior. Don't blame the Party for the actions of one man," Kerns concluded.

A total of 56 Republican municipal leaders, area leaders and executive committee members attended Monday's Leadership Conference, where the censure vote against Matthews was taken.

Margaret Gibbons, who covered Montgomery County government and politics for the Norristown Times-Herald for decades, has left the newspaper for greener pastures.

She is now writing for The Intelligencer in Doylestown, but her beat remains Montgomery County.

In a recent column, Gibbons expresses concern about the mental health of embattled Montgomery County Commissioner Jim Matthews, who made a power-sharing deal with Democratic Commissioner Joe Hoeffel at the start of the year. That has brought widespread criticism of Matthews, whom many feel betrayed the Republican Party that elected him.

From Gibbons' latest column:

Republican Montgomery County Commissioner Chairman James R. Matthews is beginning to show some cracks from the strain under which he has been operating since he entered that unprecedented power-sharing pact with Democratic Commissioner Joseph M. Hoeffel III.

Matthews had convinced himself that the controversy would die down in January and that he eventually would be lauded for his so-called “statesmanship” in fashioning a bipartisan government.

That has not happened.

The criticism from those within his own party has been relentless. And Republican Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr., the top vote-getter in last November's commissioners' election but the odd man out in this administration, never misses an opportunity to yank Matthews' chain.

In the past, Matthews has simply sloughed off Castor's comments or lectured him about his acting in a political fashion rather than as an elected government official who represents everyone.

However, now Matthews is verbally flinching even before Castor opens his mouth.

Matthews went off on Castor at a recent agenda meeting when Castor simply questioned something on the agenda.

Come on, Jim, get a grip.

Read the full column at The Intelligencer's Web site.

The Montgomery County Commissioners are taking their show on the road starting tonight.

The "show" is their weekly board meeting, which some have likened to a circus thanks to the antics of Democrat Joe Hoeffel and Democrat-wannabe Jim Matthews.

The first road trip begins tonight at 7:30 in the Upper Dublin Municipal Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington.

This gives Montgomery County taxpayers who work during the day to pay their taxes or those who can't get to Norristown for the morning meetings an opportunity to see how their tax dollars are spent.

One other road trip is planned: a Sept. 18 meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the recently refurbished Old Mill House in the county's Central Perkiomen Valley Park in Perkiomen.

The commissioners traditionally hold their bi-weekly meetings in the commissioners boardroom at 9:30 a.m. in the county-owned One Montgomery Plaza high-rise office building in Norristown, according to reporter Margaret Gibbons.

The scheduling of the two out-of-Norristown meetings came about through the persistence of Republican Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr., who repeatedly said that these evening meetings will give more citizens an opportunity to see the commissioners at work, Gibbons said.

Robert J. Kerns, the new chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Committee, is accusing Democrats of bringing "Philadelphia-style pay-to-play" to Montgomery County government, according to reporter Margaret Gibbons.

"The Democrats have put a 'For Sale' sign on our county courthouse," Kerns says. "It's reprehensible."

Montgomery County voters elected what they believed was a Republican majority last November, but Jim Matthews turned his back on the voters and made a deal with Democrat Joe Hoeffel to share power on the three-member commissioners' board.

That left Republican Bruce Castor out of the loop and turned Hoeffel loose to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to hire political pals and award contracts to politically-connected firms.

"(Montgomery County Commissioner) Joe Hoeffel and his Democratic cronies have put their integrity up for sale to the highest bidder," Kerns is quoted as saying in Gibbons' article.

Read "Kerns claims pay-to-play" in today's edition of The Times Herald of Norristown.