Radnor moves to oust township manager

The Radnor Board of Commissioners voted last night to take the first step toward removing its longtime township manager, saying he had paid himself $128,500 in bonuses without board approval.

Commissioners allege that David A. Bashore misled them about how much he was making, lied at a public meeting when questioned about bonuses, and created documents to try to cover his tracks.

"This is not a pleasant place to be in for any of us," Board President Thomas A. Masterson Jr. said. "But it is the result of facts that I think, when you see them and hear them yourself, you'll realize why we are here."

Commissioners voted, 6-0, to request Bashore's resignation. Bashore did not attend the meeting, and did not resign, so the commissioners moved forward with the process to fire him. The seventh commissioner, Lisa Paolino, was out of town.

Bashore, who was suspended with pay Feb. 26, has 10 days to request a hearing in front of the commissioners and present his side of the story in an attempt to change their minds.

But the board has the final vote, and even his staunchest supporters voted against him last night.

"The commissioners have to approve those bonuses. He knew that. He was a professional," said Bill Spingler, who said it saddened him to vote to remove Bashore.

Bashore responded in a statement issued yesterday:

"I remain confident, as I have stated from the outset, that a fair and impartial review of the facts in this matter will lead to the conclusion that I have acted appropriately at all times on behalf of Radnor Township and its board and citizens. Sadly, I have been the victim of what can only be described as a calculated effort to remove me after 21 years of service for doing my job as prescribed by my employment agreement."

The Delaware County District Attorney's Office is investigating, and township commissioners expect to conduct a forensic audit.

At least 100 people attended the meeting at Radnor's Municipal Building, where Masterson showed a video clip of Bashore from a Dec. 15 meeting in which he denied that bonuses had been paid in 2008.

Commissioners said they later had found that Bashore paid $117,250 in bonuses to 26 employees in April, including a $15,000 bonus to himself.

The commissioners said they had known nothing of the bonuses Bashore gave to himself or other employees. The township charter requires that any compensation be approved by the board.

Bashore told commissioners at a meeting Feb. 23 that he had written a policy in 2001 that allowed him to pay bonuses to himself and other township employees. He also said the board had approved the bonuses as part of the budget, but that they had not been listed as separate line items.

The commissioners say the board never approved the bonuses or saw the policies Bashore had written.

Bashore gave the board its first glimpse of the bonuses after the Dec. 15 meeting, where Township Treasurer John Osborne raised the issue. Masterson said he had been shocked to find that Bashore paid more than $500,000 in bonuses during the last five years.

"I almost fell out of my chair," he said during last night's meeting. "This document flatly contradicts the information that the township manager told us back in 2008."

As the commissioners dug further, they discovered that Bashore had not disclosed the bonuses in salary information given to them in 2006 or 2007. When they asked for the paperwork again, the bonuses suddenly appeared, Masterson said.

Masterson confronted Bashore, asking if he had revised the original documents. He said Bashore had denied that they were revised. But after checking his computer, Masterson said the commissioners discovered that the documents had been created Feb. 23, the day of a meeting in which Masterson questioned him about bonuses.

Bashore, 52, began his career in Radnor in 1987 as finance director. Some residents describe him as a hands-on manager who promptly returned calls and set up multiple meetings to resolve complicated issues. He was often seen at fund-raising events, and helped spearhead an annual golf tournament to raise scholarship money for Radnor High School seniors, said Art Lewis, 78, who heads the Radnor High School Scholarship Fund.

Some of those at last night's meeting were offended that a personnel matter was being discussed in public.

"I thought our township was better than this," said Kent R. Addis Jr. "There's obviously a witch hunt under way here for Mr. Bashore."