Caln Township Sunshine & Open Records Watchdog

05/18/2025

TUESDAY, MAY 20 is PRIMARY VOTING DAY! The Primary election is notoriously badly attended. That is a huge mistake. The people running in the Primary are some of the closest to you and your family, directly affecting your lives. Caln Commissioners are up for election and re-election; County Officials like our Treasurer, an essential job; School Board Members, and, very important, JUDGES. So get up, get out, and please vote!

04/11/2025

PLEASE NOTE: I NO LONGER UPDATE THIS PAGE. Please move over to the CALN WATCH GROUP for updates on Main Line Health and everything else in Caln. Keeping more than one site in good shape is just too much. THANKS. CHERYL

03/07/2025

Main Line Health came into Caln to ask for a 4 story medical building, changing the zoning from R-2 to R-4. That was turned down. They are back with a 3 story medical bldg., same size under existing zoning under Conditional Use. Hearing is March 10. The morepeople who come, the more the township will have to say about what happens. It is NOT Zoom.

04/14/2022

This is the time of year when people of many faiths celebrate. To the Christians among us, HAPPY EASTER. To the Jews among us, it is the time of PASSOVER; wishing you a Zissen Paesach. For our Muslim neighbors, it is the month of Ramadan. I am sure I have missed others. But to ALL people of faith. May this month bring us all peace and joy. The world needs both!

04/13/2022

TOMORROW NIGHT, Thurs. April 14, at 7 PM is the BOC Board of Commissioners Meeting. We have once again requested that the two items we are working hard on be put ON the Agenda. We are not on it yet. Here is the link: https://www.calntownship.org/agendas-boc

ITEM ONE: They IMMEDIATELY carry out a 1-year marketing AND 5-year financial plan for the Ingleside Golf Course. This bs. owned by Caln has lost a great deal of money in the past and is in the red right now. It has no bs. plan.

ITEM TWO: They ZOOM ALL public meetings and put them in a one-year archive so that you residents can review them when you have time AND just as important, you can go back and look at things done earlier. Considering that they entirely LOST the ZOOM for the last meeting, this becomes a more important issue. With their new video/sound system, this should be a no-brainer. SHOULD BE and ARE are sometimes two different things.

If they do not put these on the Agenda, then we are left to discuss them at the END of the meeting when they open it to PUBLIC COMMENTS. Please stay and comment. By the way, please note that they are now listing the financial cost of items they are paying for. We have fought a long battle for opening up debts and costs and this seems to be having some effect.

We have GREAT residents in Caln. If we stand firm, demand the twp. respond with openness and clarity, we will make things better.

04/07/2022

Like magic, once we posted about the lack of the March 31st meeting minutes, something appeared! We need to thank two employees, Abbey and Denise who managed to upload an audio file that Denise had on her voice recorder to Abbey's computer and post this. Denise is the secretary who takes minutes and produces the written minutes. That is why she is recording separately FROM ZOOM. Thank goodness for her! Were that not the case, this meeting would be lost to us. I encourage you to listen and in particular to go to the end of it if you have an interest in the ZOOM request we have made and the issue of the Golf Course. We will be bringing this up again at the NEXT meeting on April 14th. Below is the email we received FROM Abbey providing the link to the AUDIO FILE and our reply back to her. There are some very good people in our twp. Squeaky wheels really DO get results.
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AUDIO RECORDING OF THE ENTIRE MEETING:
https://www.calntownship.org/meeting-recordings.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: Abbey Swan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2022 4:46 PM
To: CCspaulding
Subject: RE: Question

Mrs. Spaulding,
After my initial response, I talked to some of my colleagues and we figured out a way to transfer an audio file from Denise’s voice recorder onto my computer. I’ve uploaded the audio to the website, so at least that will be there. I know it’s not ideal, but better than nothing. https://www.calntownship.org/meeting-recordings.html
Abbey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Abbey,

We really appreciate your efforts Abbey and Denise. Your recovery of the audio for the missing March 31st ZOOM recording meeting is very valuable. During that meeting, the Twp. “ Roberts’ Rules,” to which there is no objection. BUT it means that residents who come or tune in via ZOOM, must wait until the END of the meeting to make public comments or listen to public comments about anything NOT on the agenda during the meeting. This makes it critical, I believe, that these meetings be properly recorded both visually and audio. There are residents who simply cannot attend the meetings because of work, children, or other commitments. And there are residents who cannot wait through the entire meeting, often ending past 9:30 PM to hear about something they are interested in. The ability for residents to watch meetings at a time that is possible for THEM is a very important thing. It is just as important to permit them to go back several meetings to review something of concern to them as well. With that new audio/recording system, this should be a critical goal, easily accomplished. One year of recordings as suggested by Commissioner Evans is a reasonable response.

Thank you for your work in this matter. I believe I can speak for many residents who appreciate this.

Regards,
Cheryl Spaulding

610-384-0600 ​[email protected] HOURS: Mon-Fri 8AM-4:30PM Staff Login - New

04/07/2022

THERE IS NO MARCH 31st VIDEO RECORDING OF THE BOARD OF COMMSSIONERS. Below is the email RESPONSE FROM CALN TWP. over WHY NO VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED for the March 31st Meeting and our response back to them... Do YOU believe???????????

From: Abbey Swan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2022 11:04 AM
To: CCspaulding
Subject: RE: Question

Hi Mrs. Spaulding,
Unfortunately, it looks like there was a glitch last week and the meeting wasn’t recorded. We’re looking into how that happened and how we can prevent it from happening going forward.

Abbey

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OUR RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE EMAIL:

Abbey,

The response is deeply disappointing, but not unexpected. The reality is that we were concerned this would happen. At the public comments, the end of that March 31st meeting, when Commissioner Evans intelligently proposed keeping those videos for a year, and Twp. Manager Denne jumped in to complain as did Comm. Mullin, we knew it was going to be a potential problem. Same with the basic acceptance of a proposed 5-year financial plan and 1-year marketing plan for the golf course. That ZOOM recording would have shown exactly what was discussed, by whom and what was basically accepted. Since the Commissioners refuse to disclose why they oppose the archiving of the videos for public view, the only conclusion one can come to is that they desire to keep information from residents. Then the question becomes, “why?”

At this point, it will be interesting to see if the written minutes show the details of the conversation that took place over the Videos recordings and Golf Course Appraisal/1 yr. marketing plan, 5-year financial plan, or not. It will also be interesting to see what the results of Caln’s efforts to determine “what happened,” to “prevent” the video from being recorded, are. I assume you will provide the results of this to us as soon as you discover the issues. What happened and how did it happen? It is interesting to note that this important meeting and Video is the first and only, so far as I am aware, that somehow wasn’t “recorded.” Having spent somewhere between $40-60,000 (estimates that have floated around and you can provide details) on that new recording system, it is astonishing that it failed to record and it continues to be difficult if not impossible for residents to hear at meetings.

Whatever the reason for the lack of the March 31st video, it certainly does not give a good impression of the Commissioners. Going forward, there is only ONE way for the Commissioners to redeem themselves and that is to vote FOR the development of a five-year financial plan and a one-year marketing plan for the golf course, to happen ASAP. AND to vote for the recording of and archiving of ALL PUBLIC MEETINGS for one year, as Commissioner Evans offered. If this doesn’t happen, well….then the proof is in the pudding. I will once again request that they put these two items ON the agenda for a vote at the next meeting on April 14th.

Regards,

Cheryl

Cheryl C. Spaulding
406 Lloyd Avenue
Downingtown, PA
USA 19335
610.304.4010
[email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ORIGINAL EMAIL to CALN, REGARDING THE MISSING March 31st ZOOM Video.

From: CCspaulding
Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2022 3:15 PM
To: Abbey Swan
Subject: Question

I wondered when you were going to upload the ZOOM meeting for the last BOC March 31st.

The next meeting is on April 14th I believe, which does not allow that video much time up.

I would also like to speak to you about the storage of video files.

Thanks.

Cheryl

Cheryl C. Spaulding
406 Lloyd Avenue
Downingtown, PA
USA 19335
610.304.4010
[email protected]

04/07/2022

We had intended to post the March 31st BOC Board of Commissioners Meeting so you could see what took place that we were encouraged about. Well......now.....we're not feeling so good about it. The Video of that meeting is still not loaded on the Twp. web page. At best case, it would be there ONLY until April 14th when they approve the written minutes. Even if they load it tomorrow, it will only be up for ONE WEEK, not TWO. We cannot copy and load it to this page UNTIL they post it. Why they have not we do not know, but we are now becoming concerned. It seems every time we make one step forward, we get slapped and take two steps back. Let's hope it goes up tomorrow. We sent an email and called so hopefully we get some kind of answer. This is a VERY good example of why having that archive up for a year is such a great idea. It takes time to get things done and it takes time for people to see videos. Two weeks is not sufficient and a one year record is sensible.

04/01/2022

March 10, 2022 BOC MEETING w/captions