By Uncle Irvin

The unanimous vote by the Chester County Commissioners to award a 3% bonus to most county employees except elected officials to compensate for a wage freeze is probably deserved by most county employees.

However, there is at least one county employee that is committing grand larceny by taking that bonus.

Paul Andriole of Oxford is both the County’s Director of Veterans Affairs, for which he is paid $60,000 taxpayer dollars, and simultaneously Treasurer of the Chester County Republican Committee.

Nobody knows why the county has a Veteran Affairs office in the first place. The office has no statutory function and all real Veteran Affairs are conducted by federal and state agencies. Andriole was selected over another veteran who said he would do the job for nothing.

So Paul Andriole is a prime example of a GOP patronage employee who has ample time on the public payroll to work for the county’s dominant political party in exchange for his appointed job.

How far is Chester County from Philadelphia or Chicago politics?