Editorial: Tom Wolf: Playing politics?

Gov. Tom Wolf, D-Pa., has been in office for little more than a week, and already he’s facing controversy. The Pennsylvania Senate is suing Wolf over his decision to fire Office of Open Records Director, Erik Arneson. According to pennlive.com, the lawsuit seeks an injunction to restore Arneson to his position.

Two weeks prior to leaving office, former Gov. Tom Corbett, R-Pa., appointed Arneson to head the office, which is devoted to serving as a resource for citizens to obtain public records of their government. Wolf says that Corbett appointed Arneson at the “eleventh hour.” Even still, law requires Arneson serve his position for six years. Wolf did not even allow him to serve one month, undermining the integrity of Arneson’s office.

When running for the commonwealth’s highest executive position, Wolf stressed that he would not play politics. His recent actions say otherwise.

In addition to swiftly and unilaterally removing the commonwealth’s Office of Open Records director, Wolf removed Ed Mann as State Fire Commissioner two weeks before he took office. Mann was the commonwealth’s fire commissioner for 14 years. To make matters worse, according to abcnews27.com, Wolf did not even call Mann himself. Instead, Mann received a call from a Wolf staffer informing him of his termination. 

Despite Mann’s stellar commitment to public safety over the past decade and a half, Wolf decided to replace him with recently defeated Democratic state Senator Tim Solobay. Solobay has served in fire and emergency services before. However, Mann has successfully served four governors, both republicans and democrats, as Fire Commissioner, performing his job with devotion to public safety. We have little evidence to suggest that Gov. Wolf had legitimate reasons to remove him other than to make room for a recently ousted Democratic legislator.  Again, Mr. Wolf, what happened to not playing politics?

As college students, we must remember that the actions and decisions of our governor play a major role in shaping Pennsylvania’s future. In November, The Pitt News endorsed Tom Wolf for Pennsylvania governor. We looked with optimism to his pledge to remain above the petty politics that so often disillusion the public. Wolf’s success equates to the commonwealth’s success. Therefore, we hope lawmakers in Harrisburg can work together to promote the goals on which Gov. Wolf campaigned. However, that can only happen if lawmakers and executives put politics aside and prioritize cooperation — Tom Wolf is no exception. If he is dissatisfied with an official such as the Office of Open Records director, Wolf should outline his grievances with the legislature and offer an open discussion about it. For the governor to do otherwise is to undermine the Democratic process and discourage bipartisan governmental efforts.

We urge Tom Wolf to work with the Republican House and Senate, not to act unilaterally as he did with the examples above, and to follow through on his campaign pledge to rise above partisan politics. 

We trusted a man promising to practice his pledges. Now, Gov. Wolf has time to redeem himself. However, as Pennsylvania Governor, he is not off to a good start. Going forward, let’s hope our trust in him is not lost and that Pennsylvania receives the governor he promised to be.