News: Mermelstein: Allegations are unfair

With a little over a week until the Danny Jake final conditional use hearing, the accusations are flying.

Township residents are saying that the proposed Celebration condos, a 55-and-up, 300-unit property to be located on Camphill Road between the turnpike and the railroad tracks, has only gone this far thanks to a donation that Marcel Groen, the Danny Jake Corporation's lawyer, made to Upper Dublin Township Commissioner Jules Mermelstein's failed 2000 campaign.

The lucky number? 500 bucks.

"He gave $500 [to] a campaign that spent over $100,000," said board President Bob Pesavento, who initially voted in favor of the rezoning. "That is such a laughable amount of money that if anybody thinks that $500 in a campaign that really should have raised a quarter-of-a-million will sway someone's vote, they need to have their heads examined."

But not everyone agrees with that assessment.

"Bottom line -- the Celebration development has gone this far because of politics," a resident who wished to remain anonymous said in an email. "You have a politically connected developer and a political king-maker lawyer."

Mermelstein, who was one of the four commissioners to vote in favor of the rezoning of the Camp Hill property, was annoyed by the accusations because they questioned his integrity. According to Mermelstein, if he were trying to be political, he would actually oppose the current plan.

"If I were trying to help Marcel I would give him as much trouble as I could so [the developers] would have to pay more to fight it," Mermelstein said. "If it goes through as smoothly as possible it means that Marcel makes less in legal fees."

Mermelstein has known Groen for more than 13 years through the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, for which Groen is the chairman. He had forgotten about the donation until he saw a complaint about it on a local Web site.

"The donation was about 6-and-a-half years ago, and I raised about $32,000 or $33,000," Mermelstein said. "So $500 didn't make much a dent."

Groen could not be reached for comment.

Commissioner Chet Derr, who voted against the initial rezoning and has been outwardly opposed to the Celebrations proposal ever since, also disagreed with the allegations.

"I don't consider that significant," Derr said. "Personally, Jules is of the highest [caliber] and I would never question his integrity."