Can Rep. David Kessler serve two masters?

David Kessler was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2006 after longtime state Rep. Dennis Leh, a Republican who held the seat for 20 years, was sent into retirement by voters angered by the 2005 Legislative pay raise.

Kessler, a Democrat, had been serving on the Oley Board of Supervisors before he was elected to the state Legislature. Ninety-nine percent of the time, a person elected to state office gives up his local position. But not Kessler. He decided to keep serving on the Oley Board of Supervisors.

He even talked the other two supervisors into moving the township meetings to Thursday evenings so Kessler wouldn't miss any of them. (The Legislature typically adjourns Thursday afternoon to get a start on its long weekends.)

This was done in 2007 when Kessler told a local newspaper he saw no conflict between serving at the local level and at the state level at the same time.

State law allows a person to hold more than one elected position as long as he or she does not draw a salary from more than one governing body. Since the starting salary for a Pennsylvania lawmaker is $76,163, Kessler had no problem turning down the small annual stipend ($1,800) that township supervisors collect for attending meetings. Actually, all three supervisors ended up giving up their pay because the law does not permit one person to turn down the salary while the others collect theirs.)

We now come to 2008 and David Kessler has been elected by his fellow supervisors to serve as chairman of the three-member Oley Board of Supervisors.

Kessler is also running for reelection to another two-year term in the state House. Apparently Kessler doesn't have enough to do as a state representative so he needs to moonlight as a township supervisor.

There are 13 municipalities in Berks County's 130th House District. Can Kessler represent all 13 communities equally if he holds the top elected position in one of those communities?

What if Kessler is working on obtaining a grant for a local project? Wouldn't he bring the money first to his hometown at the expense of the other 12 municipalities?

If you live in Amity, Colebrookdale, Douglass, Earl, Exeter, Pike, Rockland, Ruscombmanor, Union, Birdsboro, Boyertown or Fleetwood, you should ask Rep. Kessler where his loyalties lie.

What if a neighboring municipality in the 130th District has a dispute with Oley? Can they go to their state representative (Kessler) for help? Can he remain impartial? Will state Rep. David Kessler sit down with Supervisors' Chairman David Kessler to resolve the dispute?

And why did Rep. Kessler move one of his two district offices from Amity, which has the biggest population in the 130th District, to his hometown of Oley? Is it more convenient for Kessler as he dashes from his district office to the Oley Township Municipal Building?