E-mail controversy in Montco

This isn't a county government, it's a soap opera.

A day doesn't go by without another controversy involving Montgomery County government.

The latest flap involves e-mails.

Reporter Peggy Gibbons says there's a brewing controversy over political e-mails sent on taxpayer time.

The dispute involves Montgomery County government's Web editor, an attractive young woman hired last year at the request of former Montgomery County Commissioner Tom Ellis, a Republican who was forced to drop his bid for re-election last year by Bruce L. Castor Jr., who was the district attorney and is now a county commissioner.

Ellis is a candidate for Pennsylvania Treasurer. Marina Bradley, who was described by Ellis as a "family friend" (wink, wink), is still employed as the county's Web editor.

Back to the e-mail flap. Bradley sent an e-mail to another county employee about attending a seminar, but added some comments about Democrats. The e-mail was forwarded to several people in the county administration building, including Clerk of Courts Ann Thornburg Weiss, a Democrat.

Gibbons said some bloggers got wind of the dispute and accused Weiss of demanding that the county's information technologies department provide her with copies of all e-mails sent from her employees’ work computers.

Weiss denied making the request, according to Gibbons.

"I have never looked at any employee's e-mail or asked that any e-mail be retrieved other than one that was initially provided to me," Weiss told Gibbons.

Weiss also took a shot at the unnamed bloggers. For the record, I'm not one of them, but I'm curious to know who they are.

"This (misinformation put out by the bloggers) is so sad, so pathetic," Weiss told Gibbons.

Read the full story in today's edition of The Mercury.