Controversial Bristol Twp. Manager Resigns

Bristol Township’s controversial manager has officially left the building.

Bill McCauley ended his time as township manager with the start of December, Council President Craig Bowen confirmed.

Sources inside the township said the news was relayed to them earlier this week. Deputy Township Manager Randee Elton was announced as overseeing day-to-day operations after McCauley resigned.

Bowen said the Council will make a decision in the new year, but he thinks Elton can handle the top job.

As part of his agreement with the township, McCauley will collect his salary for six months and consult for the municipality, the second largest in the county and 10th largest in the Philadelphia region, Bowen said. According to budget documents, that means McCauley will earn about $105,000 next year.

The council president said McCauley will assist the township as they maneuver some ongoing projects he initiated.

McCauley, who was budgeted to make $202,000 in 2019, created controversy and displeasure among some employees and residents due to his style and actions, but some of those same people have also credited him for his actions on improving Bristol Township’s financial condition.

“I didn’t always agree with Bill, but helped me navigate the township when I first started doing this and he turned it around,” Bowen said, adding additional praise for McCauley’s budgeting efforts that halted municipal tax increases.

McCauley did not respond for comment when asked late last month about his expected departure.

“Hey Tom, I’m busy now. Goodbye,” he said in a short phone call Friday afternoon. He did not respond to a follow-up text message.

Sources have said in recent months that Council’s relationship with McCauley soured in 2019.

Bowen said the split was amicable and he remains in contact with McCauley.

McCauley and the township went back and forth in the weeks leading to his resignation and rumors about his future swirled in the Municipal Complex on Bath Road, source said.

Before coming to Bristol Township in 2012, McCauley was employed as the director of administration for Bensalem, a consultant at Keystone Municipal Services, and as manager in Phoenixville and Lower Providence in Montgomery County, and several towns in New England.

McCauley was involved in a hit-and-run crash that happened while he was intoxicated in 2007.

“I’ve had personal failings,” McCauley told the council when he was hired in 2012. “I have read that when you make a mistake the best thing to do is to acknowledge the mistake, learn the experience and move on with your life.”

A county grand jury called called McCauley “unethical,” but did not charge him with any crimes in 2015.

“Bristol Township has been a political cesspool for at least 40 years. I accepted the job of trying to clean-up the mess of corruption, incompetence, and mismanagement in January 2012. The most amazing thing I have observed and experienced is the amount of resistance to my instilling integrity and ethics into the local government and complete lack of support from so many varied parties,” McCauley wrote in a response to the 2015 grand jury report.

Over his tenure, he has been involved in legal actions filed by former employees and had to apologize after he called the Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans group “freeloaders” as the township was fighting with them over a repair bill.

During his time, McCauley oversaw projects to completely revamp and upgrade the Municipal Complex, add a park to the property, add spiffy new signage at the township’s gateways, improve the look of Croydon along Route 13, upgrade the wastewater treatment plant, created a full-time parks director post, and implement a major road repair and paving program.

The Council mainly stood behind McCauley during his term. Although, he did apply for several open jobs in Pennsylvania and Florida but ended up staying in the Lower Bucks County.

“Bill stopped this township from heading to a disaster,” Bowen said Friday.