With eyes downward and a slight grin emerging on his face, Shellenberger pondered how to respond to supporters who, hours before, urged him to reverse his decision not to seek a second term.

Would he change his mind and run again?

“I can’t answer that at this point,” he said. “I, ... at this point, I have (a feeling of) peace that I made the right decision.”

He quickly added, “I’ve never been a person that said I will never change my mind.”

Pending any reversal, though, Shellenberger is no longer a candidate for re-election in 2007. He announced in an advertisement this week in several weekly newspapers that he will step down at year’s end after serving one term.

Wednesday afternoon, the embattled 61-year-old Republican answered questions at Brick House coffeehouse in Manheim. He talked about his decision to forego another term and what he wants to accomplish in the next 12 months.

Perhaps no current county politician engenders as much positive and negative response as Shellenberger — except perhaps Democratic Commissioner Molly Henderson, who votes with Shellenberger on many issues.

In the wake of a blistering grand jury report outlining how Shellenberger, Henderson and outgoing Commissioner Pete Shaub secretly plotted to sell Conestoga View nursing home in 2005, the calls from critics and local newspapers for Shellenberger to resign have grown.

Resign? Never, Shellenberger said. Run for re-election? That’s another matter.

Shellenberger said he would have faced an arduous re-election campaign involving about five GOP candidates who have lined up and are taking shots at his record.

He considered the toll the campaign would have taken on himself and his family.

“I’m convinced, through a grassroots effort, I could have won an election,” he said. “It would have been hard work. I would have had to raise a lot of money, but I didn’t make this decision thinking I couldn’t win the election.

“Sad to say, the party is not with me.”

For months, Shellenberger had courted local Republican committees, testing the level of their support, but not enough GOP committee members would have endorsed him, he said.

Most voters, however, think differently than the committee, he said.

“I did a poll back in September,” Shellenberger said. “The newspapers, as much as they flung against the wall, the best (the newspapers) could come up with was about 30 percent of the voters were against me.”

He said “a little more than that” backed a re-election bid, according to his polling.

The turning point on whether to seek another term came last month.

“We made our decision in the middle of December,” Shellenberger said. “We went to the mountains over Christmas as a family and discussed it further ... .

“I looked at my family and what’s best for them, and that’s where Pam (Shellenberger’s wife) and I had those heart-to-heart talks.”

His decision came about the time the commissioners pleaded guilty to violating the state’s open-meetings law, charges prompted by the grand jury investigation.

Shellenberger paid fines totaling $200 for two summary violations.

He maintains his decision not to seek re-election had nothing to do with the grand jury investigation and heated attacks stemming from his opposition to a $170 million hotel/convention center proposed for downtown.

“I am still the same person I was when I was elected, and I still believe integrity follows me and goes before me,” he said.

Wednesday, friends and family gathered at Brick House to talk about how the last three years have treated the commissioner.

“He bucked the higher powers,” younger brother Harold Shellenberger said.

“I’ve seen a heaviness that’s come upon him, and I’ve seen the fuel that fed him. There was a whole lot more of the heaviness than fuel.”

Former city Republican chairman Hal Weglarz said: “He’s a model of the Reagan type: not to say anything bad about another Republican.”

Several of his critics this week said Shellenberger made the right decision by not seeking another term.

“The biggest thing we have to be as elected officials is effective,” said state Sen. Gibson E. Armstrong, who has clashed with Shellenberger over the hotel/convention center.

“If you can’t be effective, it’s time to move on. With all the adverse publicity, his effectiveness had been severely hampered.”

Shellenberger reiterated commitments to several initiatives before his term expires: farmland preservation, reforming prisoner rehabilitation and revitalizing Lancaster Square.

Where Shellenberger may leave a lasting legacy is on the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority board of directors, which oversees development of the hotel/convention center.

The project is being built by the convention center authority, private developer Penn Square Partners and Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster.

The board is composed of four city appointees and three named by the county who consistently question, spar with and challenge the others regarding the project’s viability and financing.

When the term of city appointee Ted Darcus, the authority chairman, expires in September, the county will appoint his successor as part of an arrangement between the previous county commissioners and the city.

Once county appointees are the majority on the board, the commissioners could hamper or even stop development of the hotel/convention center, project opponents say.

“I want somebody that’s going to really look at the (authority’s) invoices, really look at accountability and if this makes sense when you put the numbers together,” Shellenberger said.

Shellenberger said he has been receiving telephone messages and e-mails daily from people urging him to keep fighting the project — and to run again.

“If I have any second thoughts, it’s when I get those,” he said of the encouraging words. “I did enjoy serving the public as a commissioner.”

Penn Square Partners consists of general partner Penn Square General Corp., a High Industries affiliate, and limited partners Fulton Bank and Penn Square Ltd. LLC, an affiliate of Lancaster Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era and Sunday News.


Dave Pidgeon’s e-mail address is dpidgeon@lnpnews.com.