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Friday, July 22, 2011

CACLV Gets $10,000 From Cash-Strapped Northampton County For Foreclosure Mitigation Program

Alan Jennings had a sinus infection. He couldn't hear what Council members were saying, so he mostly stood up at the dais and smiled. After the state cut funding to CACLV's foreclosure mitigation program, designed to help people in danger of losing their homes, he came to Northampton County Council. His program has saved 252 homes, and he asked for $10,000 to keep it going until other funding can be obtained.
Angle was ready for a fight, but Jennings couldn't really hear him. Angle told Jennings he'd give him $10,000 for the Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter because, unlike the foreclosure program, that helps human suffering.

Jennings smiled.

Peg Ferraro noted that when someone loses his home as a result of a foreclosure, that's human suffering, too.

Jennings smiled.

Lamont McClure, whose re-election campaign is already in full swing, used this issue as a hammer to attack Angle, deriding his "apparent lack of concern for human suffering."

Jennings smiled.

Under normal circumstances, Jennings would be rolling around in the halls with Angle by now, but he was as happy as a salamander on Kitatinny Ridge.

I don't know what drug the doctor gave him for his sinus infection, but I want some of it.

In relatively short order, Jennings got his $10,000 with only Angle and Barb Thierry dissenting.

On his way out, I told him he should be deaf more often.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Angle came off as an ass during this discussion. He just ranted on with tea party talking points. He doesn't even get the program. He talks about handing out checks and that doesn't even happen.

Angle is an embarrassment to District four and will be voted out this November.

The District Four Saint!

Anonymous said...

Can you say Tea Party Lemming?? That sums up Angle I would say.

Anonymous said...

I understand suffering, believe me, but why are taxpayers responsible for someone's mortgage

Chris Miller said...

Anonymous 6:52 AM
While Ron attended a few Tea Party meetings, the leadership there stopped him from speaking to the group. I know because I asked them to invite him to speak. The leadership is now in a state of flux. I would not refer to Ron as a Tea Party member.

Anonymous 7:57.
Congratulations you are a vey smart man and pose an excellent question. Our generostiy has been way to much and in the process we killed and buried both common sense and personal responsibility.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I were downsized from professional positions 23 months ago. I've landed on my feet at slightly less compensation. My wife is working part time for a fraction of what she used to make. We've always lived within our means, but cut back everything in order to keep our house. I wouldn't think of walking away from my responsibility or foisting it upon another. Nobody forced me to buy my home. Nobody should pay for it if I can't.

Anonymous said...

Jennings should thank the Morning Call and WFMZ for publishing those hit pieces on the woes of CACLV.

It's all deliberate and predictable tactics from Jennings to extract money. Northampton County is stop #1.

Anonymous said...

This program is a credit counciling service, it does not pay anyone's mortgage. It's a group that helps the little guy stand up against banks and continue paying their bills.

Anonymous said...

Sorry I don't feel sorry for foreclosure people they should not have purchased the home if they could not afford it. They should be more concerned with lowering property taxes for people who do pay taxes then people who can't pay their bills

Anonymous said...

"Sorry I don't feel sorry for foreclosure people they should not have purchased the home if they could not afford it."

Now what if they could afford it before their company closed? What if they could afford it before the bank merged and jacked up their rates? Would you like to live next to a family fighting to good fight to keep paying bills till they get on their feet, with counseling services help, or an abandoned building that later could become a crack-house?

Anonymous said...

There are many back stories to the foreclosure mess. How about those that refinanced,in the boom years,and took out of equity large sums of cash.Do we bail them out?

Anonymous said...

Go with a fixed mortgage rate your rate never is changed by the bank. The promblem with society is we are all think were entitled to something and don't have to work. Hard work pays for my mortgage and paid for my grandfathers. I am so sick of freaking people who sit on their ass say there disabled when it is just they are lazy. Learn from dean wormer "Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life".

Patrick McHenry said...

Bernie -

I lost all respect for Jennings when he manned the polls for MoveOn.Org in the 2008 election. I also find he is too willing to play politics with poverty issues.

I don't think that is appropriate for someone constantly asking for taxpayer funds for his organization.

Why not make his case directly to the people, instead of at the government trough?

Anonymous said...

Well look who's the chair of the CACLV board- Alicia Karner who works for the county's DCED. Not much of a conflict there?

Jim Fiorentino said...

The Foreclosure mitigation program does not pay off anyone's debt. The flood of foreclosures has resulted in the establishment of a mediation program set up by the County Court (many counties have similar programs)which forces lenders to come to the table and seek solutions which allow people to stay in their homes and resume payments on their mortgages. It is a program run in concert with the county Bar Association. I have participated in a few of these cases as a pro bono attorney and can vouch for the fine work that the CACLV does in helping people get back on track through refinancing or other methods involving full payment on the debts.
As a previous poster noted foreclosures are often injurious to a neighborhood as abandoned house can reduce property values which can ultimately lead to lower county tax revenues. The mediation program also reduces costs to the taxpayers by removing cases from the normal county court workload thereby reducing staff needs and costs generally.

Jim Fiorentino said...

Bernie
I appreciated your decision to require people to identify themselves if they wanted to take shots at Ron Angle Jr the other day. I also understand your decision to allow anonymity so that people (for example, county employees) could speak our without fear of job loss.
I don't know Alicia Karner but I see that someone has just taken a shot at her. Why shouldn't anyone making a scurrilous attack be required to put their name out there?

Anonymous said...

Benjamin Franklin “We should make the poor uncomfortable and kick them out of poverty."
This quote has attracted a lot of attention of late. It is fodder for a vigorous debate on how best to deal with poverty. My heart goes out to those who live in poverty in America. Many of this nation’s poor don’t know and/or weren’t taught how to succeed. Some of the CLCV programs address this dynamic, others don’t. It wasn’t so long ago that the effort to aid the poor was done through private funds and efforts. That approach had benefits that publicly funded efforts lack. There is a growing sentiment that in spite of the altruistic intent tax payer funded welfare programs are doing more harm than good to both the country and those the programs were designed to help.

Scott Armstrong

Anonymous said...

Both Karner and the other top employee in Northampton County DCED are in top positions on the CACLV Boards.
Throw out seniors, give Attiah big bucks.
It all adds up in the Stoffa regime.
Things that make you go HHHHMMM.

Anonymous said...

In the past, CACLV touted its mortgage counseling program designed to prevent poor people from being hosed by predatory lenders. I would like to see a report from Jennings on how many clients who went through that program will now be aided by the foreclosure mitagation program. I would hope that nearly all of the clients in the new program were NOT graduates of the other one. That would be throwing bad money after good.

Anonymous said...

Well, I believe that under its charter CACLV MUST have representatives of both counties on its board. But it would be preferable that they not be in leadership positions. That could create an appearance of a conflict of interest. There are other non-profits out there doing similar work in the community that are not propped up by the grants awarded to CACLV.

Zorn said...

Poor people chose to be because of their stupid decisions. So why do we smarter people have to pay for these fools?

Did Jennings take a pay cut? He has made a career off of poor people.

Anonymous said...

Hey Zorn are you stupid or retarded?

Bernie O'Hare said...

"I lost all respect for Jennings when he manned the polls for MoveOn.Org in the 2008 election. I also find he is too willing to play politics with poverty issues."

Jennings is not, nor has he ever been, a member of moveon.org.

Let me add that Alan is a staunch liberal, just as you are a staunch conservative. I see nothing improper or unethical in either of you belonging to organizations that support your views.

Alan runs a nonprofit, but has a First Amendment right to engage in political activity.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Jim Fiorentino, I happen to know, admire and respect Alicia. I would not allow a personal attack against her and have in fact deleted some personal attacks in the past.

I also happen to think the comment posted about her is NO personal attack. She serves on Northampton County DCED and is Chair of the Board at CACLV. Alicia herself has raised that question.

On the surface, it does seem like a conflict. But it's not. First, her role on the CACLV is unpaid. She does not benefit personally in any way from the decisions made by the County. Second, she is not the person making the decisions on the County level. Her role in the County is economic development, so she deals with all the money bags, not the poverty stricken. Third, as a county employee serving on the board, we have an extra set of eyes to make sure that no county appropriation is abused.

I consider the comment a fair observation, but think it is inaccurate to suggest there is a conflict.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Jim Fiorentino correctly notes that this program is for counseling, not getting money.