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| Howard Kutzler's last meeting is October 21 |
Kutzler is a Konkrete Kid who graduated from Northampton High School and West Virginia University. He's been with the Township for 14 years, and serves as both Manager and Planning Director. He credits his grandfather and father for his interest in local government. His Dad is a police officer and his grandfather was Northampton's Mayor.
He's happy to have served in a Township that will have gone four years straight without a tax hike, mentioning that the proposed budget for next year will contain no tax hike. Under Kutzler, Planning and Zoning were consolidated into a single department. he also created one-stop shopping, where residents can do most of their business at one office of the Township. He has also learned to make do with less, serving a growing Township despite no increase in personnel since 2008.
"As a guy who interviewed and helped hire him, I'm disappointed," stated President Paul Weiss. "Howard's got to do what he's got to do. But we're losing a good one."
Lee Snover, who chairs the Planning Commission and has worked closely over the years with Kutzler, called his departure "a dagger in my heart." She called him the "lifeblood of the Township," the person who opens the doors in the morning and locks them at night. "I think he should be County Executive," she concluded.
Though Kutzler declines to say exactly where he's going, he confirmed he has no intentions of running for County Executive.
13 comments:
That Township seems to train up excellent people and then lose them to other communities. Must be something in the water.
maybe it's because a township worker has made an ass out of him with on job injury and He can't handle the real problem and just get rid of the faker!!
I doubt that problems with a disgruntled worker would be a reason to leave a job.
It would be hard to follow Jon Hammer, but Kutzler did good job trying. Sorry to see him leave township.
On the job injuries would get handled by workers comp and the carriers attorney, not the manager.
How long could Weiss and the other for commissioners have possibly dreamed he would have stayed working two jobs and only paying him for one? And the pay for that first class Township manager job is a lot less than where he is going to be working. The reason the good folks leave is because the commissioners don't care about them.
Don't let the door hit you in the a$$. He was a bum.
Just joking. Will be hard to find someone to take his spot with his dedication.
he has been having problems with the twps employee union for awhile, im sure that didnt help...!
He was also legitimately (NOTE: I didn't say deservedly) concerned that the All Atiyeh Board would fire him after January 1. Atiyeh and his henchmen do not care about the Township; all they care about is expanding Atiyeh's "Empire". He is a creep and anyone remotely connected to him is tainted.
anon 10:49 seems to be on to something, two jobs for the price of one. Seems like a good thing for government workers. In all reality only one person is needed to do every two government jobs. Bethlehem Township actually appears cutting edge when it comes to demanding more work with less out of its employees.
I wish Mr. Kutzler the best. Between his reorganization and streamlining of Planning and Zoning, and then ultimately as manager he helped navigate the Twp from the "way we've always done things around here" mentality to modern suburban municipality.
The twp used to be terribly backlogged when it came to plan approvals and permit processing, and was not handling the boom years very professionally until he took the bull by the horns with the support of the Board and then manager, and modernized those functions yet being quite mindful of customer service. He also had vision when it came to planning, and implementing "smart growth" principles (oops, I think might an Agenda 21 code for the slippery slope toward UN control of the US--ha!) and really trying to raise the bar on developers while at the same working to make the twp a place to "live, work, and play" as he always likes to say.
That same "take the bull by the horns" approach served him well as manager. Sometimes that rubs the "but we've always have done it this way" person the wrong way, but the Twp is blessed with a largely dedicated staff. In many ways I think he was a much better manager than Mr. Hammer was, despite his ever-present fan base on LVR. However, this would not be the forum to elaborate.
He is not perfect (who is?), but he will serve his new community well. Best of luck, Mr. Kutzler.
Yes Mr Nolan while you did nothing for the two decades or more you have been involved in Bethlehem Township.
Howard did an outstanding job in serving his township. This will be a loss to our township. Good luck in all that you do. It's a shame to know with the "packing" of the board, there will be a slide. Hopefully not criminal as before.
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