At last week's meeting, Northampton County Council voted 5-4 against a bond that would have financed a new parking deck, a new county office building at the courthouse campus and other projects that include improvements at the jail and a new communication system for first responders. During discussion before the vote, it was pretty clear that a majority of Council, if not all nine, support the new parking deck. But members like Jeff Corpora and Lori Vargo Heffner were unsold on the need for a county office building. They suggested delaying the vote and reviewing options that included a delay on the county office building while the parking deck gets built. But Jeff Warren insisted on a vote then and there, knowing damn well the votes were inadequate. So instead of getting a badly needed parking deck that is actually a matter of public safety, the county gets nothing.  Why would Warren insist on a vote he knows would lose? The answer is simple. Politics. Instead of acting in the best interests of the county, he is hoping to make this bonding as well as the employee health center a political issue in next year's election. 

As id acting on cue, Warren ally Kelly Keegan blasted other Council members the day after the vote, reminding everyone that there will be an election next year. On her public Facebook page, she tells her followers, "You don't have to read the newspaper. A lot of people just don't read any more." Then she provides this assessment of other Council members. 

Jeff Corpora: "says and does nothing."

Tom Giovanni: "says and does nothing."

John Goffredo: "thinks he can literally solve every single problem that there ever was. That's how arrogant he is." 

John Brown: "didn't know that when interest rates go down, bond rates go up, so Ken Kraft had to remind him of that. He should know that. He was the county executive at one time who also raised taxes." 

Lori Vargo Heffner: "who does nothing as a leader to try and have any type of unity between all of the council."

I's like to know how Keegan is trying to have any unity when she slurs five other Council members. 

What I really find detestable are references to Tom Giovanni or John Goffredo using Mafia-type names. This is an insult to their Italian ancestry, and I am astonished that they come from the party of tolerance. I will no longer publish these ethnic slurs.