Lehigh Valley Gov't: Who Are the Good Guys (and Gals)?

Alexis de Tocqueville is still alive, you know. He comments now and then on my blog, usually to put me in my place. And yesterday, he made a great point about Allentown's Wall2Wall youth basketball program. "Just as one rarely reads of the plane that didn't crash, the celebrity who didn't get arrested, and the politician who didn't lie, one rarely reads of the kids who didn't get into trouble, and the adults and young adults who took the time to care."

That got me thinking. We do have them, you know. There are selfless government officials right under our noses in the Lehigh Valley, largely unappreciated, who work hard every day to bring government closer to the people. I take them for granted. In fact, I spend most of my time excoriating local pols, from Sam Bennett to Lisa Boscola.

It's a gift.

But can I use my blogging super-powers for good? Can the Lehigh Valley blogosphere identify the top ten government leaders of 2007, leaders who have tried to make government both transparent and accountable? I think we can, but it will take your help.

So here's the deal. Feel free to nominate any elected government official serving in local, state or federal office. I'll keep nominations open for a week. After that, we'll list all nominees and vote for another week. I'll ask LVPoliblog to do that as part of its weekly poll next week. If that presents technical difficulties, I can do it here but will try to con, I mean persuade, another blog to host the polling. After another week, we'll have our winners. Feel free to list your nominations in the comments to this blog, and explain why you think your selection is top ten material.

To give you an example of top ten material, I'll nominate someone myself.

Two summers ago, I was playing ball one lazy afternoon with neighborhood kids at Nazareth Hall Park. It was one of those horribly humid days. Even breathing was a major effort. But we had a home run derby going, so there we were. Everyone who wasn't batting sat in the shade, except for the idiot who had agreed to pitch - me. It was so hot my nose began to melt.

I was rescued from certain death by heat exhaustion when an even bigger idiot came to cut the grass. It was Nazareth Borough Councilman Jack Herbst. He unhitched a big mower and went straight to work.

That's Jack. Although plagued at a young age with heart problems, he's completely selfless. He fought the good fight when Essroc decided to build an underground conveyor belt to move cement. And he's coached kids for years.

In kids' baseball, he took a team of rejects and misfits that no one else wanted, and turned them into champions for three years straight. Not bad, eh? While other teams bought high tech aluminum bats, his team just practiced, nearly every day. The funny thing is that Jack wasn't really interested in winning. He just wanted those kids to learn the sport and feel good about themselves.

On borough council, Jack is one of three members who successfully resisted last summer when the good ol' boys decided, behind closed doors, to move borough offices into a kids' park. He later persuaded a reluctant council to conduct all meetings, including committee meetings, publicly. And Jack was the spearhead for Nazareth's skate park. After years, he finally nudged its borough council into funding a skate park, and pulled in money from other municipalities and private businesses.

Jack is one of the good guys. We do have them. He's my first nominee for the Top Ten Good Guys (and Gals) in Lehigh Valley Government.