Did you know that Northampton County Council has its very own slush fund? That's right. This year, there's only about $98,000 left, but Council member Tom Dietrich is already sniffing at it the way a rat smells cheese. On Thursday, this supposed conservative will try to grab $50,000 for some of his pals. Let me fill you in.It's technically called a "contingency fund," and the theory is that it enables Council to act quickly in the event of an emergency. Lehigh County Commissioners have one, too. There, it's called an "operations fund," and exists so they can hire a lawyer if they ever get into a legal tangle with the administration. It's never been used.
Northampton County Council has its own Solicitor, so you might think it needs no operations fund. Guess what? Northampton County Council's contingency fund has usually hovered somewhere around $500,000, around 14 times the size of Lehigh's. It's there so council members can dole out favors to their pals and themselves.
When Ann McHale was Council Prez, she dipped into this slush fund to pamper Council members (not the public) with over $650,000 in "renovations" to their still dark and dreary star chamber. She also spent $10,294.57 of your money for laptops that are so essential that I only see one member ever use his. Ten thousand smackers was spent on a YMCA that is not even located in Northampton County. Another $75,000 in tax revenue went out the window for a rail transportation study that told us rail would be very expensive. Geez. In all but a few cases, no safeguards are imposed to ensure the money is actually spent as appropriated.
During the 2008 budget season, I saw first hand just how games are played with that money. McHale wanted and got more than the $25,000 proposed for Easton's State Theatre, thanks to the contingency fund. She even tried to funnel some money into Bethlehem's Christkindlemarkt, though that's actually in Lehigh County. She eventually gave up on that one.
After a lot of criticism from this blog, McHale suddenly decided to reduce the contingency fund from $500,000 to $250,000 for the 2009 budget. It remained at that level in 2010, too.
When you think about it, Council really needs no contingency fund. If there is an unforeseen emergency, the money can come from the County's fund balance, where two months of expenses are kept in reserve. But this slush fund is a great way to finance projects by politically connected people. No application process. Just money walking out the door. It's an incumbent protection policy.
Right now, the incumbent looking for protection is Republican Tom Dietrich. And he's sniffing arounfd at that contingency fund, hoping to take it. This is the same guy who dramatically insisted he wanted to gove taxpayers a reduction. Now he just wants to take their money for one of his pet projects. At the final meeting of the year. Shhhh.
According to his resume, he's a volunteer fireman at Dewey Fire Co. He even claims to be an EMT, although it's very unclear whether he's certified. But he has repeatedly told Council members, and at nearly every meeting, how much he likes to zip around in ambulances all over the place. That's his thing. Good for him.
Now, he now wants the rest of Council to give $50,000 to some Bethlehem Township volunteer fire company for chest compressors, whatever they are. Of course, what he's really trying to do is ingratiate himself with the EMTs and volunteer firemen so he can pick up their votes when he runs for re-election
Council needs to say No. In fact, it needs to abolish that contingency fund, once and for all.
39 comments:
Mr. Dietrich wanted to cut the County tax and the other County Council members voted "no". What he wants to do now is the same things others on County Council have done.
Your buddy Angle has doled out lots of cash in his tenure. He even "handed" County tax dollars to a municipal road project when requested by a local official who happened to also be an influential Republican committee woman.
Please O'Hare, if you are going to damn someone be consistent. So far Mr. Dietrich has proven to be the only non-hypocritical conservative on County Council. Much more so than your "conservative of convenience" buddy Ron Angle.
A Conservative!
Dietrich is an EMT. A simple phone call would've cleared that up, but that'd be practicing journalism rather than hacky blogging.
Fiscal conservatism is about taxing and spending. If Deitrick is a fiscal conservative, he would get that the 50k he is proposing, when coupled w 50k for other projects, adds up quickly. Its reckless and irresponsible and is no different than the billions of dollars in pork earmarks doled out by members of the tea party caucus in congress.
Bogus request as the State gives every fire company in the state an enormous amount of free money every year thru the Fireman's Relief Association. The money comes from the insurance companies doing business in the state. They don't even have to beg on the roadside for it! Where did this company spend their monies? Were they diligent with it or spent it as fast as they got it? Dig deeper on this one.
"Dietrich is an EMT."
I don't know whether he is or isn't and no phone call would clear it up. I called him before about a campaign expense, and he refused to answer.
Dietrich rattles like an empty can during most meetings, but tried to do this behind the scenes. Very sneaky. Ann McHale would be proud.
"Please O'Hare, if you are going to damn someone be consistent."
I am being consistent. I condemn the constant abuse of the contingency fund, whether it comes from Angle, McHale or Dietrich.
The example you mention, which did involve an actual emergency, occurred years before I started blogging. But even in that instance, it should come from the reserve and be voted on as a budget amendment.
I have condemned BOTH Angle and Deertinger when they do agree, out of grant requests, o give things like the Blue Valley Farm Show more money than they are seeking. That's just politics.
And now I see Dietrich playing the game.
" They don't even have to beg on the roadside for it!"
I hate that. They hold you up at well-traveled traffic lights, creating traffic safety hazards.
Is he even an American? Where is that birth certificate?
Tom in the PA EMS Practitioner database: https://ems.health.state.pa.us/EMSreg/ActivePractitioners.aspx
Go to D. Page 68 or so.
http://www.physio-control.com/LUCAS/
"Chest compressors, whatever they are"
When your ass has a heart attack and only two people show up in the ambulance for a job that should have at least three "whatever they are" is going to be the thing keeping your heart beating.
Try a little research next time and back off the EMS community. We save lives.
by the way...that "research" took me less than 5 mins.
Well I have something to say! Don't talk crap and say someone isn't something when you don't research and follow up on your sayings! Tom saves lives on a day to day basis and your going to say he's not an EMT what is wrong with you? GO TOM! Your the only real one out there they're all fake!
I have no problem w/ the EMS community, just Dietrich, for slinking around trying to get money for what he thinks is his voting base. It's precisely what he stood against when he ran, and he should be called out on what he is doing.
I expect this sort of thing from McHale, but he was supposed to be better than that. Isn't that why he ran against her?
Looks like he just wanted to imitate her.
I might add, parenthetically, that I never claimed Dietrich is not an EMT. I reported his claim to be one, and said I was not sure bc I saw no claim by him that he was certified. But that's a side issue. The real issue, and what I wrote about, is his abuse of the contingency fund. And it's obvious that he's doing it for his pals in the hope they vote for him.
"Bogus request as the State gives every fire company in the state an enormous amount of free money every year thru the Fireman's Relief Association."
Your statement is bogus. Fireman's Relief money cannot be used by paid employees. Even though they're non-profit organizations governed by a board of volunteers, 95% of the ambulances handling the emergencies in NorCo are staffed by paid employees, whose career is emergency medicine. Unfortunately, the equipment purchased through Fireman's Relief can only be used by the volunteers, meaning that it's used to buy fire and rescue equipment, rather than EMS supplies.
Perhaps you should "dig deeper" prior to posting.
You should be ashamed of yourself! Tom Dietrich is hardworking and a person of integrity. Can't you plead your case of getting rid of the slush fund without dragging him through the mud? He cares about the community and the people he serves. He and his family live a modest life. They don't live in a big, fancy house. They don't drive lavish cars, or have a big screen TV. What they do have, is a home filled with love, honesty, friendship and a commitment to service. They serve with humility and don't ask for any thanks in return. Tom is an EMT and he obviously recognizes a need in the community. SHAME ON YOU for twisting his motives.
"Can't you plead your case of getting rid of the slush fund without dragging him through the mud?"
He dragged himself thru the mud. This has nothing to do with lavish lifestyles. This has everything to do with the accumulation of power. Dietrich is abusing his office, and behind the scenes, to try and steer $50k in taxpayer $ to an outfit that he hopes will help him gain re-election. At the last meeting of the year when, hopefully, no one is looking.
Why should people from Northampton or Walnutport fund chest compressors for a volunteer fire company in Bethlehem Tp?
They shouldn't, but Tom Dietrich wats to spend their money to buy votes from Bethlehem Tp volunteer firemen, or whatever they are.
Every year, I read at least one or two stories about a local volunteer fire company embezzling $, and now we're supposed to drop $50k on one of them.
Dietrich is a disappointment.
Since you claim to be a "title searcher," whatever that is, you couldn't be more mistaken. Bethlehem Twp Fire Dept staffs the AMBULANCES with "certified" EMT's and Paramedics that cover Bethlehem Twp and beyond, not the firefighters. And, the "chest compressors" you seem to be up in arms about with the 50K? If you would do some more "searching," you would see that the evidence shows that they are more effective than an actual person pumping on your chest.
You completely missed my point. My point is Dietrich is a man who has his priorities straight. He's not a reckless spender in his personal or public life. He's a man of virtue. Stick to the facts instead of speculating on what motivates him.
Public money should not be provided to advance the electoral ambitions of a Council member with a donation to a volunteer fire company whose range is necessarily limited in scope. That's what I am up in arms about. No Council member should abuse his position to secure financing for some outfit he things will help his political career.
If you want that money, apply for a grant like everyone else. Don't sneak around behind the scenes and try to grab it when nobody is looking.
Make your case, but do it the right way.
How many worthy causes are out there? Many, but this is the one Dietrich is pushing bc it will help him. This kind of bullshit has to stop. This is just another reason for abolishing the contingency fund entirely. It is too easily abused by pols.
"My point is Dietrich is a man who has his priorities straight. He's not a reckless spender in his personal or public life."
My point is that Dietrich's chief priority is to advance himself. He's known for complaining that he does not get quoted enough in the newspaper. With not even a year of experience, he monopolizes meetings with endless discussions of inane nonsense. Now, behind the scenes, ho cooks up some scheme to flush public money into the bottomless coffers of some volunteer fire company because it is to his political advantage.
I've seen enough of him over the last year to know that he uses a maximum amount of words to say nothing. He complains about other Council members, and wants to know why he does not get enough ink.
He seems to have deluded himself into thinking he is really something when, in fact, he is a fluke who has been barely tolerated by his peers.
Now this his true colors are beginning to show, he's not going to be so lucky.
I truly enjoy blogging and reading people's insight, when they are articulate, intelligent and have a purpose. After reading the post and the subsequent follow up's, I still don't know what the objective is of the post. I am trying to tease out of the words a point or message.
The two messages I think you are trying to articulate are: Tom Dietrich should receive a message from you that you believe he is not acting with integrity.
The second is that, and this is a stretch to say the least, why do county councils have "slush" funds that allow them to by-pass democratic order for approving allocation of county resources, namely money.
Blogging allows anyone with a connection to spout which is wonderful in a democracy. But the freedom to speak has a responsibility with it. Speak your mind but offer a solution or a plan to solve your pain point. Democracy is a balanced equation of freedom and responsibility, don't believe you have one without the other. Look to our shackled friends in China if you need an example.
This blog post was a slander on Tom Dietrich without merit and should be retracted. Your point I believe is that you are questioning his integrity. Specifically not to behave like others in the county councils in Lehigh and Northampton and elsewhere. This could be a fair point or it could not. No proof or evidence has been provided to back up that his action to use the slush fund using council procedure is outside of normal process. Your perception that because Tom is an EMT and the connection to his request to fund these devices means nothing. A constituent of Tom's could have used the democractic process and requested Tom's assistance in finding a way to get these for the benefit of Tom's constituents, Northampton County voting residents.
Using slander helps get stickiness to a blog, I will grant you that, but have some purpose behind the bullhorn. At least have a constructive thread and build a solution while getting your traffic through slander. Asking Mr. Dietrich to act with what you perceive to be higher integrity would be a good point, it was just missed by the lack of yours. Be better than the masses of hacks out there.
Bernie is riding shotgun for Ron Angle. Angle is pissed at Tom Dietrich because Dietrich called Angle on his own game. Ton wanted a tax cut after Angle cut a backroom deal with Stoffa on a no tax increase budget.
Angle thought the headlines and "teas party would cheer him forever. tom said lets cut taxes and he caught Angle off guard and Angle and his mindless minions voted a deserved tax cut down.
Tom has also had the audacity to talk back to Angle something the other rookies won't do, not even Mike Dowd.
So my friends it is no surprise that Mr. O'Hare is disparaging Tom Dietrich. Note how he admits other Council members have done it, yet he always lumps Tom with Ann McHale.
Every County Council member including Angle has used this fund to give out grants. The argument could be made that every grant was not to help people but to garner votes.
This is nothing but Mr. O'Hare doing Ron Angle's bidding and trying to disparage a "real" fiscal conservative.
Mary C.
"Now, behind the scenes, ho cooks up some scheme to flush public money into the bottomless coffers of some volunteer fire company because it is to his political advantage."
I have no idea what you guys are talking about but did someone call someone else a "ho"?
A lot of these anonymous comments sound just about as goofy as Dietrich does when he's sitting on Council.
If Detrich feels he has been defamed, he can sue me, and I can defend. I've been pretty straightforward and honest in this little exercise, and last time I checked, truth is still a defense.
Here's my points:
* Northampton County's contingency fund is nothing more than a slush fund designed to help incumbents get re-elected.
* Northampton County's slush fund is obscenely high, anout 14 times the amount in Lehigh, which has never been used.
* Tom Dietrich is a volunteer fireman and claims to be an EMT, and at about just about every Council meeting, he mentions it. Several times.
* Tom Dietrich, like a rat smelling cheese, has been scurrying about, behind the scenes, to get $50k for a volunteer fire company in Bethlehem Tp.
* Tom Dietrich ran on a platform that promised to end the abuses and lack of transparency of Council, but has instead been acting just like his predecessors.
* Tom Dietrich is currying favor with this volunteer fire company in the hope of gaining their votes in the next election.
Whether this proposal has merit on its own is irrelevant. What is offensive is to see a politician expecting the rest of us to pay $50k for his little hobby.
Saving lives is "his little hobby"???
You should be ashamed of yourself. I am sure Ron Angle and John Stoffa are putting you up to this because Tom will not march to their order's like some others.
Go Tom, at least you are honest.
If he's a life saver, I'm Robert Redford.
"If Detrich feels he has been defamed, he can sue me, and I can defend."
Really? If you could defend, wouldn't you still be practicing law?
I can certainly defend myself, whether I practice law or not.
Dietrich got caught playing games with the people's money, so these kinds of personal attacks are to be expected.
What is the point of suing you? Even if he wins what does he win? The right to pay for his own attorney?
You have nothing, you are barely more than homeless. If not for Angle's charity you would be a bowl away from the soup kitchen. People like you can hurl all the insults you want since you have nothing of value to lose in a civil suit.
You still haven't explained why Tom is any different than "any" County Council member past or present that gives out this money. I believe Ferraro and Dowd gave money to the state theater for toilets.
Nor have you explained why Angle refused to support a tax cut for the citizens of Northampton County. Tom outfoxed Angle and showed him up as a phony and neither of you can handle it.
Stop being a hypocrite.
Seems as though you had no problem with Dietrich until be became a bee in your buddy Angle's bonnet.
A little more "searching" would've revealed that there are barely more than a handful of voters that serve as volunteers there, and a large portion of the paid staff lives outside NorCo.
So maybe Dietrich was reaching for votes by trying to positively impact the community by improving the quality of a service they receive. Isn't that what ALL politicians are supposed to do?
Also, you'd have found that Bethlehem Township's ambulances provide Advanced Life Support to not only Beth Twp, but Freemansburg, Lower Nazareth, Hanover, Bath, and Moore Twp. They also frequently provide backup to Bethlehem City, Nazareth, Bushkill Twp, and Upper Nazareth. So it's easy to see that improving their service has a far greater impact than you're trying to make it sound.
Perhaps you should do the research to back up your accusations prior to posting blind attacks, based on your own political agenda. But then again, we shouldn't expect anything scrupulous to come out of this blog, given your history.
I will never again visit this blog because what you have to say is ridiculous. The only thing here is slander and mug slinging. Your only goal is to hurt others. If you cared about your community you would be out doing something constructive, something that adds value, not hiding behind your computer spewing lies and manipulating the truth. Get a real job! One that makes a difference.
Of course, I have had problems with Dietrich, and long before his trouble with Angle. When he refused to state how much $ he spent to send postcards to the pro-life crowd, that's when my problems with Dietrich began.
Before I'd give a nickel to any volunteer fire company, I'd restore the funding for the eliminated Sheriff's position. I'd buy the bullet proof vests needed by the Sheriff. I'd put the money in the general fund to help pay cost over runs on the parking deck.
I would not piss the money away, the way feckless politicians like Dietrich do, who are only interested in looking good to their base.
And Dietrich, grow a set and sign your name
"I will never again visit this blog"
Promises, promises. You'll be glued to the blog, Dietrich, and we all know it. Go complain to someone about how the papers don't quote you enough.
I hope your house burns and no one shows or you have a heart attack and the EMS crew doesn't save you because they don't have the right equipment. Saying that EMTs don't save lives is disgusting and so is your hacktastic writing. Go suck Angle's dick some more.
Sounds like most of your anti-Dietrich "points" from the initial article have been debunked.
-Tom Dietrich is an EMT, and will be a Paramedic by the end of the year, further supporting his commitment to helping the community.
-He's gaining very few if any votes from the Vol Fire Co by trying to get them this equipment.
-The American Heart Association (THE authority on cardiovascular care in Emergency Medicine) and numerous other independent studies to improve outcomes in cardiac arrest, so the benefit to the community is FAR greater than any political gain that may or may not be had.
The only point regarding Tom's actions that you can actually say with any certainty is "I don't like Tom Dietrich."
The guy is acting as a voice for his constituents. Last I checked, that's why they elected him. And as far as the constituents' motive, (Notice the apostrophe is AFTER the S, meaning there's more than one?) it sounds like they're acting out of concern for the residents THEY serve, which happen to be an extremely large portion of Northampton County. If you cared about the county, you'd be on board as well.
I'm no doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night and judging by your pictures, I'd say you have a few risk factors for heart disease yourself. This means that the EMS community that Tom is trying to represent may one day have your life in their hands. And regardless of how much you do to make them sound like a bunch of jerks in your pseudo-journalism, they'd use every available bit of equipment and training to help you.
let's flip this around: when McHale tries to dip into the slush fund in teh future, will the tea party crowd get upset about it, or is that all ancient history now that Dietrich says its ok?
OH oh!! Now you pissed off the tea bag folks.
"I hope your house burns and no one shows or you have a heart attack and the EMS crew doesn't save you because they don't have the right equipment."
Very professional. $50,000 of the public's money to people like this?
Gimme a break.
"Sounds like most of your anti-Dietrich "points" from the initial article have been debunked."
Actually, none of them have been debunked, ad tonight, six members of Council said NO to Dietrich.
It was very clear, to all but a few naive people, that Dietrich was attempting to ingratiate himself with volunteer firefighters. Now they can remember him as a man who can't deliver.
It was also very clear that Dietrich was perverting the contingency fund, using it for purposes way beyond what is intended. Tonight, six members of Council decided that taxpayers matter a little more than incumbent protection.
Post a Comment