Lehigh County's 2010 Workhorse? Dean Browning

A few weeks ago, I gave you my annual attendance rating for Northampton County Council members. I looked at both Council and committee meetings, where the real grunt work is done. Lamont McClure scored a perfect zero. This is a similar report for Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners.

Like Northampton, Lehigh Commissioners are encouraged to participate in every committee, so it's a pretty accurate gauge of the time and effort each member devotes to government service. The committees that meet often are also a good indication of what is considered important.

Lehigh County Commissioners met 26 times in 2010, including two combined meetings with Northampton County concerning the Bi-County Health Department. One one member - Chairman Dean Browning - had a perfect attendance record. Two members - Percy Dougherty and Gloria Hamm - had near perfect records, having missed only one meeting. Glenn Eckhart, Dan McCarthy and Andy Roman are right behind them, having missed only two meetings during the entire year. David Jones missed four meetings, including one in which twelve Democrats from all over Lehigh County appeared for interviews to fill a vacancy on the Board. Bill Hansell, who was only appointed to the Board on February 24, nearly beat Jones.

Lehigh has eight standing committees, and they met 109 times last year, about three times as often as Northampton County. Here's the breakdown, committee by committee: Administrative (22 meetings); Cedarbrook (4 meetings); Development (12 meetings); General Services (12 meetings); Human Services (11 meetings); Intergovernmental & Appointments (18 meetings); Judiciary & Corrections (14 meetings); Planning (16 meetings).

Here's the attendance record at committees, member-by-member: Dean Browning - 109; Gloria Hamm - 98; Percy Dougherty - 95; Tom Creighton - 94; Dan McCarthy - 94; Glenn Eckhart - 84; Andy Roman - 74; Bill Hansell - 69 (not appointed until 2/24); David Jones - 65.

So who are the workhorses, show horses and jackasses?

Workhorses

For the second year in a row, Chairman Dean Browning has that title sewed up. As the Chief Financial Officer of an airline charter company, he's a busy guy. But he's made the time to attend every Commissioner and committee meeting for two years straight. 100%. That's leadership by example. Gloria Hamm is nipping at Dean's heels, with a 91.1% combined attendance record. Percy Dougherty (88.9%), Tom Creighton (87.4%) and Dan McCarthy (87.4%) are obvious workhorses, too.

Glenn Eckhart, who works a blue collar job, is unable to punch out and must miss some meetings, but still has a combined attendance record of 80%. He makes the effort.

The Showhorse

Andy Roman, who makes an annual bid to be Chair or Vice Chair, has a combined attendance record of just 72.6%. Maybe he'd be taken more seriously if he attended a few more meetings. This year, he can explain his absences to voters. I'm sure they'll understand.

The No-Show Horse

That's Davey Jones, whose 64.4% combined attendance record demonstrates a complete disregard for his duties as an elected Commissioner, as demonstrated by the way he thumbed his nose at 12 Commissioner candidates.

You can see last year's attendance rating here.