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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, February 11, 2011

Glenn Eckhart Running for Lehigh County Controller

His daughter is a lot more cute than he.
Glenn Eckhart Controller Flyer
Updated 10:24 AM: Eckhart will announce formally in March.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely no relevant qualifications?

Political positions are not the required background and in fact are negative.

Sports are great, but how does youth coaching matter in this podition?

Anonymous said...

No accounting knowledge whatsoever, and no management experience-he is not remotely close to possessing the intellectual rigor the job requires.

Rather than a fox guarding the hen-house, he would be a sloth.

Can't the R's find someone else?

Anonymous said...

Eckhart has been involved in school, municipal and county government budgets for many years. He has an eye for controlling expenses and would make a great controller. These government budgets can be complicated, and it would be nice to have someone there who understands them.

Stan B said...

Glenn Eckhart is a conservative,and is very much, what is needed in this office. He is not afraid to tackle the hard issues in reducing the County Budget. Some pundits suggest that he is not qualified for the position. I would ask, what they want as qualification. Perhaps they would prefer a Administration lackey. Maybe they would like someone who would "keeps his mouth shut" when wasteful spending is found. Or would you prefer someone who addresses to County Commissioners twice a year. Once when he's looking for a raise and then again when he's trying to justify his budget. After attending every Commissioners meeting for the last year and a half I saw the Controller two times. I have to admit, I did miss one meeting, this may be a meeting he was at. Not!!!
The Controller him/her is the manager of this office, and should keep the County Commissioners and the Administration informed to his findings as listed below.

The mission of the office of the controller, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, is to:

* Examine the propriety of internal control,
* Assess compliance with statutory requirements,
* Evaluate operating procedures,
* Audit the accuracy and completeness of records and files pertaining to the receipt and disbursement of County funds by all officers, agents, and employees of the County.

The controller's office conducts assessments of management performance and program results of any county departments or agency to evaluate the efficiency and economy of the agency's or department's use of taxpayer funds.

Anonymous said...

Stan, the guy brings absolutely no qualifications to suggest he would do any of these things. Moreover, he has failed to keep taxes lower. He is currently invested in the pension and has failed to reduce spending.

The guy has done a ton of grandstanding but has accomplished nothing on the fiscal end of county gov't. I can talk about spending cuts until I'm blue in the face. the proof is in teh pudding and this guy's pudding has 6 years of no accomplishment.

Being a conservative isn't qualification for office.

GOP, give us a better option.

Anonymous said...

Are you serious, this guy is running to be the Controller. As a taxpayer of Lehigh County, I will be furious if people elect someone to be the Controller who has zero accounting and or auditing experience. I mean to be a Commissioner, you don't need any experience, but to plan and perform audits, you absolutely should be required to have at least a bachelors degree and most certainly a lot of accounting knowledge. Sorry Stan B, just because you have the same political affiliation as Glen, doesn't mean he should be elected to a position that should require accounting knowledge. Believe me, being a shoddy Commissioner who only has to vote on a budget that was already prepared by someone else, does not qualify you to plan and perform audits. Also, his web page says he is going to propose a 5% spending decrease for property taxes, how the ,heck is he going to do that? Doesn't this moron know that is not what his responsibilities are, according to Stan B. respone of what a Controller is supposed to do. So, my republican freinds, if you elect this fool, and monies go missing, or audits aren't done according to accounting rules, or he does a shoddy job like he did as commissioner, as a taxpayer, I am going to hold my republican freinds accountable. Can't our party elect someone that is actually qualified, or have we resorted to picking morons for public office? If the latter is the case, heck we might as well vote Bernie Madoff because at least he would be able to say he has accounting experience.

Anonymous said...

First, Glenn is a nice guy. It ends there. He has no accounting experience, has problems adding and subtracting, can't write, can't spell, can't etc,etc.
Guess the county chair needed someone to run for the job and talked poor Glenn into running. Politics, don't you love it?

Anonymous said...

Why is it that politicians for local office are always dorky as heck looking and ridiculously out of shape?

Anonymous said...

Why are people angry? This guy seems like he has the same qualifications as Steve Barron the Northampton County Controller, little to none.

Barron wasn't even an elected official, he just hung around politicians offices.

Do you guys think he is worse than Barron? At least you have a choice. Here in the Kingdom of Stoffa, I mean Northampton County our leader Herr Shuman doesn't even bother fielding candidates if Stoffa tells him not to.

Republican with no choice

Anonymous said...

Eckhart is clueless. He cannot keep a job (that is why he has his own lawn mowing "business"), and his wife left him b/c he cares more about his political career than his family (a true conservative!).

He just wants to be controller so he will have steady income (his "business" does next-to-nothing), and on the backs of the taxpayer (again, a true conservative!).

Anonymous said...

That is amazing. Barron claims to have had some type of a "business".

Anonymous said...

That is not a 5% tax cut. That is a 5% spending cut on items paid for by property taxes. Who is clueless now.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Anon 4:20, If you want to make a disparaging remark about someone's family life, you should have the courage to ID yourself.

Andy Roman said...

To those who "know it all" out there, I suggest some advice from Theodore Roosevelt;

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,

so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat".

In other words, Get in the arena, you critics, put up or shut up.

Anonymous said...

The above could pertain to the career of Roy Afflerbach,Not.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Andy,

Very nice quote, and one that we should all (including me) remember. I could never do what most elected officials do, and put up with all the petty crap associated with being in office, especially those bottom-feeding bloggers.

Although you and I have some serious differences, you are the one who is out there, and I admire and respect that you take responsibility for your words.

I also admire the way you've come to Glenn's defense.

Thanks for that quote. It hit me.

Anonymous said...

We finally have a full time Controller with a strong accounting background. It is a numbers job an I want a numbers person in that position.

Andy Roman said...

Bernie, Thank you.

The Quote by Theodore Roosevelt is called "Man in the Arena".

Today there are far too many professional critics safe in the bleachers and too few in the arena where they could get hurt. Cowards criticizing hero's.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Get over yourself, Roman. It's freaking County government. We're not talking heroes here, at least at the elected official level.

STAN B said...

After reading all the blog posts on this subject, I find all of Glenn's critics are (Anonymous said). Are these people of conviction or just the "stone" throwers in the crowd. Hiding behind (Anonymous said) shows a "lack of courage" to really voice your opinion
Thank you Andy for your comment.

Anonymous said...

Stan B.,

Remarking that Glenn has little if any educational/technical experience for the Controllers position is not criticism.

As a Commissioner he plays a role in identifying issues like spending on unnecessary items.He touts his frugal nature which is relevant.

But, he isn't qualified for this position any more than if he ran for judge.

The Battle Cry of Freedom said...

Mr. Bannon showed his true colors as a union thug is that what you need to be the Controller? It might be a good idea for someone to put up the qualifications for this job. I understand that one does not have to be an accountant to hold the position. What say you Mr. O'Hare?

Anonymous said...

Battle Cry,

Barron is a disgrace and should be taken on by a Republican. The problem is the Republican Chair. If he likes the Dem, he won't allow any opposition.

There is no question Barron is wrong for the job and the County deserves a real Controller. The few issues they have tackled over the last four years were brought up and done by the actual auditors in the department and nothing to do with Barron, other than him signing his name to the finished product.

Question remains, will the Republican Party leadership allow anyone to run. In some ways this would be a better position for Angle than his current position on county Council.

an R

Bernie O'Hare said...

Someone is running.

Anonymous said...

Andy-
Looks like you and Glenn learned grammar from the same teacher!

You wrote: ...is called "Man in the Arena".
The second quotation mark in this case goes AFTER the period.

You also wrote: Cowards criticizing hero's.
Because it is plural and not possessive, it is HEROES.

Lastly, one needs to ask why you are defending Glenn. We all know you do nothing that does not have some benefit for yourself, so what's in it for you?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 11:45

You are an idiot spelled IDIOT!

In psychological terms, an idiot refers to a severely retarded individual, generally with an IQ below 20. In common usage, idiot is a pejorative term used to refer to someone who acts stupid, moronic, dumb, etc.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 7:28:

Who loves ya', baby?!

Anonymous said...

Can anyone answer the question, what makes Glenn qualified to be Controller? You citizens understand that most positions of the same class in the private field require the candidate to at least hold a bachelors in accounting and most have a masters in business administration or finance. This guy has neither and after talking with him, he clearly has no finance knowledge. He may be a nice guy, he may be able to vote on the budget, but he clearly not hold this position when he doesn't know anything about accounting, let alone managing an office.