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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, February 03, 2012

While Council Dithers, Swaption Climbs to $25.9 Million

Just a few short weeks ago, Northampton County's swaption fee was at $25.5 million. Financial advisers urged Council to designate two people who could give them the word to pull the trigger and exercise the option before the cost went even higher.

Councilman Lamont McClure, insisting there must be some other way, urged Council members to get a second opinion from another financial adviser.

Last night, Executive John Stoffa advised Council that the swaption now stands at $25.9 million. Not a single member of Council said a word. There certainly is no public record that Council has taken even a baby step towards getting a second opinion ... from anyone. Instead, they just watched another $400,000 go right out the window.

I'll give them a second opinion for free.

They're crazy.

Designate two people who can tell the financial advisers we've already hired to pull the trigger, and quit wringing your hands and dithering. And whatever you do, don't listen to Controller Steve Barron.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

And Stoffa hesitated and didn't be a leader and "pull the trigger" at $9 million. He dropped the leadership ball.

Oh you blame that on how he might have gotten beat up for his decision, whaaaaa. Tough crap, that's his job. Stoffa's waffling will cost the taxpayers millions. He is the worst excuse for a leader in the Lehigh Valley.

Anonymous said...

it is disingenuous at best, to blame council for a delay of a couple weeks, when you bent over backwards to absolve Stoffa for a delay of years.

Issac Touro said...

Wait till you have callahan and barron

Anonymous said...

Decisions that will have an impact on their future elected offices?

They have a mindset of do nothing so they can't get blamed...

Anonymous said...

The word "crazy" can, should, and will in this case be applicable when no one pulled the trigger at 10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,
let's see .....
who was pulling the strings then?

c said...

I don't blame the current council a bit. They were handed a 50 pound bag of dog doo and it is their responsibility to turn it into gold. Give them a little more time.

Bernie O'Hare said...

The point is we now know something needs to be done., but Council did NOTHING last night. That is bullshit and it is financially irresponsible. That's another $400k out the window.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I will concede this Council is new and it will take most of the new members at least 2 years to figure out what is going on. But I stand by my assertion this should be an agenda item at EVERY meeting until it is resolved.

c said...

I agree with you that this should be on the agenda until it is resolved. It's a friggin crime that this happened in the first place and I am dumbfounded that there were not stricter regulations in place to protect us.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Ans C, I agree that it is a tad premature of me to blame the new council.

Anonymous said...

Can't Steve Barron wear a suit or at least a tie when he's at a Council meeting?

This is why we can't have nice things.

Anonymous said...

True Bernie bend over and over to defend John Stoffa when Stoffa did nothing. After all that would be leadership and people might have been "mad" at him.

So maybe the Council should adopt what is now being called the "Stoffa Strategy" in many political circles. If you don't or can't make a tough decision blame Reibman and do nothing.

Anonymous said...

Interest rates went up today... Now the amount just went DOWN, now what do you say Bernie?

Bernie O'Hare said...

Pull the trigger.

Anonymous said...

Every day it is up, the price goes further down... so when should they pull the trigger?

Bernie O'Hare said...

I've already answered your question.

Issac Touro said...

Hear there are hundreds of moving vans coming to norco for the evacuation

Crispus Attucks said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

300 pound homeless men dress better than this slob. Hey Bernie, is that a kielbasa in his wrinkled pants pocket or was he just happy to see you?

Anonymous said...

6:43 leave the kids out of this.

Anonymous said...

This should have been taken care of last summer when it was way down, but no they were too busy being fighting Gracedale, and now they lost on both counts.
Don't blame it on Stoffa but put the blame on the new council members.Something wrong with this picture ?

Bernie O'Hare said...

it was not "way down" last Summer and i really am now claiming council cannot let a meeting go by without resolving this. the time for bullshit and inaction is over.

Anonymous said...

6.43
Bernie, you gonna delete this scumbag slur on Barron's kids?

You did, are doing, such a good public interest job on the Allentown tax grab, and then you revert back to type providing an outlet for the Barron bashers, whose comments range from the juvenile to the shameful, and whose attacks on Barron have their own and not the public's interest at heart.

Who is Crispus Attucks? He deserves no quarter for dragging innocent children into the arena. Hard to take anyone seriously who would sanction such crap.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Bernie, you gonna delete this scumbag slur on Barron's kids?"

I do not construe the attack as a slur against Barron's children, who are very sweet, and do not belong in this debate in any way. If they themselves were attacked the comment would be deleted immediately. But I construe it as a slur against Barron, who is an elected official. I wish the comment had not been made precisely bc it could be viewed as you suggest. But objectively speaking, it is not an attack on them, so I will allow the comment to stand.

Anonymous said...

Bernie, even if you are right, aspersions are being cast on Barron's children simply because, through no fault of their own, they are his offspring. Therefore you are allowing someone to use a politician's children as a weapon against him.

Doesn't seem right, does it? Seems low, immoral, doesn't it?

How long do you think it will be before someone rats out this Crispus Attucks, and his tactic of using children as a weapon?

Bernie O'Hare said...

We disagree. Aspersions are NOT being cast against his children, but at him. If I thought that, I would delete it. This is my call.

Anonymous said...

Any objective reader can see that aspersions ARE being cast at Barron's children. This Attucks, a Dent booster, offers an entreaty, 'please', and then wants to be told that Barron has no children. Why? Why does he not want there to be any Barron children? Is there an insinuation in there? Or are the children incidental to his plea to be told that Barron has no children.

What he's saying is obvious.

This is a shameful mark on Attucks, on Dent, his political hero, and on you, Bernie.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Although I did not read the comment as an aspersion against Barron's children, I have reversed myself and deleted the comment bc I could be wrong or the comment could be misinterpreted. I'd rather delete the comment and be wrong than keep it up and be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Bernie. It always takes courage to reverse oneself.

Anonymous said...

Hey Bernie can you delete all the comments made by the whack job claiming that something was said that was not said. Talk about comparing apples and oranges. He must have been Barron's financial advisor.

cuckoo.

Anonymous said...

@12.28

We all know that right wingers have no regard for children's rights, would put kids back working in the mines if they could get away with it (no health insurance, below minimum wage pay, Koch Heaven.)

Has Charlie Dent distanced himself from Gingrich's janitor plan yet? Two Republican goals satisfied there- a civil rights issue (protection for children) set back 100 years, plus of course the bonus of getting rid of expensive minmimum wage family men in favor of educating 10 yearm olds to the value of work.

I think I'll start breeding canaries.

Anonymous said...

Oh the drama! It's perfectly Dickensian! No wonder nobody takes you seriously.

Anonymous said...

When a republican candidate uses a word like Dickensian,you can bet the house he's talking to liberals.

And of course the tawdry soap opera line tacked on, 'no body takes you seriously'. You don't know me, but it pushes your otherwise ridiculuous comment by giving it that little touch of, can I say it, drama.

Anonymous said...

Does Gingrich have a janitor plan? First I've heard of it. Typical Dems, spinning crap, telling lies about Republicans.

Anonymous said...

All this because people are concerned about big azz Barron spawning. Oh the drama!

Anonymous said...

Governance is a dry, quotidian affair, but politics IS drama, asshole.