The Lehigh County Bagmen

Not all that long ago, I wrote an essay excoriating both Lehigh County Commissioners and Bethlehem City Council members for even questioning pass through grants like one from CDBG for Meals on Wheels and another from RCAP for an Arts Charter High School.

But nothing is ever black and white. Last week, Lehigh Commissioners Mike Schware, Brad Osborne and Vic Mazziotti questioned three of these pass-thru grant proposals. They were absolutely right to do so.

$220,000 for one-bedroom apartments

The first of these is a $750,000 grant through Health Choices for six units at Cumberland Gardens Housing project in Allentown. The total project cost for 70-units is $15.4 million. That translates to $220,000 per one-bedroom unit.

That "seemed to be a little excessive to me," said Commissioner Mike Schware.

D'you think?

That grant was tabled 7-0 (Scott Ott and Tom Creighton were MIA - Summer Hours) while some suit harrumphed that "prevailing wages" is what makes this project so costly.

Those damn unions.

Feds Instruct Counties on How to Avoid Prevailing Wages

While paying prevailing wages with one grant, mindless bureaucrats in Washington did their best to avoid (evade?) them in a second, $500,000 grant intended to bring a block in Catty up to code. In fact, they gave County officials instructions on how to get around the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires local prevailing wages for public projects.

"So they're telling us how to get around the federal law?" asked Commissioner Vic Mazziotti.

If HUD or the the County were to hire the contractor to bring these homes up to code, they'd have to pay prevailing wage. If the money was given directly to homeowners, that would never do, either. Heaven forbid that a $500,000 actually go directly to the parties who need it. That might cut down on paperwork. So the feds have instructed that there be contracts between homeowners and contractors, prepared in quadruplicate, which will then be reviewed on thirty levels and the contracts can then be paid with CDBG funds.

Commissioner Vic Mazziotti, no friend to the Davis-Bacon Act, is a bit bothered about a scheme devised by the feds that seems to be intended to avoid it. "It's a hard thing," he told me late last week. "You don't want to say No but we shouldn't be put in a position where our only role is money launderer."

Then they laundered the money, 7-0.

"If you question any of this, you're accused of hating poor people," explained Vic Mazziotti.

Bagmen For the State

While Commissioners might be money launderers for the feds, they are bagmen for the state. You see, the state uses counties to funnel money to entities that it is unable by law to find itself. So it simply used Lehigh County last week to send $250,000 to Luther Crest for site improvements at an $8 million project. Barred by the state constitution from giving Luther Crest the money directly, Lehigh County will be the bagman.

Pointing out that it "makes little sense to me," Mazziotti noted, "We had nothing to do with this grant. We didn't receive proposals, we didn't evaluate proposals, we didn't make this decision. The State made this decision."

Now I've told you before that Mazziotti, a mild-mannered, unassuming bean counter, is a gold mine of pithy quotes. Here's a few from last week's meeting.

"This is an avoidance of the state Constitution that we're asked to participate in. "

"If the state wants to give a grant to this organization, that's wonderful; they should just do it."

"If a private sector organization did this, they'd be in jail."

"I'd rather not be the bagman."

"Given my nationality, I'm a little sensitive to that term."

Another accountant, Commissioner Mike Schware, likens the process to a teenage neighbor coming over and asking him to buy a six pack for him. "It shouldn't be this easy," he said.

Of course, the grant passed 7-0.

Lehigh County Commissioners don't mind being called money launderers or bagmen. Just don't call them bogeymen.