Longenbach Considered as Brown Director of Admin

Bethlehem Attorney Karl Longenbach, an active Democrat, was Solicitor to former Northampton County Executive John Stoffa for seven of his eight years in office. But he resigned after Council refused to create a $102,900 supervisory position for another attorney in his own office. His argument at the time was that these full-time assistants add professionalism.

He has a point. Municipal law is becoming increasingly specialized, and a county can only benefit from having attorneys who practice nothing else. District Attorney John Morganelli obviously thinks that's true in the criminal arena. He has gradually replaced part-time veteran assistants, as they retire, with career prosecutors.

But the fatal flaw in Longenbach's argument was his own relationship with the full-time solicitor he wanted to promote. There was nothing professional about that. It was a clear violation of the County's nepotism policy, This, plus numerous complaints about this lawyer, is probably why Council passed on promoting her.

Now we have a new Solicitor, Vic Scomillio. He wants to abolish all full-time assistants in his office. Go figure. My guess is he wants to get rid of this assistant, who with Longenbach was an avid Callahan supporter.

Well, while Vic cleans house in the Solicitor's office, Executive John Brown was seriously considering Karl Longenbach, the guy who created that mess, as his next Director of Administration. In fact, if what I'm told is to be believed, it is actually Longenbach who ultimately passed on the opportunity.

Now I know why Brown chose to be secretive about his picks.

You could say that Brown, like Stoffa before him, is bipartisan and is just interested in what is best for the County. Unless nepotism and a terribly disorganized office is good for the County, I'd think you'd want to stay away from Longenbach.

So why did Brown go after Longenbach?

Two words. Richard McAteer.

Or three words. Lehigh Valley Partnership.

In Northampton County, Andy Daub and McAteer are two of the loudest voices of our unelected aristocracy, the Lehigh Valley Partnership. If they had things their way, we'd have no elections at all. Just municipalities with CEOs.

McAteer made his dough in Bethlehem Steel with all the other bluebloods, before it went broke. Then he got himself involved with a company called Computer Aid. That company took off.

Back in 2007, Computer Aid tried unsuccessfully to get the County work for IT services under Anthony Salvaggio. He's yet another heavy hitter whose name always appears on campaign donor lists.

Whether it's McAteer or Salvaggio, we're talking heave duty campaign money to those who will help them financially. It's an urban growth regime in which politicians and the bluebloods share an uneasy alliance. Although they favor Republicans, they will donate to Democrats like Edwin Pawlowski, who do their bidding.

These guys aren't really Democrats or Republicans. Their God and party is money. How else could NIZ developer J.B. Reilly justify an indoor basketball court while screwing Allentown's inner city kids out of a decent education?

Supposedly retired, McAteer still injects himself in things, as long as he can stay in the background. He's one of the Partnership boys on the RenewLV Board. He's on the Board at Lafayette College, chairs the Easton Redevelopment Authority, and has been doing his damned best to help out fellow millionaires like Wolf Building developer Mark Mulligan in Easton.

As Shadow Mayor during the Phil Mitman era, McAteer pretty much destroyed Easton. Sal Panto had nowhere to go but up. Although Panto has kept McAteer close, he goes his own way, thank God.

McAteer is the Easton Redevelopment Authority board director, who pushed Northampton County recently to violate its own law. He got them to reduce the assessment for the Wolf building for his millionaire pal Mulligan, long after the time for taking an appeal had passed.

McAteer and his right arm, Easton DCED Director Gretchen Longenbach, have already wrangled all kinds of grants and breaks for this guy all over Easton. They were even working to place the Wolf Building in a KOZ. That's a special tax mechanism that would mean virtually no taxes at all, not even property taxes, for ten years. But they wanted more. They wanted the County to drop its selling price. They wanted the assessment reduced, too.

After getting the matter in front of the County's Revenue Appeals Board improperly, the assessment was reduced. It was a 2-2 tie-vote. And guess who broke it? McAteer. He gave his proxy to another member in what seems like yet another abuse of authority by a quasi judicial board.

McAteer likes Gretchen Longenbach, and wants her to work for the County. But she makes too much money. She collects three salaries as Easton's DCED Director, Easton Redevelopment Authority Exec Director and Greater Easton Development Partnership Exec Director.

But Karl Longenbach, her father, is another story. He could add three years to his County pension. He might even save his girlfriend's job.

Never mind that he has absolutely no administrative experience and basically ruined one County office. McAteer says it's ok.

Brown, when he was sworn in last week, said he's here to serve. But apparently, he's here to serve the Lehigh Valley Partnership, not the people who actually elected him.

That's what bothers me about our local officials. Instead of representing the vast majority of us who do not own multinational corporations, these guys fall over each other to kiss the ass of the business interests that have pretty much ruined the Lehigh Valley over the past two generations with rampant overdevelopment and a disdain for the very people who made them rich.