Local Government TV

Monday, March 24, 2014

Brown Wants Economic Dev Director to Head Gaming Board

Northampton County Executive John Brown has just notified the Gaming Board that he wants to replace their current executive director, Karen Collis, with his Economic Development Director, Diane Donaher. He's making this request just one month after the Board unanimously re-appointed her. He argues that Collis will continue doing the grunt work, but he wants all the accolades to go to his economic development director.

At first blush, it appears to me that tying economic development to the Gaming Board is a perversion of its main purpose, which should be to ensure that little places like Freemansburg and Hellertown are compensated for the impact of gambling. 

At a meeting this evening, the Gaming Board rebuffed Brown, unanimously voting to keep Collis.

Updated 5:45 pm

10 comments:

  1. actually, it gives him a perch, whereby he can take credit for all the goodies they hand out. the gaming funds become his own persona version of walking around money.

    very clever. i would've done it.


    but i'm a complete whore...

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  2. 3:10 here. I just realized that the current ED is a direct report to Diane anyway, so....I withdraw my comment. As it's currently set up, JB can already take the credit for everything they do. No harm, no foul.

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  3. It should be his call. Collis is a Stoffa confidant, she was there to do his bidding, so why not give Brown the same courtesy. Not everything has to be about keeping Stoffa setups tyh4e same.

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  4. All money is green. It'll still come from and go to the same places.

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  5. Then perhaps Brown should have asked the Gaming Board not to appoint Collis as it's ED. And this is not really Brown's call at all. The Gaming Board is an independent body, not an arm of the Executive.

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  6. Your headline should read:

    Economic Dev "Bobble Head" as she is nothing more but maybe something less...

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  7. What will he try next, this guy is a train wreck

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  8. Will be publishing a more detailed story tonight.

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  9. The Executive is a train wreck. This is about control and someone finally stood up to him.

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  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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