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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, April 27, 2015

Did Brown Have Authority to Award 19% Raise Without Council Approval?

Tom Shortell's "Brown gave a pay raise to Cathy Allen without Council approval" is a detailed piece of investigative journalism following the revelation, first made here, that Cathy Allen was given a 19% pay hike in just one year. Tom places the raise at 14%, but that's without including a "temporary" raise, which Allen may still be receiving.

At the April 16 Council meeting, collections lawyer turned Solicitor Jeffrey Durkin justified Allen's raise as something permitted by the Personnel Policies Manual.

This manual, which is a creation of the Executive, is necessarily subservient to The Home Rule Charter, which gives Council the authority to set wages.. The authority for this manual comes from career service regulations, which must be approved by Council. Personnel policies might set things like hours or dress codes, while Council-approved career service regulations detail how raises are awarded.

Several years ago, a dispute over whether the policies manual had invaded the province of Council resulted in litigation. That matter was settled, thanks to Jerry Seyfried, who was sitting on Council at the time as an appointed member. Many of the policies adopted without Council approval were negated. I will review and report back on that lawsuit.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brown relied on his legal eagle Scumilio to advise him that it was permissable to gouge the taxpayers by giving excessive raises to his crony Allen. Allen is living the dream. Earning top dollar for her HS education.

Friends of Reality said...

JB is doing an excellent job of showing the lower class union thugs their real place in society. Little education with little work responsibility deserves little pay. Making them pay more for health care is the right thing to do for the citizens who pay these ungrateful users. Stay the course, John, we are behind you 100% and are already working for your second term.

Anonymous said...

"Little education with little work responsibility deserves little pay" So how does Brown justify paying HS grad Allen $75K??? You talk out of both sides of your mouth, Brown sycophant.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't anyone who was on Council now, serving on council, when that lawsuit was filed? It should not be hard to find these people and find out what happened. Ask you friend Ron Angle how the lawsuit was resolved. He was there. So was Peg Ferraro.

Anonymous said...

But its OK, all OK, when Peg Ferarro's daughter got a 20% raise last year??

Thats OK?

Anonymous said...

Peg's daughter had the qualifications and experience to justify her reclassification at a higher pay scale. Brownie was smart to accommodate Peg's daughter in this manner. It now practically guarantees that she will not question Brown's obscene raises dished out to his pal, Allen. He created an ally in Peg to reward personal cronies.

Anonymous said...

Peg's daughters raise was approved by council. These others were not. Big difference! This also proves Brown knows the proper way to approve raises.

Friends of Reality said...

7:58,

Easy - her abilities, thoughtfulness, logical approach and desire to provide the best government at the lowest cost to the citizens makes her worth much more than she is being paid. You should be happy for as a voter (if you voted) you are getting a bargain.

Anonymous said...

Brown the Clown likes to justify paying Allen more because of all the extra duties and responsibilities she has taken on. Like union contract negotiations. Isn't that a core function of the County Administrator? What the hell is Campos doing to earn his pay? Brown is peeling off Campos' divisions and transferring them over to the self-absorbed, zero job creating Director of DCED. Since Campos does not do union negotiations and is losing all of his divisions, maybe his pay should be CUT to pay for the Allen raises. His workload is way down when Allen's is supposedly up. Makes sense in the real world. But not in the Clown world.

Bernie O'Hare said...

8:47, You forget to mention her arrogance, her complete lack of knowledge about county issues, her secretiveness, he lack of transparency and her failure to cooperate that is so bad that she refused to stand up and respond to legitimate questions from a member of Council at the last meeting. I would fire her immediately. She stands in the way of good government.

Bernie O'Hare said...

" It now practically guarantees that she will not question Brown's obscene raises dished out to his pal, Allen. He created an ally in Peg to reward personal cronies."

Hardly. Since he gave Peg this raise to her daughter, she does not need him and is free to do as she wishes. Peg has been around a long time and did not learn to survive by taking care of cronies but by doing the right thing.

Bernie O'Hare said...

8:19, I am pulling the file, and that will tell me what i need to know.

Anonymous said...

Find nine more Cathy Allens, and pay each of the ten 1/10 her salary. Two of them could move voting machines around - a 50% cost savings. The rest of the year they could do landscaping, snow removal, etc.

The other eight would be capable of doing the work that is demanded of one Asst Director, at an appropriate aggregate salary. Problem solved.

Anonymous said...

paying allen more for working on union contracts? give me a break- she hasn't settled one yet. Hard earned money...

Anonymous said...

He who dwells in the glass house that sits atop a self made mountain, on the corner of black and white street, is one whose opinions are formed only on the basis of self preservation.

John Brown aptly removed the golden keys from your hands, and sent you back to your room, where you now "work" for free.

Sad and miserable indeed

Anonymous said...

10:35 WTF? Cut back on those wild mushrooms.

Anonymous said...

Cathy Allen was Browns hatchet person in Bangor. Brown was Mayor, Cathy Allen was counsel president.

Anonymous said...

Hey Bernie, your good friend Seyfried hired Pegs Daughter back when he was County Executive. He started this mess. I worked in finance at the time and couldn't figure it out. Peg and Seyfired were in the political bed together but now you want to blame Brown. Suck it up cupcake here's another mess your friends Stoffa and Seyfired got us into.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Oh God, you are so full of shit I am surprised there are no streaks on your comments. You are either a deliberate liar or terribly misinformed. Peg's daughter, a CPA, was employed in the private sector during Jerry's time. Go post your hate elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Bernie, please follow up on this past litigation. This is so important. Please find out the name of the firm or attorney who brought the original suit. Thank you so much for following this and bringing it to public attention. There are many unfair wage practices going on in this county and the affect it has had to some of the workforce has been detrimental to our well being. It needs to be uncovered. Thank you for your awesome reporting.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Karl Longenbach filed the suit on behalf of Stoffa, and Council was represented by Anthony Martino.

Anonymous said...

Is attorney Martino still around? He will be getting a phone call tomorrow morning. Thank you Bernie.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I believe he is back in the area and working to improve his situation.