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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, April 03, 2015

NorCo Elections Comm'n Allows Brown To Drop Private Hauler

Joan Rosentahl, Chair of the Elections Comm'n
exemplifies the best in Northampton County,
even when she votes against me. 
Northampton County Executive John Brown's wish has been granted. By a 3 to 1 vote, the Elections Commission endorsed his plan today to stop using a $40,000 per year private hauler of election machines in favor of a plan in which the County would rent trucks and do the job themselves. They did so in spite of a less than enthusiastic endorsement by elections officials, and the outright opposition of Council member Ken Kraft and yours truly. I'm just a busybody, but Kraft is a former Elections Commission Chair.

Voting Registrar Dee Rumsey told the Elections Board that her office is already short-staffed, but that she was directed to find something to cut. Eliminating the private hauler was the only solution she could find.

Voting machine operator David Zawick stated, "Anything's possible." Noting that each voting machine weighs 265 pounds, he explained that they are on rollers and can be moved fairly easily, although they are "delicate machines." He added that Frick Transfer, which has done this transfer for over three decades, has "done a marvelous job."

Zawick explained that six County workers in the maintenance or custodial departments will be pulled from those jobs for three days to deliver the machines, and another three days to get them back. Each of the County's 149 polling districts has at least two machines.

Elections Commissioner George Treisner, who grew increasingly irascible as the meeting progressed, kept calling for the vote. He stated several times that he knew this plan would be endorsed, although it appeared that the other members of the Commission were carefully considering the pros and cons. Treisner later stated that he suffer from diabetes and needs to eat periodically or he gets cranky.

Mary Diggs, for instance, really wanted to know what the elections office staff thought about the proposal. That is something they were unwilling to do. As a result, Diggs supported the switch, joined by fellow Republicans Joshua Weinstein and Joan Rosenthal.

Treisner later stated that he suffer from diabetes and needs to eat periodically or he gets cranky.

I eat all the time and I'm still a miserable bastard.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do not blame Dee on this one. When you have a gun to your head..you do what you have to do..to survive and live to fight another day. It was the only place she could cut a meaningless 10% from their budget.

Anonymous said...

I have a solution stop giving an undeserving, unspecified woman like Allen pay increases. I literally feel like vomiting Brown is such a train wreck.

Anonymous said...

Kraft lost all credibility with his embarrassingly uninformed statements on the county's reserve fund. McClueless would simply lie about the fund when Stoffa was the Exec. Kraft isn't a liar. He's just has no idea what he's talking about. It was a real eye-opener to see him so out of touch with county finances.

Anonymous said...

4:58 what does being female have to do with it? Your criticism is valid for either sex. But you chose to be sexist.

Anonymous said...

Kraft was right. Bathe fund balance at the end of the year was 28 million dollars. Also he was right that the council voted to maintain 12 million in a stabilization fund, well if there is 28 million left at the end of the year there is still 12 million in the fund.

Anonymous said...

Ironic to see Mr. Kraft supporting privatization over the unionized county employees doing this job.

Anonymous said...

Joan Rosenthal is a member of the RAT. Not sure she is one of the best??

Anonymous said...

1:08 you are correct. Dee was cornered and other than cutting personnel she had to sacrifice the private voting machine move. If this fails her neck will be on the line. Brown is an idiot. To save $40 K he is risking payment of workers comp awards and possibly a flawed election.

Anonymous said...

If something goes wrong with the election the commission should be fired on the spot, or at least not re-appointed. Kraft and Bernie are right when they say this is a disaster waiting to happen. I hope they get a true accounting of what it costs to do this with 3 trucks and 6 full time people and a supervisor for 12 days

Bernie O'Hare said...

I know Joan is tea party but am not sure she's a RAT. But I like her anyway. She has always had an interesting way of looking at things.

Anonymous said...

6:54 am, Creditably, and you sign anonymously?

Anonymous said...

1:08 and 8:27 Your comments show why people like Brown get elected. Dee is to blame, WHY, her duty was/is to the voters of this County NOT to Brown or anyone else in that seat. If she kept her mouth shut about the machines Brown would have never thought about them, her duty was to say, You Don't Cut the Election Budget.

Anonymous said...

so these 6 will finally earn their pay. Good example for the rest of the crybabies.

Anonymous said...

Kraft voted against the union. Thanks Ken. Happy Easter.

Anonymous said...

How do you know Union workers would be moving the machines? I hear that Campos and Allen are part of the Moving team along with other supervisors.

Anonymous said...

Who was the nay vote?

Bernie O'Hare said...

Treisner. That should have been spelled out more clearly. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Good for him.

Anonymous said...

We will have people checking every polling location. If there is a problem, EVERYONE will be informed. 7:00 am election day the phones will be ringing.
John brown and Cathy Allen are anti-democracy. 2 backwards idiots patting each other on the back.

Anonymous said...

Can someone tell me who is securing these machines before, during and after transport?
Who is making sure they are secure and not subject to tampering?
Is there a candidate out there who is actually interested in a fair election, or is everyone just going to stand by while these questionable practices go on?