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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Thursday, June 04, 2015

Brown Supplies Justification For Payhikes

Over the past year, Northampton County Executive John Brown approved payhikes for 14 different employees, most of them top officials, without seeking the approval of Council. In accordance with Council's directive at their last meeting, he has provided them with his justifications for these wage increases.

I have those justifications, but do not want to load them without reading them first to ensure that there is no private information , including social security numbers and employee ID numbers. Once i am satisfied I am violating no one's privacy, I will upload this information.

It appears at first blush that, as Council member Scott Parsons has indicated several times, Council would have gone along with most of these increases had they simply been asked. But there is one person whose wage hikes would have been questioned, Deputy Director of Administration Cathy Allen. It appears that Brown was knocking her up a few steps for doing precisely what her job description requires. In addition, she was improperly writing off travel and meal expenses at the time, so I think her hike would have been questioned.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you use any other verbiage, other than "knocking her up"? That mental picture just fried my mind.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Poor choice of words.

Anonymous said...

Treat EVERYONE fairly and you will never go wrong...make exceptions and you are sure to go awry.

Anonymous said...

John Brown is a dunce. He is thick-headed and will not hire anyone smarter than himself. So he hires people like Cathy Allen, who is more of a dunce (duncier?) but is really good at keeping his dirty little secrets. The same goes for Campos and DEEERkin. Dunce and Duncier and Dunciest!

Anonymous said...

"knocking her up" Is bo having fantasies?

Anonymous said...

If I go to brown and let him know all the extra work I do in the prison you think I can get a raise too? What an idiot. This guy is a joke. I can think of many people who go above their job description and get nothing for it other than a thank you from fellow workers. If everyone only did their job this place will fall apart. So either give everyone a raise that goes above job description or no one.

Anonymous said...

Allen's raises can NEVER be justified! How can anyone award a raise to a cheater? She cheated on her travel expense reports, has never apologized, and was never disciplined for that violation of county policy and IRS rules. She showed no remorse, and was rewarded by placing her in a job she was not qualified to perform (interim HR Director), given a county car and private parking space. She was not entitled to a raise for performing work she was not qualified for. And, other raises may have been provided for work that typically falls under the category "performs other related duties and responsibilities as needed", a standard statement on most job descriptions. Let's hope that council sends a clear message to that fraud Brown. You cannot just reward your friends and cronies with taxpayer dollars for work they either should not be doing, are not qualified for, or are a reasonable extension of their own job duties and responsibilities. Plus, in Allen's case she is AN EXEMPT EMPLOYEE!! That means you do pretty much whatever you are told to do by the CE FOR NO EXTRA PAY. This is not a union, or career service job. Allen is overpaid to begin with. She certainly does not deserve any raises regardless of the circumstances.

Anonymous said...

You are right on 11:49! Allen is not qualified for her or any other job at the County! She is not alone in the unqualified category however. The place is rampant with patronage jobs, slackers and dolts who could not claw their way out of a paper bag.

This entire pay raise situation is underhanded,sleazy, sneaky, and downright smacks of favoritism. According to Morning Call website, former HR director herself requested raises in 2014 for only 3 of her staff. And got them,too. Seriously? Taxpayers should be outraged that this went on.

Stay tuned!

Anonymous said...

John brown=terrible, awful, cheater, corrupt, bad-hair, etc

Anonymous said...

justification for pay raises could be written for every job since this guy took office. the issue is why are only a few selected

Anonymous said...

Vic Scumillio was responsible for these raises when he was solicitor and Mentor for Brownstain! Now he is running for Judge. Remember him and his name when you pass those red signs with a checkmark in the fall at election time. Also remember who has them in their yards, right Republican council members?

Anonymous said...

Are the justifications coming?

Bernie O'Hare said...

Yes. 58 pages of them.

Anonymous said...

On the subject of pay raises, take a look at Brown's first year with his trusty sidekick Scomillio. Did anyone tell Scomillio his job was to give legal advice, not to self promote?

Subtracting the eliminated/consolidated positions from the new positions and his inflated cabinet salaries, he cost the county about $150,000. Add to that the PR firm, about $225,000. Corporate efficiency or corporate idiocy?

Anonymous said...

Status check?