Pat Breslin, Mr. Transparency?

Township officials usually aren't heard on talk radio, especially wingnut radio like WAEB. But Pat Breslin shared a cup of tea with fellow conservative Bobby Gunther Walsh recently. He was on the air to complain that Commissioners meet secretly behind closed doors. He claims to be all about transparency, but that's nonsense. He's raising his visibility because he wants to take on Matt Cartwright in the next Congressional race.

Breslin started by  claiming he had won his election for Township Commissioner with a 70% mandate. The truth? He received 365 votes of 907 cast in that race. The others went to Democrat Ray Russin (203) and write-in Paul Weiss (339). That gave Breslin a plurality of just 40.24%, far from the 70% he falsely asserted.

After falsely taking credit for a 70% mandate he never had, Breslin went on to claim that Bethlehem Township is the largest government in the County. This will be news to Northampton County and Bethlehem.

Although his real reason for being on Gunther is to start the kindling on a Congressional candidacy, the hot button issue he chose was transparency. "If you can't have transparency at the lowest form of government, you've got problems," he told Gunther. He complained that Bethlehem Township had 12 executive session in 2014, compared to an average of  five at twelve municipalities he surveyed.

For those of you who don't know, Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act requires that all meetings be held publicly, with limited exceptions for "executive sessions" on these specific matters: personnel, labor contracts, the purchase or lease of real estate; litigation or the possibility of litigation based on a readily identifiable complaint; and to discuss agency business that would lead to disclosure of confidential information including investigations of possible violations of law and quasi-judicial deliberation.

Breslin went on to claim that in Bethlehem Township's last three executive sessions, the Sunshine Act was skirted when Commissioners sought quotes from architects for work at the Community Center.

"People are really furious and upset," he told Gunther. "Any time a government entity gets behind closed doors, it's not a good thing."

I sue no hue and outcry on Monday night. But Jack Glagola brought it up. Breslin never said a word. He sat there, stone-faced, as Solicitor Jim Broughal explained Commissioners can meet in executive session with prospective architects. This is because doing so publicly would lead to the disclosure of confidential information and give others a leg up when it is their turn for an interview. Though I would prefer to see something like this done by the Request for Proposal Route (RFP) route, Broughal's legal reasoning seems sound.

As for Breslin's other point about there being too many executive sessions in Bethlehem Township compared to other municipalities, he's way off. I know this because I did my own survey last October, when the number in Bethlehem Township stood at eight. That compared pretty favorably to the 14 sessions in Palmer Township. Nazareth has at least 14 executive sessions in one meeting. Hanover only had five closed door sessions at that time last year. The one township that really surprised me was Lower Nazareth, which only had one meeting at that time last year.

Basically, there is nothing unusual about the number of executive sessions conducted in Bethlehem Township. This only becomes noticeable when Commissioners start their regular meeting late because they are delayed in the back room. If nothing else, this is extremely rude to the members of the public who are there.

But the Township stopped that practice late last year. It now manages to finish executive sessions promptly.

In fact, at Monday night's meeting, resident Karen Berry publicly thanked Manager Melissa Shafer for getting all the resolutions and ordinances to be considered at a meeting and posting them online for public inspection before the meeting.

So the Township is a bit like Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in those Pink Panther movies. "Every day and in every way, I am getting better, and better."

But like Dreyfus, the Township had a setback when it voted on officially recognizing the Bulldogs as one of their sports organization without letting Barry Roth tell them, for the gazillionth time, that they're full of shit. Roth should have been allowed to speak, and may have had something to say that could have impacted the vote.

Breslin, who was all too willing to complain about transparency on talk radio, also condemned those executive sessions in a letter to the editor, although he changed his facts. But when Roth was muzzled and Glagola asked questions, Mr. Transparency just sat there.

If Breslin really believes in transparency, he could start by telling us all where he really lives and what he really does. Does he really live in the place he rents?